Workers' Party mark 10th anniversary of death of Cathal Goulding

national | miscellaneous | news report

Monday January 05, 2009 15:39

by Workers' Party

wpi at indigo dot ie

24 Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.

(01) 8740716

Seminar held at Ashbourne, County Meath

Around 150 members of the Workers' Party attended a seminar over the weekend of 3rd January to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of veteran socialist republican Cathal Goulding who died on 26th December 1998.

Workers Party members at the Cathal Goulding seminar

Cathal Goulding was socialist republican all his life. He played an important role in reorganising the IRA in the 1940s and became Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1962. Cathal was born into a revolutionary family on the north side of Dublin. Both his father and grandfather were interned for their involvement in the 1916 Rising and his grandfather was involved in the Fenians. Cathal Goulding joined na Fianna Éireann in 1931 at the age of 8 years.

He was first arrested in 1940 and was interned without trial in the Curragh Internment Camp until 1945. After his release he, along with a small number of comrades, began rebuilding the IRA. Following the Felstead arms raid in England he was jailed from 1953 to 1959. In 1962 Cathal was elected Chief of Staff of the IRA and immediately began a process of bringing socialist politics into the IRA.

He was a life-long member of Sinn Féin and was instrumental in bringing about fundamental change in that organisation, culminating in the name change to Sinn Féin the Workers’ Party and the building of the Workers’ Party into a force in Irish politics.

He was a member of the Party’s Political and Central Executive Committees (Ard Comhairle) until he died. His life’s struggle to achieve a United, Socialist Irish Republic is an everlasting example to all true revolutionaries.

The weekend seminar was attended by members of all ages from every corner of Ireland and beyond.

Former party president and General Secretary Seán Garland who had worked closely with Cathal for over 40 years gave the opening address. Current President Michael Finnegan also gave an address ont he wider context of Cathal's work. Personal recollections were given by former Dublin West TD and Party President for over 25 years Tomás Mac Giolla during which he worked parallel to Cathal and by veteran republican and socialist Rita Whelan who along with her late husband Micheál had been friends of Cathal and the Goulding family from early in his life of activism. General Secretary John Lowry looked at how aspects of Cathal's life had echoed those of many other revolutionaries worldwide and of his legacy while Gerry Grainger, the party's International Secretary recalled how well known and widely respected Cathal was in the revolutionary movements across the globe.

Members also enjoyed a night of music, chat and reminiscences including a guest appearance from the legendary folk singer / songwriter Tommy Sands.

It is intended to produce a pamphlet with key aspects of the event shortly.

Cathal Goulding (1923 - 1998)

Ted Tynan (Cork) addresses the meeting

Workers Party President Michael Finnegan at podium

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Comments (8 of 8)

Correction

by John - WP

Wed Jan 07, 2009 21:16

The Workers' Party councillor in Waterford Davy Walsh was the only one of the 15 members of Waterford to vote against the service charges (bin tax) in last month's Estimates. Get your facts right.

Sinn Féin and former WP councillor John Halligan, who was thrown out of the party because he refused to oppose the charges last year, all voted for the bin tax this year along with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party.

WP - means Waste of Politics

by Eugene Crabbe

Wed Jan 07, 2009 20:47

The Workers Party - the party of eoin harris policies. Their councillor in Waterford even voted for the bin tax. Stick with the touting lads, the only thing your were good at !
As for Malachy " osf-rsf-irsp-yd-wp " Steenson. More parties than mcdonalds.

what about others

by John

Wed Jan 07, 2009 15:17

It is a pity that the seminar was just for workers party members. many outside the wp have respect for goulding a public meeting would have been more broadly attended. Looking forward to the booklet on the seminar

Is that all you can say

by Working Man - The Roman Catholic clergy

Wed Jan 07, 2009 02:50

Are you serious, you are accusing me of being a fascist ?? because I have never met a member of the workers party or received a piece of literature from ye. Time to come back from whatever planet you are on. You are living in the past, on about the split and the analysis of the officials. 99% of young people would say "the who?". Bitterness only keeps one locked in a certain time and thought frame, where everyone is against you because they are "fascist nationalists". Get over yourself.

P.S. I googled your website, there is virtually no policies, no details, the site is not even aligned properly, there is a red dot on the text section of the page for some reason. There is 4 different text fonts in the text box on the front page alone, with a hyper link highlighted in yellow. Please tell me your 12 year old son did the site, or maybe it was a Church inspired sabotage to discredit the party. If your website looks like it was done by a child in 1997, no one will take you seriously.

If that's all you can say

by Sean - WP

Tue Jan 06, 2009 21:30

I must say that the responses to this are surprising for people who seem to think the WP is so irrelevant. Our relevance is proved by the spleen coming from these trolls. It is a respectable size crowd that any small party would be happy to see especially as it is composed almost entirely of members rather than people to fill seats and was held a few days after Christmas.

The comments are predictable and almost certainly come from predictable sources that hate all the WP stands for, despise its socialist republicanism and rejection of sectarianism. The Workers' Party totally opposes imperialism whether that be British, US or of any other brand and it also rejects fascist nationalism - the real source for the vitriol from the anonymous correspondents above. Cathal Goulding correctly pointed out the consequences of a sectarian war while continued that war for 30 years of sterie sectarian murder only to end up going into coalition with the most right wing party on the island of Ireland, the DUP. Their mercs and perks belie their expressed socialism.

No folks, the Workers' Party is not going away. We refuse to crawl off the stage to suit the neo-history of fascist nationalism. We are recruiting new members all the time and some were at this meeting although it was mainly people who struggled together with Cathal Goulding and knew him.

They still exist

by Working man

Tue Jan 06, 2009 19:03

I find this amazing that the Workers party are still in existence. I have never seen a leaflet of theirs, never seen a candidate at the door, never heard them comment on tv or radio. Thankfully most of the people in the Photo are old, and time will take care of them.

What Planet are you on?

by WPwatch

Tue Jan 06, 2009 18:18

"Following from its success in the Lisbon referendum it intends to be the vanguard of the left both in the upcoming local elections and Lisbon 2."

The WP is a tiny organisation and played a small part in the anti Lisbon campaign. Apart from wAterford the WP will get joke votes in both the Euro and local elections.

"Its clear that the analysis put forward by the Officials in the 70's is becoming more correct as the days pass. "

What analysis? Killing Seamus Costello? Bombing Aldershot? being the first to use proxy bombs? Being the first to target civilians working in RUC stations?

Malachy you are not dealing with fools here. The degeneration of OSF/OIRA from a militant Republican organisation into a willing supporter of British imperialism has not been forgotten.

Cathal Goulding even called for internment and supported extradition. A true agent of Britih Imperialism.

Goulding's legacy

by Malachy Steenson - Workers' Party

Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:59

A very valuable seminar, where many issues relating to the past were dealt with in an honest and forthright way. The Party is clearly setting itself at the forefront of Republican Socialism. Following from its success in the Lisbon referendum it intends to be the vanguard of the left both in the upcoming local elections and Lisbon 2.

Its clear that the analysis put forward by the Officials in the 70's is becoming more correct as the days pass.

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Workers' Party mark 10th anniversary of death of Cathal Goulding

Comments (8 of 8)