20 NEW PUBLICATIONS


New book restores place of trade union movement in Decade of Centenaries


Liam Cahill, a 40-year member of the NUJ, has published a new book telling the forgotten story of the deep involvement of workers and their trade unions in the struggle for Irish independence in the years 1916-21. ‘Forgotten Revolution [The Centenary Edition] The Limerick Soviet 1919’ takes as its starting point the Limerick General Strike, or Limerick Soviet, of April 1919, when 14,000 workers protested the imposition of military law on the city.


Limerick United Trades and Labour Council


rejected the harsh government-imposed restrictions and took over the running of the city for a fortnight, including printing their own currency and newspaper. The strike received worldwide media coverage. Liam presented a copy of his book to


President Michael D Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin earlier this year. The author said the book goes beyond the story of the Limerick Soviet and contains intriguing new information from military archives in Dublin that shows events and developments in 1919 in a new light. Recalling comments by President Higgins at a


history seminar in Cork, Liam Cahill said, “A highlight of the Decade of Centenaries has been the recover and honouring of the role of women in the fight for our freedom. However, in the remaining years of the decade, it is imperative that historians and researchers actively redress the similar neglect of Labour’s role. Otherwise, the rest of the decade is in danger of becoming a monotonous parade of ambushes, assassinations and raids, with the role of workers and their trade unions continuing to be airbrushed out of our history.” He said: “That was my intention, to write not


just history but if I may say ‘his story’ and ‘her story’ as well – that is to say, the story of people.” His new book revisits his 1990 book on the subject by placing the events in Ireland in the context of larger world events. “What I’ve been arguing in the book is the Limerick Soviet of 1919 is the first significant Irish example of the wave of soviets and general strikes that swept


Liam Cahill with President Michael D Higgins after he presented him with a copy of his new book.


across Europe after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917,” he said. Liam also explores his view that “there were


really two wars going on in parallel”, conventional wars and a class war led by the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, though he said that by 1923 economic and political conditions had turned against workers: Trade union growth based on the war economy collapsed, followed by a severe recession. “It ended up by 1923, when everybody else who had struggled to move Britain out of Ireland had either fully or partially achieved what they wanted,” he said. This new book has provided “a good opportunity to gather together all these strands,” he said. Liam will be at the Newry City Library at


6.30pm on Nov. 28th to discuss, “Forgotten Revolution? Workers and the War of Independence, 1916-1921.”


‘Forgotten Revolution’ is available in some independent bookshops as well as online as a paperback or e-book from Amazon and other internet booksellers.


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