Irish America and the Republican Struggle

Irish republicanism has always had an American dimension. From the Fenian Brotherhood of the nineteenth century onward, the millions who had left Ireland, together with their descendants, formed a reservoir of money, arms, publicity, and political pressure that no movement at home could match from its own resources. This section gathers the publications of that long tradition of Irish-American support, spanning almost a century of activity.

In the revolutionary years after 1916, organisations such as Clan na Gael and the Friends of Irish Freedom raised funds and lobbied opinion on a scale that helped sustain the independence struggle; Éamon de Valera’s American tour and bond drive drew on the same wellspring, and the executions of 1916 and the hunger strikes of 1920 resonated as powerfully in New York and Chicago as in Dublin. The cause did not fade with partition: figures such as Joseph McGarrity kept the republican network alive through the lean decades that followed, and papers like The Irish Republic carried its message to an American readership into the 1940s.

With the outbreak of the conflict in the North, that support revived on a large scale. The Irish Northern Aid Committee, known as Noraid, became its principal vehicle, raising money it described as relief for the families of republican prisoners, even as the British and Irish governments alleged that its funds reached the IRA; its newspaper, The Irish People, a long run of which survives here, reported the war to Irish America for two decades. The hunger strikes of 1981 brought the movement to a peak, and the years that followed were marked by campaigns against the extradition and deportation of republicans such as Joe Doherty and Roisin McAliskey, as well as by a steady round of commemoration that continues still.

The documents gathered in this section, among them newspapers, bulletins, leaflets, memorial cards, and pamphlets running from 1913 into the present century, record how the Irish question was kept alive across the Atlantic.

1913-1923


Impressions of Sinn Fein in America (1919)

America’s Pledge (1918)

Friends of Irish Freedom Statement on deaths of Fitzgerald and MacSwiney (1920)

1930-1950


The Irish Republic (September 1939)

The Irish Republic (March 1940)

The Irish Republic (May 1940)

The Irish Republic (August 1940)

Joseph McGarrity Memorial Card (1940)

The Irish Republic (September 1940)

The Irish Republic (October 1940)

The Irish Republic (November 1940)

The Irish Republic (December 1940)

The Irish Republic (January 1941)

1950-1969


Irish Republican Prisoners Release Association (1950s)

Rising of the Moon (August 1969)

1970


Patrick Shields Irish Republican Club Flyer (1970)

1971


The AFL-CIO and Justice in Northern Ireland (1971)

1972


Patriot Graves (1972)

The American Irish Freedom Supporter (1972) (1)

Internment Rally (1972) (1)

1973


The Irish People (28 April 1973) (1)

The Irish People (17 March 1973) (1)

The Irish People (31 March 1973) (1)

Irish Publicity Bureau (13 April 1973)

1974


The Irish People (13 April 1974) (1)

1975


The Irish People (01 November 1975) (1)

The Irish People (29 November 1975) (1)

1976


The Irish People (10 January 1976) (1)

The Common Enemy (1976)

Independence (1976)

The Irish People (11 September 1976)

1977


United Ireland Newsletter (July 1977)

United Ireland Newsletter (August 1977)

United Ireland Newsletter (November 1977)

United Ireland Newsletter (October 1977)

1978


H Block Booklet (1978)

1980


Political Education Committee (July/August 1980)

Political Education Committee leaflet (1980)

1981


The Irish People (27 June 1981) (1)

The Irish People (20 June 1981) (1)

Don’t Buy British Booze (1981)

Chicago 1981 Flyer

McDonnell near death

Sands Elected

Sands Dies

Sands close to death

O’Hara and McCreesh Join

McDonnell and Hurson die

Hunger Strike ends

Hunger Strike continues

Hughes named

Hughes Dies

Doherty and Lynch near death

Doherty and Lynch die

McElwee dies

1982


Noraid Calendar (1982) (1)

The Rapparee (October 1982)

1983


Rally Against Show Trials (1983)

1984


The Irish People (10 November 1984) (1)

Bobby Sands Commemoration (1984)

The Irish American Voice (July 1984)

1985


The Irish People (27 July 1985) (1)

The Irish People (23 November 1985) (1)

The Irish People (22 June 1985) (1)

The Irish People (21 December 1985) (1)

The Irish People (20 July 1985) (1)

The Irish People (18 May 1985) (1)

The Irish People (17 August 1985) (1)

The Irish People (16 November 1985) (1)

The Irish People (16 March 1985) (1)

The Irish People (14 September 1985) (1)

The Irish People (13 September 1975) (1)

The Irish People (12 October 1985) (1)

The Irish People (11 May 1985) (1)

The Irish People (08 June 1985) (1)

The Irish People (07 September 1985) (1)

The Irish People (06 July 1985) (1)

The Irish People (03 August 1985) (1)

The Irish People (02 November 1985) (1)

The Irish People (01 June 1985) (1)

The Irish People (30 March 1985) (1)

The Irish People (28 September 1985) (1)

1986


The Irish People (25 January 1986) (1)

The Irish People (05 April 1986) (1)

The Irish People (29 March 1986) (1)

The Last Post American Edition (1986)

The Irish People (08 November 1986)

1987


The Spirit of Freedom (1987) (1)

The Irish People (25 July 1987) (1)

The Irish People (11 July 1987)

1989


The Spirit of Freedom (October 1989) (1)

Chris Reid Defense Fund Letter (1989)

1990


Joe Doherty Newsletter (January 1990)

1991


Human Rights Review (1991)

1996


Vincent Conlon Booklet (1996)

1997


An Focal (April 1997)

An Focal (September 1997)

An Focal (May 1997)

An Focal (March 1997)

An Focal (June 1997)

An Focal (July 1997)

An Focal (January 1997)

An Focal (February 1997)

An Focal (August 1997)

Why Should you Care (1997)

Stop the Deportation Leaflet (1997)

No Sectarian Parades Leaflet (1997)

Mothers Day Demonstration (1997)

Discovery of Tunnel in Long Kesh (04 April 1997)

Day of Action (08 July 1997)

Civil Rights Campaigners to Speak in St Louis (30 April 1997)

St Patricks Day Statement (13 March 1997)

South Armagh Arrests (16 April 1997)

Screening of Congressional Hearings on Irish Political Deportations (17 February 1997)

O’Callaghans visit raises questions (24 February 1997)

Noraid Press Release on Roisin McAliskey (28 February 1997)

Mothers Day Demonstration for Roisin McAliskey (30 April 1997)

2003


Ciaran Ferry Resolution (2003)

2005


POW Solidarity Chicago (2005)

2008


IRSN (Summer 2008)

IRSN (Autumn 2008)

2009


Chicago Hunger Strike Function (2009)

Easter Flier (2009)

2011


Chicago 1981 Booklet (2011)

Easter Flier (2011)

Misc


The Sleeping Giant

Accepting the challenge – The Memoirs of Michael Flannery

Stop Extradition leaflet

A Decade of Deceit – Maurice Burke

Decade of Terror – Maurice Burke

Britain in Ireland: The Facts — Maurice Burke

Britain’s War Machine In Ireland — Maurice Burke

The Fenian Movement in the United States 1858-1886

The Irish Educational Series (Series 1, No 4)

British Army Bands Protest

Black Watch

Handbook for Volunteers of the Irish Republican Army

Marx, Engels and Lenin on the Irish revolution

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey Boston leaflet

Irish Freedom Walk (1970s)

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