Why are we here?

Why are we here?

We are often asked why are we here? Why do we do this 85 years after the death of a man who none of us here have any family ties to? Why celebrate, remember and commemorate his life?

For me the answer is simple, it’s not for votes or notoriety in the area.

It’s because everything Peter stood for is as relevant today as it was 85 years ago.

Peter was an Anti-Imperialist, this was evident in his Republican activities and his rejection of the treaty.

Peter was a socialist, proven by the fact he left the IRA in the early 30s when they tried to remove socialism from their ideology and he went on to join the Republican Congress with so many other IRA men.

Peter was an antifascist demonstrated by the fact he answered the Cominterns call to join the International Brigades and to go fight fascism in Spain.

He always held true to his beliefs and therefore was on the right side of history.

So now that we have discussed the sanitised version of Peter, I want to briefly speak about the Peter Daly I’m here to remember. The version that NO political party of the establishment will acknowledge because there is no political gains to be made from it.

Peter was a TRUE REVOLUTIONARY. He done what needed to be done! Whether that was b0mbing, sh00ting or bank r0bberies for the IRA or go to Spain to k1ll fascists as a committed Communist.

Remembering Peter and all other Brigaders accurately is the least we can do.

Only yesterday members of the Peter Daly Society traveled to OMeath Co. Louth, to commemorate 7 young men from the border area who gave their lives in Spain.

We need to support all groups that want to remember brigader that came from their communities because everyone of them deserve to be celebrated.

The history of the Spanish fight against fascism in the 30s is the same as every struggle against oppression and imperialism around the world.

The revolutionary spirit that took Peter to Spain is the same spirt that leads workers around the world to strike and fight for better pay, that led the men and women of 1916 to take on an empire and what led the workers revolution of 1917 to topple a Tzar. It is what leads the indigenous people of the Americas and Australia to fight for their history to be told and it is what makes the Palestinian People to fight against apartheid and for their freedom daily.

Closer to home on this island that same revolutionary spirit is what spurs people on to stand up for their communities, whether that is the revolutionary housing league fighting for homes for those who need them or local groups fighting to keep hospitals open or provide meals on wheels for our elders. It’s in all the groups in the O6 fighting the status quo of stormount.

With that I will finish with the words of La Pasionaria.
You can go proudly,
You are history,
You are legend,
Long live the heroes of the International Brigade.

Sin é
Steve McCann

Posted in News | Comments Off on Why are we here?

International Brigades Commeration in Andalusia

Members and friends of the Peter Daly Society attended events in Andalusia to commemorate & recognise the contribution of the International Brigades in fighting fascist forces in the region most notably in the Battle of Lopera where many died and still remain in unmarked graves to this day shamefully.

Many thanks to AABI and FIBI for all there hard work but especially to the people of the many villages & towns who welcomed us, No Pasaran.

Posted in News | Tagged , , | Comments Off on International Brigades Commeration in Andalusia

The Peter Daly Commemoration 2015

Guest speakers at this year’s Peter Daly Commemoration were Independent socialist Clare Daly T.D., Eugene McCartan of the Communist Party of Ireland and noted Spanish Civil War historian Harry Owens.

Music by The Druids.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off on The Peter Daly Commemoration 2015

Speakers announced for 2015 Commemoration – The Peter Daly Society

The speakers at 2015 Peter Daly Commemoration will be Clare Daly TD, Eugene McCartan Communist Party of Ireland and Harry Owens Spanish Civil War Historian.

Speakers announced for 2015 Commemoration – The Peter Daly Society

Posted in Events, News | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Speakers announced for 2015 Commemoration – The Peter Daly Society

The Peter Daly Society – Commemoration 2015 – Monageer, Co. Wexford

The 2015 Commemoration will place at 6pm on Saturday 5th September at the Peter Daly Memorial in Monageer, Co. Wexford. Please see our location map for travel details.

The Peter Daly Society – Commemoration 2015 – Monageer, Co. Wexford

Posted in Events | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The Peter Daly Society – Commemoration 2015 – Monageer, Co. Wexford

The Peter Daly Society – Commemoration 2014 – Monageer, Co. Wexford

The 2014 Commemoration will place at 1:30pm on Sunday 7th September at the Peter Daly Memorial in Monageer, Co. Wexford. Please see our location map for travel details.

The Peter Daly Society – Commemoration 2014 – Monageer, Co. Wexford

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Brigadista – Irish Brigade in the Spanish Civil War

A documentary with two Irish members of the International Brigades and their accounts of the time. The International Brigades (Spanish: Brigadas Internacionales) were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to fight for the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939.

Bob Doyle was born in Dublin. He was a lifelong rebel and champion of radical causes. He joined the IRA and served in the British Battalion of the International Brigades. During the Second World War he was a merchant seaman and settled in London, where he later became a Fleet Street print worker and union militant.

He followed socialist republican Kit Conway to fight in Spain and was captured along with Frank Ryan, expecting to be executed at any time.

Produced by Northern Visions TV

Posted in News | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Peter Daly Society – Commemoration 2013 – Monageer, Co. Wexford

The 2013 Commemoration will place at 1:30pm on Sunday 8th September at the Peter Daly Memorial in Monageer, Co. Wexford. Please see our location map for travel details.

