The last 18 months or so I’ve been reading and note taking furiously on the period around the 1916 insurrection in Dublin. I managed to get three articles and a talk out of it, probably 20,000 words or so. The missing bit though is what was going on in the north and thats what I’ve been working on since the summer. So now I’m sitting on a finalised 11.000 word first draft which Sovietpop is reading for me. (The entry is from Feb 2007, see note at end)
The last 18 months or so I’ve been reading and note taking furiously on the period around the 1916 insurrection in Dublin. I managed to get three articles and a talk out of it, probably 20,000 words or so. The missing bit though is what was going on in the north and thats what I’ve been working on since the summer. So now I’m sitting on a finalised 11.000 word first draft which Sovietpop is reading for me. (The entry is from Feb 2007, see note at end)
My problem is that when you’ve spent so much time writing so much you pretty much hate what you have written and cannot read it and make any sense out of it. So actually deciding its finished is next to impossible. Additional volunteers to comment on the draft appreciated.
Anyway I reckon this might be the last bit of substantial writing I do on Irish history, with my move it doesn’t see to make much sense for me to continue to put effort into that area. The next probable writing project is going to be an anarchist analysis of the Chinese revolution as there seems to be a big gap there in terms of anglo writing. I’ve been researching this since the start of last year and I’m about 15 books in at this stage.
For those interested in taking up the Irish history stuff here are some areas that I think would be quite rewarding from a class struggle perspective
1. The whole Free Derry period – its actually quite weird that Irish anarchists haven’t produced something on this.
2. The Fenians and the Land League – I touch on this in the current article but again I think there is probably a lot of interest here in a history that looks beyond what the leadership were up to. Check out the coverage from ‘Freedom’ of the struggle which is archived on the WSM site at http://www.wsm.ie/news_viewer/1509 There is also an interesting question about influences on the Invincibles as their assassinations are in the period of ‘propaganda by deed’ and at the time some referred to them as anarchsts. I’m pretty sure they weren’t from what I’ve looked at.
3. The nutering of radical republicanism in the period from the Emmet rebellion (1803) onwards. The current article touches on 1880 on but I suspect there is probably quite an interesting story to be written about how bourgeoise republicans were reacting to the emergence of organisations specifically fighting for the working class. Some of this would be quite dry but the 1803 rebellion is very interesting, Read Ruan O’Donnells two volumes for an excellent introduction, see http://www.history.ul.ie/content/view/25/ for his publication list.
This was written Thursday, February 22, 2007 but was locked away in a myspace account I’d forgotten the password for linked to an email account I’d also forgotten the password for. Had the bright idea of accessing them through a friends account. I published the collection of articles on the period around 1916 including the one in progress on the north I refer to in the introduction as ‘The rising of the moon‘ I published an article on the Chinese revolution based on the research I refer to in the North Eastern Anarchist, it was the only bit of substantial political writing I did in Ontario. There is a video on this site based on a talk I did on the Chinese revolution based on this article but I’ve yet to get around to publishing the article itself (coming soon, I promise)