Rundale

Nathan Hutchinson Edgar

In 1999, Mary McAleese (then President of Ireland), speaking in Southern California, described Ireland as a “a vibrant first world country, [with] a humbling third world memory”. This demonstrates the dilemma of Ireland’s global position; while outwardly a modern European nation, our colonial history continues to play a role in both Ireland’s economic structure and in the perspectives of Irish society. This tension has become particularly evident since 2023 with the growth of the Irish Palestinian solidarity movement. This has popularised an anti-colonial outlook, in opposition to a government that is seeking to integrate itself more materially with EU and American institutions complicit in genocide.

During the summer of 2025, I carried out field research on the effect the Gaza genocide has had on progressive Irish movements. Across fifty interviews, conducted for my Masters’ thesis, I explored how the climate, neutrality and Palestine movements were adapting to a changing geopolitical terrain. The importance of Ireland’s history of colonisation and anti-colonial struggle became clear to me. The past was invoked as both a motivation for action and as a tool for anti-colonial resistance. 

This article is about the importance of Ireland’s anti-colonial history for our budding anti-imperialist movement. However, it is also about how this history has become a site of contestation. Revisionist approaches not only rewrite Ireland’s past but undermine Ireland’s present anticolonial activity. To combat this, we need to learn how to reclaim these pasts as “usable” resources, key tools for approaching our current juncture. 

Historical touchpoints

Across progressive Irish movements, a shared imaginary, rooted in an anti-colonial approach and an opposition to US influence in Ireland seems to be developing. This has been driven in large part by the growth of the Palestine solidarity movement, which has forced a re-evaluation of Ireland’s complicity in imperialist projects. Environmental campaigner Eddie Mitchell outlined how he saw these issues as connecting: “the resources that are in Palestine are important to Europe and when you wonder, why is Ursula von der Leyen speaking the way she does about Israel and Palestine, a lot of it’s to do with their dependence on energy flowing from that region into Europe.” Experienced campaigners, such as Mitchell, are sharing this anti-imperial framework with newer campaigners, to help build an understanding of how these issues fit together: “We have to understand all of these campaigns in the context of energy and in the context of America’s influence on Ireland and on us walking towards war”.

This predominantly anti-colonial, anti-imperial perspective is shaped by an understanding of Ireland’s own history as a colonised nation—one protestor remarked to me that the “the history of Palestine is a very familiar one”. At the Together for Neutrality march last year, Ed Horgan, a prominent peace activist, compared the ethnic cleansing of Gaza to Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland. Activists I interviewed from Mayo described the history of the Black and Tans being sent to Palestine after their campaign in Ireland as a motivating factor for action. This identification with the colonised undoubtedly plays a role in the Irish people’s stance towards Palestine. On the other hand, the importance of solidarity between oppressed peoples is also emphasised in Ireland’s history. While attending a crossroads picket in Slane, a member of Meath IPSC talked to me about the support the Irish had been given from the Choctaw during An Górta Mór. 

Usable Pasts

What is more interesting, perhaps, is how Ireland’s history of anti-colonial solidarity provides a “usable past” in the present. The term “usable past” was initially coined by the American literary theorist Van Wyck Brooks in 1918 to refer to methods of activating the past in the present. New avenues of action suggest themselves as we connect our moment with past struggles in new ways. For some, Irish histories of anti-colonial solidarity provide guidance as to how to approach our current juncture. Some older Meath IPSC members I spoke to had had their politics shaped by support for anti-apartheid action against South Africa. Environmental activists like Mitchell also draw on usable pasts; at the start of Love Leitrim’s campaign against fracking in the county, they made connections with Rossport activists, whose experience had a huge influence on the campaign: “when you meet these different people, you end up absorbing a lot of what they had …  their story kind of becomes part of our story”. 

