Sheffield's link to Irish socialism

The remarkable story of the Irish revolutionary, who played prominent roles in the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland and the formation of Ireland's first communist party, will be told by the Scottish historian Charlie McGuire as part of this year's Sheffield Irish Festival.

Born in Dublin in 1895, Sean McLoughlin was to become an important, if little remembered, figure in Ireland's struggle to free itself from British rule. He was to play an integral role in the civil war which followed the signing of the treaty with Britain which brought about the formation of the Irish Free State and confirmed the partition of Ireland.

McLoughlin began his years of political and revolutionary activity in Ireland as a republican activist in the Irish Volunteers, ending them as a leading figure within the Communist Party of Ireland.

In between, as McGuire points out in a recent article: "he was also commandant-general of the Irish Republic, as the events of Easter Week 1916 reached a climax, a Volunteer organiser in Tipperary and Limerick during 1917-19 and a commandant of an IRA flying column during the Irish civil war of 1922-23."

McLoughlin was 21 when he was made commandant-general, taking over from the injured socialist and republican revolutionary James Connolly just hours before the end of the Easter rebellion.

Seeing a link between the anti-colonial struggle in Ireland and the struggle for socialism in Britain, McLoughlin also became a prominent figure within the Socialist Labour Party - one of whose founders had been Connolly, who was executed by the British for his part in the 1916 rising.

Particularly noted for his oratorical skills, McLoughlin moved to Britain permanently in 1924 and once again immersed himself in socialist politics, mainly around the Hartlepool area.

However, a period of imprisonment shortly after the end of the General Strike of 1926 appears to mark the beginning of the end of his involvement in revolutionary and socialist politics.

Soon after his release from prison he settled for life in Sheffield where he found employment as a clerk in the town hall engineering office.

Although no longer a prominent figure on the left, he was still active enough to have been a member of the organising committee which welcomed the Jarrow Hunger Marchers to Sheffield in the early 1930s.

He died in Sheffield of heart failure and hypertension, unheralded in either Britain or Ireland, in February 1960.

The talk takes place on Sunday March 14 at St Vincent's social club on Solly Street, Sheffield, starting at 6.30 pm, and is followed by a concert given by local Irish band Ballyhoo featuring the combined musical talents of Dave and Holly Oldroyd. Ballyhoo will be playing songs in keeping with the theme of the lecture.

The event is sponsored jointly by the Irish Democrat, the online publication of the Connolly Association, and the Sheffield Irish Association and is part of this year's Sheffield Irish Festival.

For the full festival programme visit www.sheffieldirish.org

Charlie McGuire's forthcoming book on Sean McLouglin -Sean McLoughlin, Ireland's Forgotten Revolutionary - will be published by Merlin Press in June 2010.