Probably one of Larkin’s last acts in his relations with the Communist International was the sending in 1928 of a group of about a dozen people to the Lenin School in Moscow, among them Seán Murray (a former IRA commandant living in London at the time), James Larkin Junior (Larkin’s son), and Ben Buckley. Of this group only Murray and Larkin were to play a continuing role in the communist and labour movement.

In 1929 the Revolutionary Workers’ Groups were formed, their aim being to prepare the ground for the early launching of a communist party. Some members of the Connolly Club were involved. Tom Bell, formerly of the Communist Party of the United States and the Lenin School, was in the early stages the leading person involved. The Communist Party of Great Britain assisted, and Bob Stewart spent some time in Dublin and Belfast helping to get the groups organised. Because of earlier association in the Larkin period, Stewart had the confidence of some leading republicans, including Peadar O’Donnell. Educational classes among republicans were held, as well as at the Banba Hall, at the time a progressive national and trade union centre.

The Irish Worker’s Voice was launched in April 1930, with Tom Bell as editor. Initial issues carried a narrow “class against class” line, and sniping at republicans and at Fianna Fáil was a feature. A slogan to be heard at the time was “Not back to Connolly but forward to Lenin.”

Seán Murray and James Larkin Junior returned from Moscow in late 1931. Soon there were clashes about policy and about Tom Bell’s behaviour in general. Murray became secretary of the group and editor of the paper. Though there was much improvement in the presentation of policy and in relations with some rank-and-file republicans, the RWG did not grow to a large membership. Unemployment was the great social scourge of the time, and public activities were mostly on this question, with meetings, demonstrations, and marches to the workhouse.

James Larkin Junior became chairman of the RWG and played a part for a time in educational work, as well as public speaking. In 1930 he and another member were put forward for election to Dublin City Council. Larkin was elected; the vote for the other candidate was small. The Larkin name rather than an endorsement of RWG policy would account for his success. Larkin Senior was also elected, on his own “Independent Labour” ticket. The RWG in those days, in common with the republicans, pursued an attitude of severe criticism and hostility towards the Labour Party.

The world crisis of capitalism was now at its worst. Poverty was severe in many countries. Unemployment struggles predominated, Ireland being no exception. In addition there was the constant stream of anti-communist and anti-Soviet propaganda. The IRA endorsed a new social programme, and Saor-Éire was formed as a political wing. The occasion was used by the Cosgrave government, confronted with some big economic problems, to raise a red scare to justify a new coercion act, the Constitution (Amendment No. 17) Act (1931). An order made under this act declared the RWG and eleven other organisations illegal from October 1931. The Irish Worker’s Voice was not banned, but issues were seized as they left the printer, and for financial reasons publication of the paper had to be suspended. During the coercion period, which lasted until March 1932, the RWG hardly functioned, but leading members did meet.

In the general election of 1932 the RWG resumed activity and nominated two candidates. Larkin Junior polled almost a thousand votes, though this was not enough to win a seat; a small vote was received by the other candidates. The policy put forward in the election was afterwards acknowledged to have been in many respects wrong for the situation. “Tweedledum and Tweedledee” was the position adopted in relation to the Cosgrave government and Fianna Fáil. A strong line against a tariff policy was taken.

Following the success of de Valera in 1932, the RWG resumed legal existence, and the Irish Worker’s Voice resumed publication. A policy of conditional support for the de Valera government became the line. This position came in for criticism in the Communist International, only Willie Gallacher of the CPGB supporting the Irish party’s position.

Larkin Senior, though no longer identified with the communist movement, never publicly criticised or attacked the RWG or, later, the Communist Party. In the earlier 1930s a focal issue in the Dublin trade union movement was having the Workers’ Union of Ireland affiliated to the Dublin Trades Council, which, after much patient left-wing endeavour, had been reunited in the late 1920s. The ITGWU was the main stumbling-block to the WUI’s affiliation. The RWG and later the Communist Party played an important part in the final rallying of enough support to have the WUI affiliated.

At all times during both the RWG and Communist Party period, constant difficulties had to be met and overcome in finding printers prepared to print the party’s paper. Clerical reaction used its influence constantly to frighten printers, and this was mostly effective.

In Belfast the membership of the RWG, never very large, was at first drawn almost entirely from among Catholic radicals, mostly unemployed and influenced by the Connolly socialist-republican tradition; their influence in the labour movement of the time would have been small. However, the RWG was the leading force in the united social struggle of the Belfast workers in 1932. This was a protest action against the terrible social conditions that mass unemployment imposed, and the immediate demand was a simple one: a few shillings’ increase in the outdoor relief (unemployment assistance). Party members involved in that struggle did a wonderful job; the publication of the full story of those events is long overdue.

