Communist revolution in Ireland

Can it happen? With what PoD? I know, it was -to a certain extent, still is- a very Catholic country, mostly rural, with little industry and thus few industrial workers, but then... all of these apply to (1917) Russia, and yet...
So what do you think of this?
 
Can't see it with the dominant influence that the Catholic Church had IOTL until recently. You'd have to find some way of preventing that from happening.
 

Thande

Donor
Was it more influential than the Orthodox Church in Russia?

Yes, definitely. There was a significant anti-clericalist movement in Russia. Secular anti-clericalism in Ireland never took off because they were just accused of being crypto-Protestants.

Communism would have to radically alter itself to work in Ireland. Arguably Sinn Féin from OTL is about as close to it as you can get and still work.
 
Yes, definitely. There was a significant anti-clericalist movement in Russia. Secular anti-clericalism in Ireland never took off because they were just accused of being crypto-Protestants.

Communism would have to radically alter itself to work in Ireland. Arguably Sinn Féin from OTL is about as close to it as you can get and still work.

On another matter, was there any way to have a Civil War between the Blueshirts and Irish government back in the 30's?
 

Thande

Donor
On another matter, was there any way to have a Civil War between the Blueshirts and Irish government back in the 30's?

Not sure, you'd have to ask someone more versed in Irish history in this period than me. I think it's not very likely. The Blueshirts were always rather half-hearted for fascists.
 
The Blueshirts were nothing more than a very small minority. Their whole base was Fine Gael, hence the nickname, but in actuality the Blueshirts were quite harmless. For instance when they formed their own party, the Army Corporate Association, they dropped like lead. I remember someone who said it was hard to imagine a tyrant with a Monaghan brogue and I tend to agree with it, O'Duffy had zero chance of taking over Ireland. With the Blueshirts. Perhaps the best way to have a, well not completely Communist, but far more socialist Ireland is to have a far worse War of Independence, a longer lasting Free State and a vicious Irish Civil War in the 30's, with Sinn Fein coming out on top. Irish Republicanism certainly had large socialist leanings and it wouldn't be to hard for the state to vere left, although obviously not as a communist state.
 
Help on the way...

I stringly suspect that, in a Civil War between Blueshirts and the government, the British would provide whatever the government needed in the way of resources to the government. They would most likely, IMVHO, try to avoid puting troops in there, because that could weaken the goverment's support among its own people. They might also provide air support, or even volenteers. For that matter, there's almost always a fair amount of Irishmen in the British army--easy enough to transfer volenteers to the Irish army.

Incidently, I'd expect it to be a very ugly civil war, with plenty of executions, judging from the previous civil war. When the dust setles, Britian probably gets its leases on Western Ireland bases reinstated--that helps a LOT with the Battle of the Atlantic.
 
Not sure, you'd have to ask someone more versed in Irish history in this period than me. I think it's not very likely. The Blueshirts were always rather half-hearted for fascists.

Well I guess I could be less of an impatient bastard and wait for EdT to answer my questions since I'm too lazy to do my own damn research.:p
 
Yes, definitely. There was a significant anti-clericalist movement in Russia. Secular anti-clericalism in Ireland never took off because they were just accused of being crypto-Protestants.

Communism would have to radically alter itself to work in Ireland. Arguably Sinn Féin from OTL is about as close to it as you can get and still work.
Another big difference is that Ireland was/is full of conservative farmers who owned their own land and were almost certainly armed. Owner-occupiers are rarely Communist. You could get around this by having Westminster failing to pass the various Land Purchase Acts which cleared the Anglo-Irish landowners out of (the southern bit of) Ireland by the 20s, but there was a fair degree of cross-party support for these measures. I suspect you'd have to get and keep the diehards in charge of the Tory Party and somehow keep them in power. Keeping the Whigs in the Liberal Party might also help to some degree.
 
Couldn't there be a sort of Catholic Communism similar to the ones in South America? After all, the OP wasn't against religious Communism, which many people forget can be quite widespread.
 
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