Happy to announce that I'm spending the summer in Paris at the Centre Culturel Irlandais to continue my research, having been awarded this year's Rev. Liam Swords Foundation Bursary. Arrived yesterday, a beautiful building rich in Franco-Irish history

Delighted to be gifted this iconic edition of Paris Match from August 1969, covering the Battle of the Bogside in Derry. Likely the first introduction to the conflict for much of the French public.

Spotted in Dublin the other day: Sticker of Ali la Pointe, Algerian freedom fighter and protagonist of the great film "The Battle of Algiers"

Sticker from one of the Irish solidarity groups in Paris in the early 80s. A lot of love put into that British lion caricature "Ireland - 800 years of colonialism"

This week in 1974, the UK National Union of Students first implemented their ‘no platform’ policy. I wrote about the history of this policy in my book, ‘No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech’ (which is on sale here): www.routledge.com/No-Platform-...

For French speakers/the curious: A few scans of French Irish solidarity journals (Irlande Libre, Irlande en Lutte) in my collection have just been uploaded to the Irish Republican Digital Archive: republicanarchive.com/2025/03/25/m...

When The Jackal Came To Dublin? In 1976 you had claims in Irish media, such as this article in the Sunday World, that Ilich Ramirez Sánchez aka "Carlos the Jackal" had been living in Dundrum under the name Carlos Martinez in April 1974 for several months and had received hair/scalp treatment

1980 poster from the Irish Political Prisoners Defence Committee in Paris supporting the H-Block prisoners campaign. "The Irish Prisoners Must Not Die"

March 1972: Bernadette Devlin, upon arriving in Bordeaux, France, was detained by French police and sent away on the next flight to London. French Ministry of the Interior - "We have enough troublemakers in the country already without importing them" (Daily Mirror, March 15 1972)

Our special issue of Irish Studies Review, co-edited by me, Sharon Crozier-DeRosa and Jimmy Wintermute, is out now. It has 5 articles on transnational activism, solidarity and Ireland and a 'snapshots' piece on the current field of transnational Irish studies. tandfonline.com/toc/cisr20/3...

Karl Marx struggling to find obscure and out-of-print books on Ireland, highly relatable:

International Women's Day 1980: A protest outside Armagh Gaol for Republican women prisoners, organised by Irish organisation Women Against Imperialism drew 600, including members of the french feminist MLF Mouvement de libération des femmes. (Photo by Irlande Libre)

Bobby Sands began his hunger strike in the H-Blocks this day 44 years ago today Photo below shows banners hung from Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris by Irish solidarity activists in May of that year [source: AP/RN July 18 1981]

Very much looking forward to presenting a paper on some of my research at the @sofeir.bsky.social "Ireland and Transnational Solidarities" conference in Cork next month! irlsolidarities.sciencesconf.org?lang=en

"For 10 years Ireland has resisted..." Poster by Irish solidarity group Irlande Libre in 1979. The photo is attributed to Patrick Frilet, a prominent photojournalist who worked for the Libération newspaper.

New blog post: "The Map of the Belfast Pogrom," showing all the deaths of this period, with each person’s name, the date, nature and location of the killing, who was responsible and when the inquest was reported in the press. #IrishHistory thebelfastpogrom.com/2025/02/22/t...

1997: French authorities claimed to have dismantled a "French based IRA network", largely in Brittany, leading to seven arrests. Ultimately however the prison sentences would prove light for those charged, as was usually the case in France throughout the conflict. 1/2

🚨New Blog Post🚨 I wrote this for the COLVET blog on how West African veteran records can help us put a face on the Global Greater War and its impacts outside Europe. It includes ten brief biographies of West African veterans and their wartime experiences around the globe. colvet.eu/tracing-the-...

Toujours intéressant d'en lire plus sur l'impact de la révolution française sur les irlandais en France de l'époque. "...ces collégiens républicains adoptent presque automatiquement un « internationalisme révolutionnaire »..." journals.openedition.org/etudesirland...

"Ireland: The English Algeria." Cover of the newspaper of the french Parti Socialiste following Bloody Sunday The PS Mitterand government in 1982 would be implicated in the famous "Irish of Vincennes" case that saw three members of the IRSP framed for an attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris.

Protester at a march for the Irish hunger strikers in Paris, 1981. Sign reads "Thatcher Murderer, She Killed Bobby Sands". Unknown origin

Article reacting to Derry's Bloody Sunday in L'Humanité Rouge, paper of the Parti communiste marxiste-léniniste, a french Maoist organisation [February 10 1972] "The Irish people cry out in their righteous anger: “British imperialism out of Ireland!”"

Fascinating 1992 article from the Orange Standard, official paper of the Orange Order, in which they compare the North of Ireland to Algeria, and urge Loyalist paramilitaries not to make the same mistakes as the OAS.

