JOURNAL OF THE IRISH LABOUR HISTORY SOCIETY

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80 SAOTHAR 1376. The Belfast People' s Magazine. Vol. I, (i847). ,77. Jane Garnett, 'Gold and the Gospel', in WJ. Sheils and Diana Wood (ed.) The Church and Wealth. Studiesin Church History. Vo\. 24, (1987). pp. 158-83; Morgan. Recollections of My Life and Times. p. 110.78. Stephen Kerr, 'Voluntaryism within the Established Church in Nineteenth Century Belfast' • in W.J. Sheils andDiana Wood, (ed.) Voluntary Religion. Studies in Church History, Vol. 23. (1986). pp. 347-62.Amalgamated Transport &General Workers' UnionIF YOU DON'TFIGHT BACK,YOU'LL GO UNDERAmalgamated Transport & General Workers' Union:Transport House, 102, High Street, 'Belfast BTl 2DL. Tel: 232381.John Freeman, Irish Secretary.55, Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1. Tel: 734577.Charlie Douglas, Republic of Ireland Secretary.
ESSAYS' 81Fianna Fail and the Working Class:The Origins of the Enigmatic RelationshipIn his textbook Contemporary Irish Society. Michel Peillon comments on 'the astonishing capacityof Fianna Fail to hold on to such a wide range of support'. I This capacity is linked to its ability to elicitthe support of a majority of the working class whilst at the same time 'Fianna Fail policies correspondto the project of the bourgeoisie'. 2 Is it to be explained, as Peillon implies, by the 'blindness' of socialforces to their interests, produced by the large part that he claims ideology, particularly an ideology ofpopulist nationalism, plays in Irish politics? This begs the question of in what sense is ideology moreimportant in Ireland than in other countries, to which no answer is provided. More important, is therenot implied here, as in many other commentaries on the relationship between Fianna Fail: (FP) and theworking class, the notion that the working class has an interest which should lead it to support a socialistparty and that its failure to do so has been due to some process of mystification?What we have here is another example of teleological thinking about class which can be traced backto the distinction Marx once made between a 'class in itself and a 'class for itself'.3 According to thisview class exists as a reality at the economic level and this existence will ineluctably express itself inan appropriate form of political class consciousness. In this sense classes are seen as existing prior toclass struggles. The effect is to treat actual political and ideological struggles as secondary toPlatonically conceived class interests. In contrast to this, it will be suggested here that a moreappropriate approach is to treat class as an outcome of specific struggles rather than the pre-givenreality: 'Classes must be viewed as effects of struggles structured by objective conditions that aresimultaneously economic, political and ideological'.4 One element of these conditions is the strategyof left forces which can often contribute substantially to the continuing political domination andideological subjection of the working class.Apart from the theoretical problem there is a major empirical one: we still do not possess a scholarlyhistory of the dominant party in the Irish state. This will continue to be an obstacle for serious debateabout the politics and ideology ofthe working class. However the picture is not totally black. Over thelast two decades an increasing amount of work has been done which is relevant to our concerns. As Leenoted in Saothar 6, the development of Irish political science, political sociology and electoralgeography has transformed our grasp of electoral history.5 At its best, work by Garvin and Mairl' issensitive to the need to relate electoral patterns to economic and social change and the various effectsof such change on the electoral behaviour of different classes. Here the crucial and beneficial influenceof Rumpf' s social-geographical analysis of the national struggle and republicanism is obvious.?A major weakness of such work is its severe neglect of the role of the state. It was possession ofstate power for extended periods which allowed FP to develop and cement its hegemony over theworking class. The state itself was no monolith - as the site at which ruling strategies are elaborated,in Ireland as elsewhere, it was necessarily beset by fissures and conflicts. It was not until partial accessto state papers was granted to scholars that these types of division could begin to be examined, and evennow the restricted amount of material available limits what can be achieved. Nevertheless state papersremain a much under-worked source for those interested in specifying the elaboration of FP strategytowards social classes - apart from the working class there is the whole area of agrarian policy in the1930s and its implication for FP's constituency amongst small farmers. Access to new material willnot in itself be enough. Irish historians, and this includes labour historians, aversion to theoreticalquestions presents a continuing formidable obstacle.A more serious investigation of the elaboration and development of FF policies in crucialconjunctures like the early 1930s may well cause a reassessment of conventional wisdom about theparty and its relation to the working class. One of these is the notion that the history of the party is ofa movement from a leftist populist radicalism (1926-1938) to an increasingly centrist or conservativerole - Dick Walsh in his recent survey of the party's history entitles one of his later chapters 'Ireland's
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JOURNAL OF THE IRISH LABOUR HISTORY
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ContentsPageEditorial: Labour Histo
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EDITORIAL 3freedom to participate i
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CorrespondenceThe Irish Labour Part
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; ~ ; ,The Decline and Fall of Donn
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THE DECLINE AND FALL OF DONNYBROOK
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·' THE DECLINE AND FALL OF DONNYBR
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,'-,;-''''.A PASSAGE TO BRITAIN 23C
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A PASSAGE TO BRITAIN 25only in the
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A PASSAGE TO BRITAIN 27clothing._De
Page 31 and 32: A PASSAGE TO BRITAIN 29established
Page 33 and 34: ;:-.",.- .. .", ...... '.:. '
Page 35 and 36: LOUIE BENNETI 33feminist movement w
Page 37 and 38: :... ~: ."
