The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party - Softcover

Everybody knows about the Provisional IRA, which perpetrated the lion's share of republican violence during the Troubles. But there was another IRA, the Official IRA: a republican-socialist paramilitary organization that played an underestimated part in the Troubles and was linked to a series of political parties which eventually achieved a striking influence in the south of Ireland while attempting to bring about an Irish socialist republic. In The Lost Revolution, Brian Hanley and Scott Millar tell the full story of this movement for the first time.

Hanley and Millar trace the development of republican socialism through the civil rights movement, the outbreak of the Troubles and the IRA split. They show that the Official IRA continued to operate long after its 1972 cease-fire, and document the use of armed robbery and other forms of crime to fund the movement. And they chronicle the growth - in sophistication and popularity - of the Workers' Party, which was a force to be reckoned with in the Dáil during the 1980s and (as Democratic Left) early 1990s.

Although ultimately unsuccessful, the Official republican movement played a decisive role in the shaping of modern Ireland. A roll-call of influential personalities in the fields of politics, trade unionism and the media - including Eamon Gilmore, Eoghan Harris, Liz McManus and Des Geraghty - passed through its ranks. The story of contemporary Ireland is inseparable from the story of the Official republican movement, a story never before told.

When the Troubles broke out in Northern Ireland in 1969, the IRA was a deeply divided organization. By 1970, its traditionalist wing had broken away to form the Provisional IRA - the grouping which, over the decades of mayhem that followed, perpetrated the lion's share of republican violence.
But there was another IRA, the Official IRA: a republican-socialist paramilitary organization that played an underestimated part in the Troubles and that was linked to a series of political parties which attempted for three decades to bring about an Irish socialist republic. In The Lost Revolution, Brian Hanley and Scott Millar tell the full story of this movement for the first time. It is a story with an extraordinary number of twists and turns, from the clash between Catholic nationalism and socialist republicanism in the 1960s and 70s through the Official IRA's collusion with the British security forces, to the Workers Party's eventual rejection of irredentism.
Although ultimately unsuccessful, the official republican movement played a decisive role in the shaping of modern Ireland. A roll-call of influential personalities in the fields of politics, trade unionism and media - many still operating at the highest levels of Irish public life - passed through its ranks. The story of contemporary Ireland is inseparable from the story of the official republican movement, a story never before told.