The Peter Daly Society - Commemoration 2013 - Monageer, Co. Wexford

Posted in Commemoration 2013 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Spanish Civil War Plaque to be unveiled in Derry

Spanish Civil War plaque to be unveiled in DerryA plaque will be erected in Derry next month to remember the volunteers from the north west who fought with the International Brigades in Spain during the country’s civil war.

More than 20 men from Derry, Donegal and Tyrone were killed fighting as part of the International Brigades in Spain during the war between 1936 and 1938.

The plaque will be erected in the Unite Building, Carlisle Road, on Thursday July 18th at 7.30pm.

It follows a long campaign by the North West Spanish Civil War Project, a local group set up several years ago to commemorate and raise awareness of the men from this area who fought in Spain.

The commemoration will include representatives of the trade union movement as well as relatives of those who were members of the International Brigades.

Alongside the plaque unveiling, the North West Spanish Civil War Project are planning to release a complete programme of events to commemorate the local volunteers.

The events will include an exhibition, film screening, talks, and a social evening.

The unveiling will be followed by a short reception in the union building before the celebrations move to Sandino’s Bar, Water Street where there will be an evening of workers’ songs and poetry.

Posted in Events, News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Misfit, A Revolutionary Life by Captain Jack White (Re-Issue)

Captain Jack White, an unsung hero of the Irish Revolution, first published his autobiography “Misfit” in 1930. He was an extraordinary complex man and difficult to fit into any easy slot. He was born into a loyalist and middle-class family, the son of Field Marshal Sir George White, Governor of Gibraltar. He was brought up mixing in the highest circles of the British establishment, hardly an obvious beginning for someone who was to become co-founder of the Irish Citizen Army. White had a colourful and diverse life. After being decorated for his part in the Boer War he resigned his commission, travelled extensively in Bohemia, worked as a lumberjack in Canada and lived in a Tolstoyan Commune in England.

Misfit, A Revolutionary Life by Captain Jack White (Re-Issue)

Misfit tells the story of White’s spiritual inner revolution as well as the story of his part in the Irish Revolution. Prior to being instrumental in the founding of the Irish Citizen Army White had involved himself with the opposition to Sir Edmund Carson’s anti-Home Rule Bill and travelled to London to speak alongside George Bernard Shaw on the subjection of Irish Nationalism. He then went on to organise the 1913 protest meeting in Ballymoney, Co Armagh, which was addressed by Sir Roger Casement. The protest proved so effective that he was then invited to Dublin to speak on Home Rule. White arrived in Dublin at the height of the 1913 Lockout. He met with James Connolly and Jim Larkin, and under the influence of Connelly quickly identified himself with the southern workers’ cause.

White was outraged at how the Catholic Church aided and abetted the Dublin employers during the lockout and this outrage was galvanised when they stopped starving Irish children of the strikers going to Liverpool ‘heathen’ homes. It was then that White and Jim Larkin called for volunteers to set up a defence force. Some ten thousand were there, and almost all volunteered. They were directed to the Transport Union Hall. The strike had not actually come to a confrontation however until the infamous Butt Bridge baton charge. White was arrested as one of the leaders of the demonstration and fought all the way to the police station.

After the 1916 Rising White was again arrested and imprisoned for trying to organise a strike of the Welsh miners in support of James Connolly who was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail under sentence of execution.

Jack White, throughout the 1920s, was active in a host of organisations including The Irish Workers Leagueand The Workers Party of Ireland, moving between Dublin, London and Belfast and now clearly identified himself with left republican politics. A regular public speaker, he also wrote for many publications includingAn Phoblacht.

In 1936, White travelled to Spain to help fight Fascism. Impressed by the social revolution that was unfolding there, he was attracted to the Anarchist cause and wrote the short pamphlets “The Meaning of Anarchy” (1937) and “Anarchism –A Philosophy of Action” (1937. Returning to London in 1937, he worked with ‘Spain and the World’, a pro-anarchist propaganda group. With Matt Kavanagh, the Irish Liverpudlian anarchist he worked on a survey of Irish Labour and Irish aspirations in relation to anarchism and did a study of a little known Cork Soviet. He was also working on a second volume of Misfit, a kind of Misfit 2. The articles and pamphlets which survive are now preserved in the anarchist archive at the Kate Sharpley Library www.katesharpleylibrary.net

After his death, his second wife either alone or in conjunction with the White family, unfortunately destroyed these notes. It may have been through neglect or expediency but it was more than likely driven by White’s criticism of the Catholic Church. Whatever the reason, it was a tragic loss.

White made a final and brief reappearance in public life during the 1945 General Election campaign. Proposing himself as a ‘Republican Socialist’ candidate for the Antrim constituency, he convened a meeting at the local Orange Hall in Broughshane to outline his view. But he never actually got his name on the ballot paper. Six months later Jack White died from cancer in a Belfast nursing home. After a private ceremony, he was buried in the White family plot in the First Presbyterian Church in Broughshane. The only thing written on the tombstone is that he was the son of Field Marshal Sir George White; there is no commemorative record or plaque anywhere.

Ordering information »

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment