The poet John Clare was born on 13 July 1793, on the same day that Jean-Paul Marat, the zealous Jacobin revolutionary who believed that ‘man has the right to deal with his oppressors by devouring their palpitating hearts’, was assassinated. John Clare died 20 May 1864, a week before the United States Congress formally recognised […]
Peter Linebaugh Interview
Peter Linebaugh interviewed by Johnny Flynn of Independent Left Johnny Flynn: The first question I had to ask you was about the subtitle to your Red Round Globe Hot Burning: a tale at the crossroads of commons and closure, of love and terror, of race and class, and of Kate and Ned Despard. I saw […]
Socialists and Scottish Independence
Socialists support Scottish independence because it would create better conditions for short-term working-class victories and the long-term struggle for socialism. It would also herald the end of the imperialist British state. Socialists support the right of self-determination – in this case the right of the people of Scotland – to decide their own future democratically. […]
The Kilmichael Ambush
The Kilmichael Ambush took place on 28 November 1920, when Tom Barry, Commandant of the Third West Cork Flying Column, led his Irish Republican Army unit into battle against two lorries, each carrying ‘Auxiliaries’, veteran soldiers especially recruited to support the police and organise reprisals against the Irish national movement. The ambush was a major […]
Did Seamus Heaney write political poems?
A review of On Seamus Heaney by Roy Foster Although known for his active support of the South African anti-Apartheid movement and for his open opposition to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Irish poet and Nobel-prize winner Seamus Heaney was not famous for his politics. This has led some sceptics to dismiss the […]