The RWG in 1932 had carried through an impressive campaign of meetings, and paper sales were also increasing. New premises were acquired, and a programme of expansion was in view. But local reactionaries of all shades were encouraged by the rising wave of reaction in Europe, particularly the coming to power of Hitler, and anti-communism received a new lease of life. The communists were in the front line of attack; later the IRA came under fire from reactionaries and the government, while at best the trade union and labour movement was holding a defensive position.

It was in this situation that the founding meeting of the new Communist Party of Ireland was held, on 3–4 June 1933. The meeting, while not illegal, had to be held without publicity. Dublin and Belfast had branch representation; others present were individual contacts, with Cork, Castlecomer and Longford represented by a few delegates. The programme set out in Ireland’s Path to Freedom was adopted and a national committee elected. Jim Larkin Junior became chairman of the party and Seán Murray secretary.

The Irish Worker’s Voice as a weekly paper appeared regularly until June 1936, when financial circumstances forced its suspension. The National Executive Committee functioned irregularly between 1933 and 1936; thereafter it virtually ceased, some of its personnel being no longer attached. Membership of the party remained small, and in Dublin the many efforts to build local branches were unsuccessful.

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the 1916 rising the party organised a number of special events. The Irish Revolt: 1916 and After by Seán Murray was published by the Communist Party of Great Britain. Easter 1916, a play by Montagu Slater that featured the 1913 lock-out and the 1916 Rising, was staged by the Unity Theatre, London, in 1935, with incidental music by Benjamin Britten.

In 1936, with the outbreak of the Spanish War Against Fascism and the rise of the Christian Front, the public work of the party became extremely difficult. The Communist Party was the organiser of the Irish Section of the 15th International Brigade. Public meetings were attacked, and even joint public meetings with the Republican Congress had to be heavily protected. Skirmishes often took place after such meetings. A weekly bulletin to replace the Irish Worker’s Voice and to put forward the party’s position on Spain and on local issues was issued.



Bill Scott, the first Irish volunteer to go to Spain to fight against fascism Bill Gannon, member of the Four Courts garrison, 1922, founder-member of the CPI, 1933, recruiting officer of volunteers for Spain, 1936–38 The Worker, a weekly bulletin, appeared in July 1936 and ran for thirty-five weeks. It stopped shortly before the appearance of the weekly publication Irish Democrat, which appeared in March 1937. This was sponsored by the Northern Ireland Socialist Party, Republican Congress, and Communist Party of Ireland.

During the Munich and other crises leading to the Second World War, public meetings and other activities were held. There were also joint meetings with the Republican Congress and others to demonstrate opposition to fascism. In 1938 a small four-page Irish Worker’s Weekly was launched. This was later enlarged and its circulation developed.

With the outbreak of war in 1939 the party was not in good shape. Membership had already been greatly weakened by emigration, some leading members being involved. A manifesto setting out the party’s attitude to the war was published in the Worker’s Weekly and as a pamphlet. It called for the withdrawal of the Six Counties from the war.

The proposal to apply conscription to the Six Counties was opposed by the de Valera government and by national opinion, north and south. A mass meeting in Dublin on the question was supported by labour, republican and communist forces. William McCullough of the Belfast party was the speaker.

The Belfast Branch from 1933 onwards began to transform; in a few years its membership was based mostly on the Protestant workers, and its influence in the trade union movement became much greater. After the Soviet Union became involved in the war, in 1941, the Belfast Branch further increased its membership, its influence, and its activities. In the 1945 election, party candidates were nominated in three constituencies, and all three registered an impressive vote.

In the early days of the war the Belfast party also had difficult problems to face. Jingoism was abroad, and the party’s position on the war was not popular. William McCullough, Betty Sinclair and Val Morahan were jailed because of articles that appeared in the Irish Worker’s Weekly. At times the title Red Hand was used to overcome a ban on the paper.

The achievements of the war years in membership, influence and activities were not maintained, but many of the members of the branch continued to hold leading posts in the trade union movement.

In 1941 a proposal was put to the Dublin Branch that it suspend its activities and that members direct their efforts to developing the broader labour movement. There was much debate, disagreement and misgiving about the proposal; however, in June 1941 the proposal for suspension was finally carried, by a sizable majority. The terms of the resolution were as follows: