The Starry Plough, Vol. 1, No. 4
Date:1975
Organisation: Irish Republican Socialist Party
Publication: The Starry Plough [IRSP]
Issue:Volume 1, Number 4
Iúil 1975
Collection:1975: Official Sinn Féin/IRSP Split and Republican Feuds
Type:Publication Issue
View: View Document
Discuss:Comments on this document
Subjects: National Wages Agreements, 1970s

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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution

3rd August 2015

Many thanks to Spailpín who forwarded this to the Archive. This is the fourth edition of the IRSP newspaper, the Starry Plough – and part of a sequential release of them given that they were produced in the aftermath of the split from Official Sinn Féin and also deal with the dispute between the two organisations subsequent to that.

The front cover has the headline ‘Unite Now! against british imperialism and loyalist fascism’. The accompanying article argues that:

We are so used to hearing about sectarian assassinations that it goes in one ear and out the other. As the sectarian attacks initially took place in dribs and drags, coupled with our acceptance of such attacks as part of Belfast life, we do not see that the Loyalists have escalated their war against the Natoinalist population. It is part of the strategy for the Loyalist take-over which is not too far away. In this article we show how the British Army collaborates with Loyalist murder gangs, and actually participated in them themselves and that they will, for political reasons, accept the imminent take over. The pogroms which would follow such a take-over would make the battle of the Bogside and the ’69 Belfast pogrom look like a picnic.

The editorial calls for the ‘immediate and total withdrawal of British military, political, economic and cultural presence from Ireland, ending internment and releasing all political prisoners from Irish and English jails’.

There are reports on a picket of the Irish Labour Party by the IRSP over the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Bill. Another on redundancies for Ringsend workers. The centre section is taken up by a piece on the refusal of ‘industrialists to pay workers the 16th round of the National Wage agreement’ and another on internment. There are other pieces on the Basque country and Women in the Irish Struggle by Stella Makowski of the National Executive of the IRSP.

Tellingly, in light of the concentration on the feud in the previous edition there is no mention of that at all in this edition and only passing mention of the OIRA in relation to activities unearthed by that group of the British security forces.

More from The Starry Plough [IRSP]

The Starry Plough [IRSP] in the archive


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  • By: Tawdy Mon, 03 Aug 2015 13:33:59

    Knew Stella well back in the day, indeed all of the Makowski family. Very good to all socialist then.

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  • By: Joe Mon, 03 Aug 2015 14:15:20

    In reply to Tawdy.

    She wrote a memoir/autobiography, iirc. I remember reading it a long time back.

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  • By: WorldbyStorm Mon, 03 Aug 2015 19:42:40

    In reply to Tawdy.

    Wound up an ind Cllr or am I mistaken?

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  • By: roddy Mon, 03 Aug 2015 20:11:05

    That was Brigid.

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  • By: WorldbyStorm Tue, 04 Aug 2015 07:16:46

    In reply to roddy.

    So she was.

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  • By: workers republic Tue, 04 Aug 2015 08:17:56

    was Brigid a daughter of Mrs. Shields of Derry. I knew Mrs. Shields and some of her family very well?

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  • By: roddy Tue, 04 Aug 2015 15:22:45

    Brigid Shields Makowski

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  • By: workers republic Tue, 04 Aug 2015 16:32:50

    In reply to roddy.

    no her mother, her father was O.C. in The 20s. She had a son Shane (pronounced with a hard a) who was a US marine, who went a.w.l. and returned home to Derry in ’69. She had a daughter,called Theresa i think who was an officer in Fianna, I met her again in Bodenstowm in ’70 with her husband and Derry Fianna. They were later involved with Between, the group that organized holidays for children from Republican and Loyalist areas.

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  • By: workers republic Tue, 04 Aug 2015 17:54:45

    In reply to workers republic.

    sorry my comment is so badly phrased. I mean Mrs B.Shields was an elderly woman living in Derry, not far from Paddy Doherty’s home. she was a dedicated republican and her late husband had been a senior republican in The 20s; In Derry I heard he had been OC of Ulster, well we know that Frank Aiken held that position, so maybe it was when Aiken was in The South
    with Liam Lynch and othe

    republican leaders. It was that
    Mrs B Shields who had a son called Shane and one of his

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  • By: workers republic Tue, 04 Aug 2015 17:57:00

    In reply to workers republic.

    (continued)
    one of her daughters was an officer in Fianna.

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