The failure of socialist republicanism in the Irish revolution and its aftermath - Part 4
Front page of the Evening Herald (Dublin) during the lockout of 1913. From National Library of Ireland - 1916 Exhibition . Continued from previous post . Some questions Each of the above three interpretations undoubtedly contains some element of the truth about why the socialist republican movement did not achieve its desired outcome of establishing a 'workers' republic' in Ireland. However, there are a number of key questions which arise from them, an analysis of which will be helpful towards gaining a better understanding of why events turned out as they did. The first of these is the question of whether or not the general public in Ireland at the time of the Irish revolution was sufficiently receptive to socialist ideas to make the idea of an Irish socialist republic a viable one. If it was not, then the first interpretation – or at least that part of it which sees it as inevitable that radical socialism could not have successfully competed for popularity...