McAliskey is a contributor to a new book Mobilising Classics Reading radical writing in Ireland which will be launched before the seminar.   Regarding the Irish republican tradition, Bernadette McAliskey’s consideration of the ideas of Thomas Paine  underscore how it is part of a political project that extends far beyond the struggle to get ‘Brits Out’ and stretches back to the French Revolution. Encouraging people to read Paine’s original work, and to read it avidly, she points to its relevance to the current crisis in Irish democracy.

The book, edited by Fiona Dukelow and Orla O’Donovan, lecturers in the School of Applied Social Studies at UCC,  provides a series of rich reflections on the interaction between  the radical ideas associated with  Thomas Paine and other authors, and political action in Ireland.   The authors studied include Simone de Beauvoir, Adrienne Rich, James Connolly, Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich.  Each essay provides an account of the contributor’s personal encounters with the text, opens up the key mobilising ideas and considers how the text has the potential to invigorate the political imagination of contemporary oppositional politics.  “We believe that this volume highlights how radical writing can serve to counter the resignations of the currently dominant ‘there is no alternative’ thinking,” say the editors “and illustrates the political significance and enduring relevance of these mobilising classics.”

Mobilising classics  Reading radical writing in Ireland will be launched by Professor Pat Coughlan, School of English, UCC.  The book is published by Manchester University Press and is available from good bookshops at €19.80.

Picture: Bernadette McAliskey

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