Irish Political Review, No. 1
Date:July 1986
Organisation: Athol Books
Publication: Irish Political Review
Issue:Number 1
Contributors: Info
Angela Clifford, Brendan Clifford
View: View Document
Discuss:Comments on this document
Subjects: Divorce Referendum, 1986

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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution

8th September 2008

An anonymous contributor to the Archive has forwarded the above and written the following. Many thanks.

The “Irish Political Review” began in July 1986, possibly as a successor to the British and Irish Communist Organisation publication “The Irish Communist” which had ceased publication earlier that year. The first issue was largely anonymous except for the crediting of David Alvey as editor. The main contributors included Brendan and Angela Clifford, Alvey, John Martin, Pat Maloney,Dick Spicer and Tadhg O’Connor.

Regular targets included the IRA (January 1988), Irish Neutrality (November 1986 & September 1989), John Hume (described as a “totalitarian” in the December 1986 issue) Garrett Fitzgerald (February & September 1987) and critics of the Diplock Courts and Section 31 (December 1987). Although you wouldn’t see it in this issue,the Catholic Church was a regular target as well (March 1988 laid into the Catholic hierarchy, while January 1989 savaged Sister Stanislaus Kennedy). This constant aggression was rather sometimes arbitrary – I’m still at a loss to know why the poor people of Charleville were also savaged in the October 1986 issue.

There was lots of coverage of the Irish Labour Party, possibly because many of Jim Kemmy’s Democratic Socialist Party (with B&ICO links) were thinking of joining the LP at the time (as the DSP ultimately did). Charles J. Haughey was often praised, especially for his opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

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