RA prisoner Pauline Drumm writing about her incarceration in French prison in 1990. Drumm had been arrested alongside Donncha O'Kane and Patrick Murphy, having been accused of carrying out attacks against British bases in Germany. [The Captive Voice Vol. 2 Issue 2.]

October 1981 cover of the Le Peuple Breton, journal of the left wing Union Démocratique Bretonne. The UDB had a close relationship with the Officials/Workers Party.

My first piece on the new volume of @difp-ria.bsky.social (&first Bluesky post!), and it’s all about Irish diplomacy during Bernadette Devlin McAliskey’s 1969 US tour: www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2... @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social

An illustrated map produced as a centrefold for the Irlande Libre magazine in 1980 showing key events in Irish Republican history. The French connection to 1798 features prominently, with both the failed Bantry Bay expedition and General Humbert

Consistent aspect of the French view of the Irish conflict was the "Troubles thriller". A lot of the popular espionage book series would eventually feature the IRA or some other aspect of the conflict. Unlike English equivalents Republicans are not necessarily the villains

Interview with Malachy McGurran, leading figure of the Official IRA, in the paper of the trotskyist Ligue Communiste [Rouge, 11th March 1972] "For us the development of the revolutionary struggle in England and Europe is complementary to the struggle we are waging in Ireland."

For the day that's in it...A visit by Jean-Marie Le Pen of the Front National to Dublin Castle was protested by Sinn Féin and other groups (Source: AP/RN February 13 1991)

1959: The French Ambassador to Ireland during the Algerian War reflecting on the difficulty of getting Irish officials to endorse the French view on Algeria. [Chapter on France Christophe Gillisen pg 92-93 in "Ireland Through European Eyes: Western Europe, the EEC and Ireland, 1945-1973"]

An interesting story about Ted Howell of Sinn Féin, who passed away today: While being deported from Canada, Howell escaped from custody upon arriving at Paris Orly Airport before jumping in a taxi. [New York Times March 5 1982]

A 1988 British government assessment of support for Irish Republicanism in Norway, including visits by Danny Morrison and a violent protest against Thatcher visiting the country. Socialist and communist groups key as in other European states

October 1976: An anarchist group, "Groupes d’intervention autonome", claimed an action on behalf of Noel and Murray, two Irish anarchists sentenced to death in the Republic. Smoke bombs were reportedly set off in the toilets Paris Le Bourget airport, disrupting a departing Aer Lingus flight.

An early Breton-Irish connection: The first biography of Pádraig Pearse was written by a Breton nationalist named Louis Le Roux in 1932. He had founded the first Breton separatist political party, the Parti Nationaliste Breton, in 1911. The book was highly influential in Breton nationalist circles

Poster from French IRA supporters of the Comité Irlande, most likely from the late 70s, declaring support for the "Irish Revolution"

Christmas book haul this year includes; a history of French Maoism, books on Ireland by Republican sympathisers, Breton internationalism, French repression efforts and May 68. All very relevant to my research

Interesting article by Luke William Watson on the Irish Colony in Paris. To a lesser extent you had a similar situation int he 1980s around the Irish Association journals.openedition.org/etudesirland...

🚨Five Days Left to Apply to join us in Cork for the French Society for Irish Studies Conference🚨 This year's theme of transnational solidarities is fascinating. I'll be giving a keynote on intertwined colonial histories of Ireland and Algeria. eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

One of the most single-minded anti-Treaty women refusing to compromise on her allegiance to the 2nd Dáil, leading deValera to describe her as ‘incorrigible’. This biography seeks out a deeper understanding of a richly complex woman, too often written off as a virago Out Feb 25

To my knowledge, the first pamphlet produced in France about the "Troubles", released in early 1972 by the Comité pour la Liberation du Peuple Irlandais. Ça Ira of course is a reference to the famous French revolutionary song.

Workers solidarity: In France during the 1981 Republican hunger strike, 300 trade unionists, members the communist-aligned CGT trade union stopped the Paris to London train from leaving the station, blocking the tracks with six coffins with the names of the hunger strikers.

Quite the contrast between this paper from Irish Republican supporters in France in 1925 and more modern versions. 'Inis Fáil: Bulletin de la Ligue pour l’Indépendance de l’Irlande' which seems to have been edited by an aristocrat, Baron Felix de Rosnay catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls0...

Just as the Irish Republican movement was fractured, so were the support groups in France. In the mid 70s you had at least three rival groups with varying ideological commitments. This newsletter (Starry Plough in French) was from a group supporting the Officials in 1974

Setting up this account because it seems I set the one over at the other place just as it's sinking. Will probably repost some of that

My first peer-reviewed article is about to be a year old, so I figured it would be a good first post for this new account! Check out my piece on rhetorical contentions in the evolution of the Irish Republican Army, open access at Irish Political Studies: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....