The Irish Republican Congress

“We believe that a Republic of a united Ireland will never be achieved except through a struggle which uproots Capitalism on its way. ‘We cannot conceive of a free Ireland with a subject working class; we cannot conceive of a subject Ireland was a free working class’. This teaching of Connolly represents the deepest instinct of the oppressed nation.” So begins the ‘Athlone Call’, a declaration signed by two dozen left-wing republicans and trade union militants in April 1934, calling for ‘a Congress of Republican opinion’ that could rally and organise workers and small farmers in their fight against British imperialism and Irish capitalism. This pamphlet republishes two important works detailing the existence of the Republican Congress – "The Irish Republican Congress" by George Gilmore, and "The Irish Republican Congress Revisited" by Patrick Byrne.