Eoin Ó Murchú is a writer and retired journalist in both Irish and English, a political activist and a former member of

Official Sinn Féin The Workers' Party ( ga, Páirtí na nOibrithe) is a Marxist–Leninist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It arose as the original Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, but took ...

/the Workers' Party, and the

Communist Party of Ireland The Communist Party of Ireland (CPI; ga, Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann) is an all-Ireland Marxist–Leninist communist party, founded in 1933 and re-founded in 1970. It rarely contests elections and has never had electoral success. The part ...

Biography

Background

Ó Murchú was born and reared in England, where he joined the

Connolly Association The Connolly Association is an organisation based among Irish emigrants in Britain which supports the aims of Irish republicanism. It takes its name from James Connolly, a socialist republican, born in Edinburgh, Scotland and executed by the British ...

and got involved in the republican movement. He studied at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

and was a founding member of the Republican Club in the college and served as its chairman.

Official Sinn Féin and Communist Party

Ó Murchú edited the newspaper of the official republican movement ''

United Irishman ''The United Irishman'' was an Irish nationalist newspaper co-founded by Arthur Griffith and William Rooney.Arthur Griffith ...

'' and served on the Ard Comhairle of Official Sinn Féin. His 1971 work ''Culture and Revolution in Ireland,'' formed a synthesis of

Gaelic revival The Gaelic revival ( ga, Athbheochan na Gaeilge) was the late-nineteenth-century Romantic nationalism, national revival of interest in the Irish language (also known as Gaelic) and Irish Gaelic culture (including Irish folklore, folklore, Iri ...

and

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

themes. Ó Murchú was aligned with the faction who moved the Official Republican movement away from the armed struggle towards a socialist and electoral path. After joining the Communist party he served as its southern secretary, and also edited the party's newspaper The Irish Socialist. In 1984, he stood unsuccessfully in the Laois–Offaly by-election as the Communist Party candidate.

RTÉ and journalism

He worked as political correspondent for

RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta (; "Radio of the Gaeltacht"), abbreviated RnaG, is an Irish language radio station owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). The station is available on FM in Ireland and via satellite and on the Intern ...

. Although retired from RTE, Ó Murchú remained active as a columnist and commentator appearing on Vincent Browne Tonight programme on TV3 from time to time. He also writes Political and Irish language columns for

An Phoblacht ''An Phoblacht'' (Irish pronunciation: ; en, "The Republic") is a formerly weekly, and currently monthly newspaper published by Sinn Féin in Ireland. From early 2018 onwards, ''An Phoblacht'' has moved to a magazine format while remaining an ...

. He is a writer for

Tuairisc.ie Tuairisc.ie is an online Irish language newspaper. The company's offices are in Bearna. Tuairisc.ie receives state funding through Foras na Gaeilge. History Tuairisc Bheo Teoranta won a competition run by Foras na Gaeilge to provide an Irish l ...

and has written for

Trinity News ''Trinity News'' is Ireland's oldest student newspaper, published from Trinity College Dublin. It is an independent newspaper, funded by Trinity Publications, which reports on the news and views of the students and staff of Dublin University, a ...

Publications

*''Culture and Revolution in Ireland'', Eoin Ó Murchú, Official Sinn Féin/Repsol, 1971 * ''The Workers' Party, Its Evolution and Its future, A Critique'', Eoin Ó Murchú, Communist Party of Ireland, 1982

References

External links

Eoin Ó Murchú
at Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Murchu, Eoin O Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Communist Party of Ireland candidates in Dáil elections Irish communists Irish journalists Living people Workers' Party (Ireland) politicians Year of birth missing (living people)