Forgotten Revolution - the Limerick Soviet 1919: new centenary edition published

A Centenary Edition has been published of Liam Cahill's Forgotten Revolution – the Limerick Sovient 1919. The book, first published in 1990, explored the story of the Limerick Soviet for the first time and received considerable praise for its accessible, lively telling and meticulous research. The forgotten revolution of the title refers to events that quickly escalated from a workers strike in Ireland's fourth largest city to a full scale takeover of the running of the city by the workers and their representatives.

For a short two-week period, the workers controlled every aspect of life: production and distribution of food, opening and closing of shops, prices, transport and newspaper publication and even issued their own currency. Their action was declared a Soviet and the British authorities saw it as a serious threat to their rule in Ireland.

In creating this Centenary Edition, Liam Cahill has completely revised and enlarged his original book. In his Foreward, he says he was able to make extensive use of the significant official archives that have opened up in recent years. He gives particular mention to the Bureau of Military History, Witness Statements 1913-1921 and the Military Service Pensions Collection, 1916-23, both held in the Military Archives in Dublin, as well as the British National Archives, Imperial War Museum and a dedicated Soviet archive curated by Limerick Council of Trade Unions.

With this additional material, the word count of the book has expanded by 25%, much of it has been re-organised, and some of the focus of the story has shifted.

The new 210-page edition is now available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. ISBN-13: 978-1912328413. Publisher: Orla Kelly Publishing.

If you're interested to get a flavour of Limerick's Soviet, play the short video below.