STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
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Left Lives in 20th-century Ireland, Vol 2
Invaluable biographies of trade union and labour movement activists ignored in mainstream histories
Unsung heroine: Sylvia Meehan, women’s rights campaigner
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a unique dream journal collected by a Jewish journalist in Nazi Berlin
Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, Parthenope, Where Dragons Live and Thunderbolts* reviewed by MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE
THIS second volume of biographies of leading left-wing figures in or from 20th-century Ireland is a valuable follow-on from the first.
Its 12 essays fills a huge gap, given that much of history taught at school or fed via the media is about monarchs, generals, prime ministers, top politicians or celebrities, with the valuable contribution made by men and women in the trade union and labour movement invariably ignored or marginalised.
The lives of some of the selfless heroes of the working-class and progressive movements are illuminated and given their rightful place in the pubic record, among them Rodney Bickerstaffe, Dominic Behan, banner-makers WL Reynolds, Thomas Kain and Jer O’Leary, trade unionist and politician Brendan Corish, Irish Labour Party politician Pat Devlin and Irish Workers League and Communist Party of Ireland member John Swift.
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