The Irish Republican Digital Archive Update (Number 2)
Hi All,
Welcome to the 2nd edition of our Newsletter.
We have added 9 issues of An Phoblacht from 1972 to the website this week. An Phoblacht was published monthly between February 1970 and October 1972 and we now have 30 of these 33 monthly issues in the archive. It is a privilege to be able to share these very rare documents from such a crucial year of the most recent conflict.
A new ‘Miscellaneous Section’ has been launched, where we will upload documents that don’t fit elsewhere or that we don’t have enough for a separate section. It will also feature groups and publications that might not be strictly Republican but are related to the conflict in Ireland. We have launched this section with the documents listed below.
Fourthwrite was the journal of the Irish Republican Writers Group and was edited by Tommy McKearney who was also a founder member of the League of Communist Republicans. Fourthwrite reflected a left-republican viewpoint which was often critical about the Good Friday Agreement and the Sinn Féin strategy at the time. The journal was issued quarterly between 2000 until approx. 2010. We have added two issues in this update.
‘Saoirse Nua -The Voice of the Republican Movement’ was the newspaper of a group that split away from Republican Sinn Féin in 2010, styling themselves as Republican Sinn Féin or Real Sinn Féin. Although they are seen as a curio now, some leading figures in RSF, such as Des Long, Cathleen Knowles, and Brendan Magill, sided with them at the time, which is why we are including this document in the archive.
"In The Line of Fire" was produced to document and highlight human rights abuses committed by British security forces in and around Derry both prior to and after the decision by the RUC to force through an Orange Order parade down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown on 11th July 1996.
Know your legal rights? was a booklet published by the Association for Legal Justice in the early 1970s which gave advice to those arrested or stopped by the British Army and RUC.
There’s No Place Like Home was a poster issued by the Ardoyne Housing Committee in the early 1970s appealing for funds to rebuild 194 homes that were destroyed by fire during sectarian attacks on the 9th of August 1971
Hunger Strike Bulletin was issued by the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) during the 1980 Hunger Strike when seven republican prisoners in Long Kesh prison began a hunger strike. They were soon joined by three female prisoners in Armagh prison and 30 more prisoners in Long Kesh. The Hunger Strike ended after 53 days but the Prisoners demands were not met which would lead to another Hunger Strike in March 1981.
Brian Nelson & the Rearming of the Loyalist Death Squads published in 1993 and The Ulster Defence Regiment - The Loyalist Militia issued by Sinn Féin in 1990 have been added to the Booklets section.
Also added this month is the June 1972 issue of The United Irishman announcing the Official IRA ceasefire, six issues of the Official Sinn Féin newspaper, The Irish People and the 1984 Sinn Féin EEC Election Manifesto.
Exclusive early access file
The first exclusive early access file is the 1984 issue of An Phoblacht/Republican News covering the Brighton Bomb. Click here to download.
Next Update
Our next update should appear around the 7th of April and will include 6 issues of An Phoblacht from 1973, 11 issues of the Official Sinn Féin paper ‘The Plough’ and an issue of IRIS dedicated to the Gibraltar 3.
Thank you for your continued support to both the archive and this newsletter. If you have any documents to donate, feel free to get in touch by email at irisharchive@outlook.com or message us on Instagram.
Kind Regards,
Alan.