Left Archive: The Other View – Winter 2000, Issue 3. December 23, 2013
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Left Online Document Archive.trackback
To download the above file please click on the following link: The Other View, Winter 2000 lores
Many thanks to Alan Mac Simoin for donating this to the Archive.
This 24 page long document is a magazine style publication, sponsored by Co-operation Ireland through the E.U. Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation. In style it adopts a magazine look. The list of contributors is of particular interest suggesting a determined effort to produce a cross-community publication focussed on ex-prisoners but incorporating views beyond that. They included the Progressive Unionist Party members including Carolyn Howarth and Billy Mitchell, Tommy McKearney – former IRA prisoner, John Nixon a former INLA prisoner, the Rev. Mervyn Kingston – rector of Creggan Parish, Crossmaglen and Anthony McIntyre and Michael White.
The editorial team included Mitchell, McKearney and McIntyre.
There’s a broad range of articles. Billy Mitchell considers ‘Christian Socialism’ while Tommy McKearney writes about ‘Scientific Socialism’. John Nixon discusses Protestant Cultural Identities. Dawn Purvis asks ‘Is Abortion Always Wrong?’, while there is a riposte to that from ‘Feminist for Life Perception’. Gordon Lucy examines ‘1798: Ulster Presbyterians and All That’ and Carolyn Howarth discusses ‘The Protestant Way – Luther’s Legacy’. Indeed one could make a strong case that there is an emphasis on issues pertaining to religious identities to the same extent as a focus on political issues.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Tommy McKearney and Billy Mitchell were the two main people behind the magazine. Mitchell became a born-again Christian while in prison so in all of his output you see an inordinate emphasis on religion. I don’t think the magazine continued beyond Mitchell’s death in 2006.
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Credit to Alan Mac S. for posting this and others of similar theme. I wasn’t able to download the Other View on my phone , I’ll try on a friends laptop over Feile an Nollaig,
It’s a pity the mag didn’t continue after Nixons death. This working class cross community dialogue is vital. The Republican Congress made a brave attempt in the 30s, even getting a contingent from the Shankill to march at
Bodenstown with banner “Break the Connection with Capitalism”. Sadly Republican Congress split and broke up after a short time . Splits are an unfortunate recurring feature of socialist politics
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+1 re working class cross community dialogue. And a very neat way of putting it.
Thanks Séamus for the info.
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According to joe tiernan’s book billy Mitchell was directly involved in the bombing of Dublin
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