Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 90 (2025), Issue 1

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (3). Read more. Joseph Stanley reviews John Sanders, Workers of Their Own Emancipation: Working-Class Leadership and Organisation in the West Riding Textile District, 1829–1839, London: Breviary Stuff Publications, 2024, pp. xii + 536, p/b, £24.99, ISBN 978 19161 58672 John Cunningham reviews Peter Gray, William Sharman Crawford and Ulster Radicalism, Dublin: UCD Press, 2023, pp. xix + 467, … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 90 (2025), Issue 1

Visions of labour and class in Ireland and Europe

The Irish Labour History Society (ILHS), with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and its Northern Ireland Committee, is holding its third international conference in Dublin from 14-17 September 2023. The event will feature national and international experts and labour movement practitioners in over 30 events at four venues. Titled Visions of Labour and Class in Ireland and Europe, the conference will include 10 … Continue reading Visions of labour and class in Ireland and Europe

Rotten Prod: the story of a Belfast boilermaker

Rotten Prod: The Unlikely Career of Dongaree Baird, Emmet O’Connor, University College Dublin Press, 2022. The Irish labour historian Austen Morgan dedicated his study of Belfast labour ‘to the “rotten Prods” of Belfast, victims of unionist violence and nationalist myopia.’ A derogatory label used by loyalists/Unionists against Protestant labour activists, it was laced with venom that brought threats, violence and loss of work. For Unionist … Continue reading Rotten Prod: the story of a Belfast boilermaker

A Strikers’ ‘Soviet’ in Belfast? The Great Belfast Strike of 1919

Author: Olivier CoquelinThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2022), 87, (3), 255-275. Read more. The Great Belfast Strike of January–February 1919, although hardly explored until now, was part of the movement to reduce the working week, which affected large British industrial centres in the aftermath of the First World War. Apart from its longevity (four weeks), this social dispute … Continue reading A Strikers’ ‘Soviet’ in Belfast? The Great Belfast Strike of 1919

Labour History in Ireland’s ‘Decade of Centenaries’

This paper examines the thinking behind the Decade of Centenaries, the state of the Irish Labour History Society and Irish labour historiography, the involvement of state authorities with labour anniversaries, and the consequences for publications on labour and on the public understanding of labour historiography. Continue reading Labour History in Ireland’s ‘Decade of Centenaries’

Communism in Cold War Belfast, 1945–1962

Author: Patrick SmylieThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2020), 85, (1), 59–83. Find out more. This article traces the history of communism in Belfast from 1945 to 1962. Beginning with an assessment of the local Communist Party’s strength and ambitions in the immediate post-war period, it examines rapid membership decline and deteriorating relations with the Northern Ireland Labour Party, suggesting … Continue reading Communism in Cold War Belfast, 1945–1962