Sam Nolan (born 1930) is the secretary of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions and a political activist.

Biography

Born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Nolan became active in the

Irish Workers' League The Irish Workers' League (1948–1962) and Irish Workers' Party (1962–1970) were names used by the communist party in the Republic of Ireland. Background The Southern section of the Communist Party of Ireland had suspended its activities from ...

soon after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and was a member of its executive committee by 1952. In 1957, he became a member of the executive of the new Unemployed Protest Committee,Mike Milotte, ''Communism in Modern Ireland'', p.228 and was initially considered the most prominent figure in the movement. At the 1957 Irish general election, he was asked to stand for the committee in Dublin South-Central, but refused, believing that anti-communist feeling following the

Soviet invasion of Hungary The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

made him an unsuitable candidate. Instead, the movement stood Jack Murphy, who was elected. During the 1960s, Nolan was prominent in the

Dublin Housing Action Committee The Dublin Housing Action Committee (DHAC) was a 1960s protest group formed in response to housing shortages in Dublin, Ireland's capital city. It quickly moved to direct action and successfully squatted buildings to oppose redevelopment plans. ...

, while he also remained active in the Irish Workers' League. He stood as a candidate at the 1969 Irish general election in Dublin Central, but took only 242 votes and was not elected. In 1970, the Workers' League merged with the

Communist Party of Northern Ireland The Communist Party of Northern Ireland was a small communist party operating in Northern Ireland. The party merged with the Irish Workers' Party in 1970 to form the reunited Communist Party of Ireland. Formation The party originated in the 1 ...

to form 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 ...

(CPI), and Nolan was elected as its first Deputy General Secretary. In January 1976, Nolan resigned from the CPI alongside Joe Deasy, Paddy Carmody, George Jeffares, Mick O'Reilly and others, in protest at the party's change of line on the

Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

, which they opposed. They subsequently formed the

Eurocommunist Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...

Irish Marxist Society, although this was short-lived, and Nolan soon joined the Labour Party, where he was a founder of Labour Left. He was elected to the Labour Party's Administrative Council, and became a full-time organiser for the

Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) was a British and Irish trade union, operating in the construction industry. It was founded in 1971, and merged into Unite on 1 January 2017. It was affiliated to the Trades U ...

. Nolan was elected as the Secretary of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions in 1979, holding the post into the 2010s. In his personal life, Nolan is the partner of academic

Helena Sheehan Helena Sheehan is an academic philosopher, historian of science, philosophy, culture and politics. Sheehan is Professor Emeritus at Dublin City University, where she taught media studies and history of ideas in the School of Communications. She wa ...

. A biography of Nolan was written by Brian Kenny and published in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nolan, Sam 1930 births Living people Irish activists Irish communists Trade unionists from Dublin (city)