Charles Desmond Greaves (27 September 1913 – 23 August 1988) was an English

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. He wrote a number of books on

Irish history The first evidence of human presence in Ireland dates to around 33,000 years ago, with further findings dating the presence of homo sapiens to around 10,500 to 7,000 BC. The receding of the ice after the Younger Dryas cold phase of the Quaterna ...

as a

Marxist historian Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided soc ...

. A member of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

, through 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 B ...

he was one of the key figures, along with

Roy Johnston Roy H. W. Johnston (11 November 1929 – 13 December 2019) was an Irish theoretical physicist and republican political activist. He was a Marxist who as a member of the IRA in the 1960s argued for a ''National Liberation Strategy'' to unite the ...

, responsible for inserting Marxist perspectives into the 1960s

Irish republicanism Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develop ...

, in relation to the

Northern Ireland civil rights movement The Northern Ireland civil rights movement dates to the early 1960s, when a number of initiatives emerged in Northern Ireland which challenged the inequality and discrimination against ethnic Irish Catholics that was perpetrated by the Ulster ...

History

Greaves was born in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liv ...

, England. His father, Charles Edward Greaves, a post office official, and his mother, Amy Elisabeth Taylor, were Methodists. He studied at

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

where he graduated in chemistry and botany, he worked as a research chemist at Powell Duffryn. In 1934 he joined

. In 1941 he joined the Connolly Club which became the

, and became editor of its magazine, ''The Irish Democrat''. During the 1950s Greaves used his influence at the Connolly Association to push the view that the best path to a

United Ireland United Ireland, also referred to as Irish reunification, is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically; the sovereign Republic of Ireland has jurisdiction over the maj ...

would be to discredit

Ulster Unionism Unionism is a political tradition on the island of Ireland that favours political union with Great Britain and professes loyalty to the British Crown and constitution. As the overwhelming sentiment of Ireland's Protestant minority, following ...

in the eyes of British Politicians. He believed this could be achieved by exposing how discriminatory the Stormont regime in Belfast was. Greaves' policy was made part of the Connolly Association's constitution in December 1955. From there on out, Greaves and the Connolly Association worked to influence and educate British political opinion, especially on the left and in particular within the British Labour Party. This was no easy task as during the 1940s the Labour Party's stance was to support Unionists, partially as a reward for their support during World War 2. One example of this would be the passing of the

Ireland Act 1949 The Ireland Act 1949 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to deal with the consequences of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 as passed by the Irish parliament, the Oireachtas. Background Following the secession of most ...

, which gave Stormont a veto over any constitutional change relating to Northern Ireland. However, by the end of the 1950s their efforts were bearing fruit; for example, the Association was able to raise the issue of hundreds of prisoners being detained without trial in Northern Ireland under the Special Powers Act of 1922. Thanks to the Associate putting pressure on the British Labour, who in turn put pressure on Lord Brookeborough they were able to force the release of the prisoners. Greaves and the Connolly Association would continue to push Labour against the Unionists into the 1960s, which would later prove to be a key piece of political strategy on the eve of

The Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

. Greaves became associated with

, a Dublin-born member of the

Irish Workers' Party 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 ...

who had migrated to England. They and their theories came to have an influence over 1960s

through

Cathal Goulding Cathal Goulding ( ga, Cathal Ó Goillín; 2 January 1923 – 26 December 1998) was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA. Early life and career One of seven children born on East Arran Street in north Dublin to an ...

and Tomás Mac Giolla, who also adhered to a Marxist perspective. During the split within the Irish republican movement in 1969, Greaves' Connolly Association supported Official Sinn Féin (later known as the Workers' Party) and the

Official Irish Republican Army The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (OIRA; ) was an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a "workers' republic" encompassing all of Ireland. It emerged ...

, rather than the Provisionals. This was done under the rationale of anti-sectarianism, claiming that the Provisionals were representative of just the Catholic nationalist community. His library of Irish books is held at the

Working Class Movement Library The Working Class Movement Library (WCML) is a collection of English language books, periodicals, pamphlets, archives and artefacts, relating to the development of the political and cultural institutions of the working class created by the Industr ...

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, deposited by his executor

Anthony Coughlan Anthony Coughlan is an Irish academic, secretary of the National Platform, and retired Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Social Policy at Trinity College, Dublin. He has contributed to various debates in the media such as on RTÉ's '' Questions and A ...

. The Desmond Greaves summer school is held each year as a forum for discussing topics which exercised him, such as Irish left wing, and

republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

politics.Éanna Ó Caollaí
"Something for the weekend: What's on"
''Irish Times'', 15 September 2012; retrieved 12 January 2013.

Publications

* ''The Life and Times of James Connolly'' (1961) * ''The Easter Rising as History'' (London 1966) *''Northern Ireland: Civil Rights and Political Wrongs'' (1969) *
The Irish Crisis
' (1972, second enlarged edition 1974) * ''Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution'' (1971) * ''Reminiscences of the Connolly Association'' (1978) * ''Sean O'Casey Politics and Art'' (1979) * ''The Easter Rising in Song and Ballad'' (1980) * ''Irish Transport and General Workers' Union: The Formative Years (1982)''

References

External links

C. Desmond Greaves profile
irishdemocrat.co.uk; accessed 10 March 2015.
The Desmond Greaves School official website
accessed 10 March 2015.
The Desmond Greaves Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greaves, C. Desmond 1913 births 1988 deaths 20th-century English historians British Marxist historians Alumni of the University of Liverpool People from Birkenhead Place of death missing