Sam Nolan (born 1930) is the secretary of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions and a political activist.
Born in Dublin, Nolan became active in the Irish Workers' League soon after World War II, [1] and was a member of its Executive Committee by 1952. [2] In 1957, he became a member of the executive of the new Unemployed Protest Committee, [3] and was initially considered the most prominent figure in the movement. [4] At the 1957 Irish general election, he was asked to stand for the Committee in Dublin South-Central, but refused, believing that anti-communist feeling following the Soviet invasion of Hungary made him an unsuitable candidate. Instead, the movement stood Jack Murphy, who was elected. [3]
During the 1960s, Nolan was prominent in the Dublin Housing Action Committee, while he also remained active in the Irish Workers' League. He stood as a candidate at the 1969 Irish general election in Dublin Central, but took only 242 votes and was not elected. [5] In 1970, the Workers' League merged with the Communist Party of Northern Ireland to form the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI), and Nolan was elected as its first Deputy General Secretary. [6]
In January 1976, Nolan resigned from the CPI alongside Joe Deasy, Paddy Carmody, George Jeffares, Mick O'Reilly and others, in protest at the party's change of line on the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, [7] which they opposed. They subsequently formed the Eurocommunist Irish Marxist Society, although this was short-lived, and Nolan soon joined the Labour Party, [8] where he was a founder of Labour Left. He was elected to the Labour Party's Administrative Council, and became a full-time organiser for the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians. [9]
Nolan was elected as the Secretary of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions in 1979, [10] holding the post into the 2010s. [11]
In his personal life, Nolan is the partner of academic Helena Sheehan. [12] [13]
A biography of Nolan was written by Brian Kenny and published in 2010. [14]
The Labour Party is a centre-left, social-democratic, and pro-European political party in the Republic of Ireland. Founded on 28 May 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin, and William O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress, it describes itself as a "democratic socialist party" in its constitution.
The Communist Party of Ireland is an all-Ireland Marxist–Leninist communist party, founded in 1933. The party is a member of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties.
Michael O'Riordan was the founder of the Communist Party of Ireland (3rd) and also fought with the Connolly Column in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.
The Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI) was a minor left-wing political party which existed in Ireland from 1971 to 1982.
The Communist Party of Northern Ireland was a small communist party operating in Northern Ireland. The party merged with the Irish Workers' Party in 1970 to form the reunited Communist Party of Ireland.
The Irish Workers' League (1948–1962) and Irish Workers' Party (1962–1970) were names used by the communist party in the Republic of Ireland.
The League for a Workers' Republic (LWR) was a Trotskyist organisation in Ireland.
Helena Sheehan is an academic philosopher, historian of science, philosophy, culture and politics. Sheehan is Professor Emeritus at Dublin City University, where she taught media studies and history of ideas in the School of Communications. She was a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town on several occasions. She has been active on the left since the 1960s. She has given many conference papers and public lectures in universities and other bodies in USA, USSR, GDR, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece and South Africa.
The Irish Worker League was an Irish communist party, established in September 1923 by Jim Larkin, following his return to Ireland. Larkin re-established the newspaper The Irish Worker. The Irish Worker League (IWL) superseded the first Communist Party of Ireland and became Ireland's affiliate with the Communist International.
Sam Kyle was an Irish trade unionist and politician.
James Larkin Jnr was an Irish Labour Party politician and trade union official. He first stood for election as an Irish Worker League candidate at the September 1927 general election for the Dublin County constituency but was unsuccessful. His father, James Larkin, was a successful candidate for the Dublin North constituency at the same general election. The younger Larkin was one of two candidates for the Revolutionary Workers' Groups in the 1930 newly reformed Dublin City Council elections, and he was elected. He was also an unsuccessful independent candidate at the 1932 general election for the Dublin South constituency. On the foundation of the Communist Party of Ireland in 1933, Larkin became its chairman.
The Bolshevik Party of India is an Indian political party in India. The party was founded in 1939. The party had a certain role in the trade union movement in West Bengal and was briefly represented in the state government in 1969. In later years the party has played a negligible role in Indian politics.
Roy H. W. Johnston was an Irish theoretical physicist and republican political activist. He was a Marxist who as a member of the IRA in the 1960s argued for a National Liberation Strategy to unite the Catholic and Protestant working classes. He wrote extensively for such newspapers as The United Irishman and The Irish Times.
The Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist–Leninist) was an anti-revisionist political party based in Ireland. It had strong links to the Party of Labour of Albania, Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist) and Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist).
Patrick Thomas Daly, known as P. T. Daly was an Irish trade unionist and politician.
The Dublin Council of Trade Unions is the trades council for County Dublin in Ireland.
The Irish Marxist Society was a Eurocommunist organisation active in Ireland in the 1970s.
Walter Carpenter was a prominent socialist and trade union organiser active in Ireland in the early 20th century.
The Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI) was a small political party in Ireland associated with James Connolly.
In 1964 a major split occurred in the Communist Party of India. The split was the culmination of decades of tensions and factional infighting. When India became independent in 1947, differences arose of how to adapt to the new situation. As relations between the Nehru government and the Soviet Union improved, a faction that sought cooperation with the dominant Indian National Congress emerged within CPI. This tendency was led by S.A. Dange, whose role in the party hierarchy became increasingly controversial. When the Sino-Indian War broke out in 1962 Dange's opponents within CPI were jailed, but when they were released they sought to challenge his leadership. In 1964 the party was finally divided into two, with the left faction forming the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The split had a lot of regional variations. It also impacted other organizations, such as trade union and peasant movements. The split has been studied extensively by scholars, who have sought to analyze the various domestic and international factors involved.