Book Launch: The Northern Ireland Troubles in Britain

Impacts, engagements, legacies and memories

Eds. G Dawson, Jo Dover and Stephen Hopkins. MUP Nov 2016. This ground-breaking book provides the first comprehensive investigation of the history and memory of the Northern Ireland Troubles in Britain. It examines the impacts of the conflict upon individual lives, political and social relationships, communities and culture in Britain, and explores how the people of Britain (including its Irish communities) have responded to, and engaged with the conflict, in the context of contested political […]

The 1831 Bristol rising

Solidarity in South Wales

  After the defeat of the first reform bill in early October 1831 violent protests exploded in many British cities. The rising in Bristol was the most spectacular and suffered the harshest repression by the military. This talk considers this revolt and, using new research, solidarity actions in South Wales to aid the Bristol ‘rioters’. A workshop at Cardiff Anarchist Bookfair, Room 1, Cathays Community Centre, 36-38 Cathays Terrace, Cardiff CF24 4HX

Epiphany

Mystics and Anarchists of the English Revolution

Epiphany is about the rise and fall of the mystics and anarchists of the English Revolution. The Fifth Monarchists stood up to the restoration of the Monarchy in 1661 and were hung drawn and quartered for their efforts. The Muggletonians lasted for 300 years, keeping a low profile they had their own religious beliefs that successfully continued until well after the restoration of the Monarchy. Celebrating these little known political and religious sects of the English Civil War, a collective of […]

Film Screening of Epiphany

Epiphany : directed by Suzy Gillett : produced by Ian Bone : 2013 Epiphany is a hybrid documentary evoking the Mystics and Anarchists of the English Revolution. Highlighting two little-known religious and political movements of the 1600s' Republic, The Fifth Monarchists and the Muggletons come to life in London as told by contemporary leading anarchists: Ian Bone and Martin Wright star as John Thurloe (Cromwell's spymaster) and Thomas Vennner. Venner led the only uprising through the city […]

The guillotine, knitting and terror…

So you think you know about the French Revolution?

Introduction The last few years I have been playing word association games; asking people at work and at the pub to say the first thing that comes into their head about a particular historical event or figure. So typically the English Civil War carries mental images of 'laughing cavaliers', 'miserable roundheads' and blood-thirsty executions of kings, World War I produces 'mud, blood and barbed wire' and recently, PC Blakelock elicits 'brutal mob violence'. Of course some people and events […]

James Connolly Songs of Freedom

With Mat Callahan, Clayton Blizzard and Commander McNeil. Singer/songwriter Matt Callahan performs Songs of Freedom, a celebration of the life and work of James Connolly, the Irish revolutionary socialist who participated in the Dublin Lockout of 1913 and was martyred by the British government for his role in the Easter Rising of 1916. Connolly's role in both events was of crucial importance making it especially important that his collection Songs of Freedom, originally published in 1907 and […]

The Good Old Cause: Moments of wonder and betrayal in the English Revolution (1640-49)

Brecht Forum, 451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets, New York, NY 10014 Phone: (212) 242-4201 - Email: brechtforum at brechtforum.org Despite the cheerleading you may have seen in the media about the Diamond Jubilee of the British Monarch, a wave of nausea and apathy, rather than nationalism has suffused 'Albion' of late. Echoes of the English Revolution of the 1640s still haunt the British Royals; an historic event which led to the first modern popular Republic and culminated in […]

Winstanley

Winstanley – Andrew Mollo & Kevin Brownlow, UK / 1975 / 95 mins / cert 1 Join us and the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair Collective for this screening of a restored version of this important film from 1975. In the run up to the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair on 12 September, this film evokes some of the earliest examples of anarchist thought and practice. Indeed the occupations by the Diggers have been described by some as the first anarcho-communist revolution in history. The context of the film […]

Leon Rosselson And Robb Johnson The Liberty Tree

Tickets available in advance from: Bristol Ticket Shop 26 Union Street Broadmead, BS1 2DP Tel: 0117 929 9008 Legendary protest singer Leon Rosselson celebrates his fiftieth year in music with a special performance with songwriter/activist Robb Johnson. The Liberty Tree is an evening of contemporary songs reflecting the revolutionary ideas of Thomas Paine. These were influenced by the American War of Independence and were to have a huge effect on the French Revolution and the fight for modern […]

Who The Hell Is Thomas Paine?

On the 200th anniversary of Paine’s death, Peter Clark explains the contemporary importance of his writings that were so influential in the revolutionary ferment of the late 18th Century. Paine redefined the nature of political discourse with his ground-breaking views on human rights, democracy, the open society, racial equality, women's rights and the welfare state. Clark questions why this great British thinker is fêted in France and the United States yet remains a prophet without fortune in […]