The most notable “usable past” in the Palestine movement, to my eyes, is how the 1984-7 Dunnes strikes against Apartheid have been used as a model by modern organisers refusing to handle Israeli goods. In October 2025, a Tesco worker in Newcastle, County Down faced disciplinary action for refusing to handle Israeli goods. In protests across the country, the Dunnes strikes have been invoked to give support to the worker. Mary Manning, an anti-Apartheid striker, spoke in favour of the worker. The Industrial Workers of the World, of which the worker is a member, released a statement comparing the strikes: “This action is similar to that of the eleven Dunnes Stores workers back in 1984 … Through their actions the Dunnes Stores workers led the way in assisting the international call to the end apartheid regime”, invoking Ireland’s ‘useable past’ in anti-Apartheid action. The images and events of the anti-Apartheid campaign are being put to use in the service of current BDS campaigns.

Nonetheless, while the popularity of the anti-apartheid strike is near universal, the situation of the Irish trade union movement has altered since the 1980s. The 1990 Industrial Relations act is widely regarded as having made “political” strikes illegal. While the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has declared that they will support workers who refuse to handle Israeli goods, there are clear limits to the approach of supporting individual workers viz-a-viz collective action. The Tesco campaign claimed victory when disciplinary actions against the worker were dropped. This is a far cry from the Dunnes strikes, which ended with the Irish government’s ban on the import of goods from South Africa. While we can find useful tools in history, they must be adapted to present conditions. 

Contested Histories

But these histories are contested. Revisionist approaches have long been popular amongst Irish politicians who have sought to distance Ireland from anti-colonial struggle. Recently Jane Ohlmeyer’s popular Making Empire has spoken about “Ireland’s complex place in England’s early modern empire”, describing Ireland as having “piggybacked on the empires of others”. This revisionist history, ignoring that all colonial encounters contained elements of complicity and conflict, only serves to bolster the ruling classes. Micheál Martin has likewise sought to portray Ireland’s colonial history as a complicated matter. In speeches he has called for the recognition of “parallel histories,” arguing that both nationalist and unionist versions of history are valid, before denouncing “extremes on both sides”. This has an explicit political aim of positioning Ireland as a modern liberal state, as Martin asserts that “no liberal democracy can ever insist on a uniform national narrative.” 

This contestation over the meaning of history can be distinctly seen with regards to the ongoing discussion of Ireland’s neutrality. Martin has described Ireland as never politically neutral, only “militarily” so. By doing this, the Taoiseach is essentially portraying Ireland as a country that has aligned itself with Western powers from its inception. In contrast, neutrality activists are keen to highlight Ireland’s history as an “actively neutral” country; one that has promoted internationalist diplomacy through the UN, supported disarmament, and provided solidarity to other colonised nations. The difference between these two approaches is reflective of the political debate on neutrality. If claims that “Ireland was never neutral” go unchallenged, plans to remove the Triple Lock will appear less controversial. 

Going Forward

There is undoubtedly room for archival and academic research to bring histories of transnational anti-colonial solidarities with colonised countries to light. Since the foundation of the Irish state, solidarity movements, informed by Ireland’s anti-colonial struggle, have supported groups fighting imperial and/or colonial control. The 1980s Irish-Nicaraguan solidarity movement led to the participation of volunteers in support of the Sandinista rebellion, while there were also active Irish-Cuban and Irish-El Salvadoran solidarity groups.  The Irish-East Timorese Solidarity Campaign supported East Timor while under Indonesian rule. And, more recently, the Shell-to-Sea movement operated in solidarity with the Ogoni people of Nigeria.

But historical research can only take us so far. These histories only become usable when they meet the present, reflecting our current position back to us in new ways. The Neutrality Roadshow’s aim of discussing the history of Irish neutrality with activist communities across the country, forging links with local groups and leaders, has been successful in motivating groups to take action. Similar popular education initiatives could be undertaken to demonstrate other aspects of our history, providing a deeper perspective to contemporary solidarity movements. Through revitalising our past, we can articulate a fresh vision of a decolonised Ireland and its role in the world, buttressing against a drift towards militarisation, imperialism and climate breakdown.