2017 marks the 100 anniversary of the Russian Revolution so it was appropriate that we marked this with a talk in our schedule. It is always interesting to look at world events in an Irish context and our talk also focussed on Irish labour history of the era.
Our speaker was Padraig Yeates who is very well known as a social and labour Historian as well as a publicist, journalist and trade union activist. His book Lockout is considered the standard work on the great Dublin labour dispute of 1913. He is also author of the acclaimed A City in Wartime, A City in Turmoil and A City in Revolution.
This was a great opportunity to hear this well known speaker in a local setting giving a very interesting talk on the Labour Movement in Russia, Ireland and Europe in general in that period. It was interesting to hear about Irish Soviets like the Limerick Soviet in 1919 and the importance of the transport workers refusal to handle British troops and weapons in 1920.
