Directory of N.Ireland Political Periodicals
Date:1985
Publication: Fortnight
Issue:18th November 1985
Type:Article
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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution

23rd July 2012

This is an useful addition to the Archive - and many thanks to the person who forwarded the photocopy to me, a listing from Fortnight Magazine (which finally ceased being published last year), based in Northern Ireland, of political periodicals from there in 1985. Compiled from the collection at the Linen Hall by the librarian in charge of the collection, Robert Bell, it provides a snapshot of magazines and newspapers ‘still operating at the beginning of 1985’ and therefore an invaluable picture of broad political activity. Nor is it restricted simply to magazines from the North. Also included are ‘any Irish political magazine or newspaper and any British and foreign periodical which is published specifically about the current Irish ‘Troubles’.

The consequent range is considerable, albeit it includes such publications as Constabulary Gazette - The Ulster Police Magazine. Nor is it restricted to left wing or republican magazines. COMBAT - the journal of the Ulster Volunteers is there. Also represented are magazines from feminist and gay/lesbian groups.

An interesting exercise is to consider how many of those publications are missing from the Left Archive and how many are represented within it.

More from Fortnight

Fortnight in the archive


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  • By: Left Archive: Directory of N.Ireland Political Periodicals from Fortnight Magazine, December 1985Gay Norfolk Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:15:43

    […] Taken from: Left Archive: Directory of N.Ireland Political Periodicals from Fortnight Magazine, December 1985 […]

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  • By: The Weekly Archive Worker: The Free Voice of Labour – The Jewish Anarchists « Entdinglichung Thu, 26 Jul 2012 08:49:32

    […] Directory of N.Ireland Political Periodicals from Fortnight Magazine, December 1985 * The Gregory Deal […]

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  • By: Seán McGouran Sat, 03 Nov 2012 20:11:00

    Re: the Fortnight list – there were a number more pages which might be worth showing. A number of publications no longer exist.
    There’s also a bit of ‘political’ sleight of hand.
    The Campaign for Labour Representation for Northern Ireland (CLR) is deemed to be the publisher of The Communist, The Irish Communist, and Workers’ Weekly, which is inaccurate. It also ‘accuses’ them of being ‘pro-Unionist’, which they were not.
    The Workers’ Party of Ireland – to which Fortnight’s then-current editor belonged – is not so much ‘pro-Unionist’ as straight-up ‘Unionist’.

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  • By: Starkadder Sat, 03 Nov 2012 20:44:03

    “The Campaign for Labour Representation for Northern Ireland (CLR) is deemed to be the publisher of The Communist, The Irish Communist, and Workers’ Weekly, which is inaccurate. It also ‘accuses’ them of being ‘pro-Unionist’, which they were not.”

    The Fortnight artice says the CLR has “Links with the
    British and Irish Communist Organisation”, not that it published
    the three magazines in question.

    Also, since all three magazines mentioned were,
    during the 1980s, against both Irish Unification and
    Ulster Independence most commentators would
    place them in the Ulster Unionist category.

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  • By: Branno's ultra-left t-shirt Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:10:53

    The Workers party supports a 32-county socialist republic, by definition it cannot be ‘Unionist’.

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  • By: Seán McGouran Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:05:40

    In reply to Branno’s ultra-left t-shirt.

    This is like the Brit Left – the soft hissing sound of hairs being split. ‘Ulster Independence’ was a decidedly sickly ‘tendency’ dreamed up in the London ‘Ulster Office’. And before more hairs get split, I’m not really sure of such a thing still existed in the 1970’s – it was ‘Stormount’s’ official… um… office in Whitehall (I believe).
    This sort of thing is quite common in federal states, Washington DC has a street full of ’embassies’ from the various States. Some are quite large.
    I’m not very sure where the NIO is – possibly the same place?. Even in the 1980’s the ‘Ulster Unionists’ were the ‘not-the-DUP party’.
    The WPI supports an Irish Workers’ Republic – just tell the lads in the Official IRA in the Market area that – it’s the ‘not-the-Provis’ ‘armed wing’ / fund-gathering organisation.
    As Sinn Féin has realised ‘Irish Unification’ (why is the ‘u’ always in the Upper Case: ‘U’?) is a long way off – they were hoping for 2016 – it’s more like 2116 – though I give it about 25 years or so – @ 2037 – just in time for the centenary of Dev’s Bunreacht …
    BICO was never particularly ‘against’ an all-Ireland single state.
    We just pointed out (rather naively, if you ask me, but then you didn’t…) that is wasn’t going to happen. The Ulster Prods weren’t having it, and there happen to be a million of them in the upper right hand corner of the island.

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