The 1970s saw a flourishing of local republican newspapers, produced by Sinn Féin cumainn and local groups in towns and cities across Ireland. Printed cheaply and circulated street by street, these papers carried local news alongside the movement’s analysis of the conflict in the North, each written for a particular place and readership. Produced independently of the national republican press, they offer a view of 1970s republicanism quite distinct from the one found in An Phoblacht and Republican News.
Many grew directly out of the communities that produced them. The Derry titles gathered here, among them Free Derry News, Bogside News, Creggan News, and Shantallow News, came from the nationalist districts of the city, while The Volunteer and The Tattler spoke for republican Belfast and other papers carried the movement’s voice in Cork, Donegal, Limerick, Galway, Kerry, Armagh, and as far afield as London. Because they were ephemera, printed in small runs for local distribution and rarely kept, they are exceptionally hard to find today.
The Irish Republican Digital Archive holds over 130 of these papers from across the decade, the largest publicly accessible collection of local Sinn Féin newspapers of the 1970s online. Together they give researchers a rare picture of how republicanism was organised, argued, and lived street by street and town by town, well away from the movement’s national platforms.
An Guth (Cork)
 August 1972 (2) |  January 1973 (2) |  March 1973 (2) |
 April 1973 (2) |
An Ghuth (Donegal)
 18 November 1978 (2) |  20 January 1978 (2) |
Ardoyne Freedom Fighters (Belfast)
 April 1972 (1) |  May 1972 (1) |
Ardoyne News
Bogside News (Derry)
Campaign
Creggan News (Derry)
The Croppy (Derry)
Doire Nua
 Doire Nua (09 August 1973) |  Doire Nua (27 September 1974) (3) |  Doire Nua (11 October 1974) (3) |
 Doire Nua (04 October 1974) (3) |
The Dublin Volunteer (Dublin)
The Dublin Republican
Free Derry News (Derry)
Galway Provo (Galway)
 No 1 (2) |  No 2 (2) |  Housing in Galway (2) |
Irish Freedom (London)
Liberty (Belfast)
Nation (Belfast)
 May 1976 (2) |
The Peoples News (Derry)
Provo
Republican Bulletin
 Republican Bulletin (17 April 1973) (1) |  Republican Bulletin (15 June 1973) |  Republican Bulletin (11/18 May 1973) |
 Republican Bulletin (04 May 1973) |
Republican Press (Limerick)
 04 July 1972 (2) |  13 July 1972 (2) |  28 July 1972 (2) |
 July 1972 (2) |  04 August 1972 (2) |  11 August 1972 (2) |
 25 August 1972 (2) |  01 September 1972 (2) |  08 September 1972 (2) |
 15 September 1972 (2) |  September 1972 (2) |  06 October 1972 (2) |
 03 November 1972 (2) |  24 November 1972 (2) |  08 December 1972 (2) |
 04 January 1973 (2) |
Rosín Dubh (Kerry)
 1975 (2) |
Saoirse – Sinn Féin Derry
Shantallow News (Derry)
The Tattler (Belfast)
Volunteer (Armagh)
 30 October 1972 (2) |
The Volunteer (Belfast)
 No 2 (1) |  No 20 (2) |  No 22 (1) |
 No 24 (1) |  No 26 (2) |  No 27 (1) |
 No 30 (1) |  No 36 (1) |  No 54 (2) |
 No 57 (1) |  No 67 (1) |  No 72 (2) |
 No 79 (1) |  No 87 (2) |  No 90 (2) |
 No 91 (2) |  No 96 (2) |  No 99 |
 No 103 (2) |  Volunteer Vol 2 No 10 (1) |
Volunteer (Derry)
(1) Donated by @irish_republican_archive
(2) Donated by Colum Ó Ruairc
(3) Donated by the J and L Sweeney Collection
© Irish Republican Digital Archive. Historical documents are presented for educational and research purposes only. We do not endorse or promote any views expressed in the material. Some content may be politically or historically sensitive. [Read full disclaimer]
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