Irish Left Archive Podcast

In this episode we talk to Eugene McCartan. Originally from Co. Down, Eugene has been an activist with the Communist Party of Ireland since joining in Dublin in 1974. He served as the party’s Chairperson from 1989 to 2001 and then General Secretary until his retirement from that role in 2023.

We discuss Eugene’s background and joining the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI); the short-lived Left Alliance between the CPI, Workers’ Party and Liaison Committee of the Labour Left around that time; the history of the Communist Party of Ireland and its development since the 1920s – through key periods of the conflict in the North, the tensions in organising North and South, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and subsequent organising; the CPI’s positions on Imperialism and Republicanism; and the contemporary international conflict and political position.

In this episode we’re joined again by Charles Tuba for a discussion of Jack Holland and Henry McDonald’s book, INLA: Deadly Divisions, which tells the story of the origins and development of the INLA.

Charles has joined us previously to discuss Seán Swan’s Official Irish Republicanism in episode 25 and Robert White’s biography of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in episode 38.

The writing of Seamus Costello is available here.

This episode is a round up of the Irish Left Archive project in 2025 and answers to some listener questions. Thanks as always to everyone who has supported and engaged with the archive by sending documents, speaking on the podcast, emailing, commenting, and using the site.

Thanks also to the editorial team of Saothar, the journal of the Irish Labour History Society, for including an article on the Irish Left Archive in their 50th anniversary edition, Saothar 50.

More to come in 2026!

In this episode we talk to Madeleine Johansson of Red Network. Madeleine moved
from Sweden to Ireland in the 2000s where she became active with the Socialist
Workers’ Party (SWP) and People Before Profit (PBP). She was a party organiser
and director of elections for the 2016 General Election campaign in Dublin
Mid-West, subsequently co-opted on to South Dublin County Council in 2016, and
returned in the 2019 and 2024 local elections. Madeleine was a founding member
of Red Network, which was formed in 2021 within People Before Profit before
becoming an independent party in 2025. She is the author of
Class War – Not Culture War
(2025) and
Reform or Revolution – Sweden, Socialism and The Welfare State
(2022), available from the Red Network website.

We discuss Madeleine’s early political experience and the contrast between
Sweden and Ireland; her work as an activist and organiser with SWP during the
austerity years and campaigns against household charges, property tax and water
charges; her experience as a local councillor and the particular challenge of
the housing crisis; the formation of Red Network and the political differences
that led them to leave People Before Profit; and her position on the politics
of class, identity politics, reform and revolution.

You’ll find more details of Red Network’s politics on their website at
rednetwork.net.

In this episode we talk to Stan Erraught about his book, Rebel Notes: Popular Music and Conflict in Ireland. We discuss Stan’s own political background and work leading to his research for the book; the different facets of Irish popular music since the mid-20th Century; the particular cases of the Wolfe Tones and Kneecap and perceptions of their political and Irish cultural expression; and the changing relationship between popular music and Republicanism, politics more broadly, and Irish culture and language.

Stan is a Lecturer in the School of Music at the University of Leeds. His research includes popular music and aesthetics, the political economy of the music industry, and critical theory. As well as several journal articles, he previously published On Music, Value and Utopia: Nostalgia for an Age Yet to Come? in 2018. Before moving to academia, Stan was a member of the band, The Stars of Heaven, in the 1980s.

Rebel Notes is published by Beyond the Pale Books