The Lost Revolution

Everybody knows about the Provisional IRA, which perpetrated the lion’s share of republican violence during the Troubles. But there was another IRA, the Official IRA: a republican-socialist paramilitary organization that played an underestimated part in the Troubles and was linked to a series of political parties which eventually achieved a striking influence in the south of Ireland while attempting to bring about an Irish socialist republic. In The Lost Revolution, Brian Hanley and Scott Millar tell the full story of this movement for the first time. Hanley and Millar trace the development of republican socialism through the civil rights movement, the outbreak of the Troubles and the IRA split. They show that the Official IRA continued to operate long after its 1972 cease-fire, and document the use of armed robbery and other forms of crime to fund the movement. And they chronicle the growth – in sophistication and popularity – of the Workers’ Party, which was a force to be reckoned with in the Dáil during the 1980s and (as Democratic Left) early 1990s. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the Official republican movement played a decisive role in the shaping of modern Ireland. A roll-call of influential personalities in the fields of politics, trade unionism and the media – including Eamon Gilmore, Eoghan Harris, Liz McManus and Des Geraghty – passed through its ranks. The story of contemporary Ireland is inseparable from the story of the Official republican movement, a story never before told.