Des O'Hagan (29 March 1934 – 5 May 2015) was a prominent member of the

Workers' Party of Ireland 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 ...

and was a founding member of the

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ) was an organisation that campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967,

.''The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party'', Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, p. 222. O'Hagan was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

in 1934 and became active in republican revolutionary politics in the city from an early age. His grandfather, Michael McKeown, had been head of the Docker's Union in

, and had participated in the

1907 Belfast Dock strike The Belfast Dock strike or Belfast lockout took place in Belfast, Ireland from 26 April to 28 August 1907. The strike was called by Liverpool-born trade union leader James Larkin who had successfully organised the dock workers to join the Nationa ...

alongside

Jim Larkin James Larkin (28 January 1874 – 30 January 1947), sometimes known as Jim Larkin or Big Jim, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. He was one of the founders of the Irish Labour Party (Ireland), Labou ...

. His mother was a devout Catholic but a firm supporter of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...

and a rabid anti-

Francoist Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

. Her family lived besides

James Connolly James Connolly ( ga, Séamas Ó Conghaile; 5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. Born to Irish parents in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, Connolly left school for working life at the ...

while he resided in Belfast and her father had been his associate. In 1947 At age 13 he joined Na Fianna Eireann, the youth wing of the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief t ...

, and by 15 he lied about his age in order to enter into the IRA proper. However, he was later expelled from the IRA after joining the Northern Irish civil service, a job which required swearing an oath of loyalty to the British monarchy. He subsequently joined Saor Uladh, an IRA splinter organisation. He was imprisoned in Crumlin Road jail in his native Belfast from 1956 to 1960 for attempting to rescue a Republican from police custody while being treated at

Mater Infirmorum Hospital The Mater Infirmorum Hospital, commonly known as The Mater, is an acute hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It provides services to most of North Belfast and South Antrim, reaching as far as Glengormley, Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey It i ...

. On his release from imprisonment, O'Hagan was enrolled in the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

from where he graduated in 1964. He subsequently returned to Belfast and was appointed to the post of Senior Lecturer in

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

in Stranmillis College of Teacher Education, now known as Stranmillis University College. Between his time in London and the growing influence of left-wing members of the IRA/Sinn Féin such as

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 I ...

, Tomás MacGiolla and

Seán Garland Seán Garland (7 March 1934 – 13 December 2018) was the President of the Workers' Party in Ireland from 1977 to 1999. Early life Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954 ...

, O'Hagan became a committed

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

. In 1967 O'Hagan was one of the founding members of the

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ) was an organisation that campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967,

(NICRA) and played an important role in organising many of the campaign's major demonstrations and in the development of NICRA into a serious political machine which forced the British government of the time to make major political concessions. Des O'Hagan was one of a large number of Republicans who were arrested and interned without trial in August 1971. He quickly began documenting the ill-treatment of prisoners by the British authorities and had these articles smuggled out of the

Long Kesh Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...

internment camp. They were soon serialised by the ''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' newspaper as ''Letters from Long Kesh''. His articles played a significant role in exposing the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners at the camp and drawing international attention to them. The "Letters from Long Kesh" were finally published in book form, by Citizen Press, in September 2012 to mark the 40th anniversary of their serialisation. On his release from internment, O'Hagan became once again involved in the official republican movement and played an important role of its development into the Workers' Party. He was for a time editor of ''The Irish People'' and served on the party's Central Executive Committee for many years during which he was Chairman of the party's Education Committee. He also contested a number of elections on behalf of the Workers' Party in the South Down constituency. By the 1970s he had adopted the nickname "The Divil" (a Northern Irish pronunciation of "The Devil") after he was denounced at the pulpit by Canon Murray of St Peter’s Catholic Cathedral for his Communist outlook. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union left-wing parties and movements across the West rapidly shifted away from hardline positions. Splits were common and the Worker's Party was not unaffected, seeing a major split occur when a major faction of the party left to form Democratic Left, a

Democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management withi ...

party as opposed to the Marxist-Leninist stance of the Worker's Party. O'Hagan remained a hardliner and viewed the split as a "Betrayal", and desperately tried to hold the fragments of the Worker's Party together as it dwindled. He lashed out the emergence of

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, which saw the Labour Party move away from Socialist policies towards a version of

Social Democracy Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to prom ...

. Des O'Hagan died on 5 May 2015, aged 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohagan, Des 1934 births 2015 deaths Alumni of the London School of Economics Communists from Northern Ireland Irish Marxists Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) members Irish republicans interned without trial Official Irish Republican Army members Politicians from Belfast Republicans imprisoned during the Northern Ireland conflict Workers' Party of Ireland politicians