Page 39 and 40: -.- '.LOUlE BENNETT 37While there i
Page 41 and 42: LOUIE ~ENNEIT 39Xl's encyclical Qua
Page 43 and 44: LOUIE BENNEIT 41Bennett's own relat
Page 45 and 46: LODIE BENNETT 43109; IWWU resolutio
Page 47 and 48: Essays in ReviewCosherers, Wanderer
Page 49 and 50: ••• .".'. >. '~"ESSA YS IN RE
Page 51 and 52: ESSAYS IN REVIEW 49ConnolIy:Myth an
Page 53 and 54: ESSAYS IN ~EVIEW 51tion' in the Int
Page 55 and 56: ESSAYS IN REVIEW53International:'I
Page 57 and 58: REVIEWScontroversy is real history.
Page 59 and 60: REVIEWSJoe Monks was among the earl
Page 61 and 62: REVIEWSnolly-Column Song','Proudly
Page 63 and 64: REVIEWSresulting from the arrival o
Page 65 and 66: REVIEWS,63the book by means of an a
Page 67 and 68: REVIEWSlogue, it is hardly surprisi
Page 69 and 70: The Team For All Workers ...CULIAIB
Page 71 and 72: ESSAYS 69mission and moral refonn.l
Page 73 and 74: .. ...... ~.~ -~ .'- '.ESSAYS. 71fr
Page 75 and 76: ESSAYS 73claimed authority but whic
Page 77 and 78: ESSAYS 75provided the basis for soc
Page 79 and 80: ESSAYS 779. For comparisons see E.T
Page 81: ESSAYS 7952. Annals of Christ Churc
Page 85 and 86: ESSAYS 83Eireann in 1925 visibly di
Page 87 and 88: ESSAYS 85recognition of the impract
Page 89 and 90: ESSAYS 871970, it created the condi
Page 91 and 92: ESSAYS89The Irish Immigrants' Contr
Page 93 and 94: ESSAYS" 91Although anti -Catholic p
Page 95 and 96: ESSAYS 93McCowie played a key role
Page 97 and 98: :. -,,'.' ',. .~.,:.ESSAYS 95Althou
Page 99 and 100: ESSAYS 97young girl of their own ba
Page 101 and 102: SourcesIrish Labour History Society
Page 103 and 104: SOURCES 101INovember, 1971 to no. 1
Page 105 and 106: SOURCES 103would claim credit for t
Page 107 and 108: SOURCES105Sources for Irish Labour
Page 109 and 110: SOURCES 107NorthWest Archives and L
Page 111 and 112: SOURCES 109In 1966 the Finnish gove
Page 113 and 114: TURNINGANEWLEAFThe CPSSUis the larg
Page 115 and 116: REMINISCENCE 113us due to my politi
Page 117 and 118: REMINISCENCE 115when Jim was presen
Page 119 and 120: REMINISCENCE 117of Dail Eireann. 17
Page 121 and 122: REMINISCENCE 119NotesThe above arti
Page 123 and 124: DOCUMENT STUDY 121James Connolly in
Page 125 and 126: DOCUMENT STUDY123SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC
Page 127 and 128: DOCUMENT STUDY 125proletariat of th
Page 129 and 130: DOCUMENT STUDY 127the support of Je
Page 131 and 132: DOCUMENT STUDY 12926. The Workers'
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131BibliographyA Bibliography of Ir
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 133Compton, P.A. Demog
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 135Levine, I. and Madd
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 137Turner, M. 'Towards
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 1394. Land and Agricul
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 141Clogher Record12 (2
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 143Political Research
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 145Pres, 1987.O'Brien,
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147Notes on Contributorsf onathanBe
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1901: Ireland's first general union
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ELECTRICAL TRADES UNION .Establishe
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