Jay Carax will be in Manchester for the next two months but he’s hoping to post irregularly on Dublin and Irish related topics.
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) kept detailed files on as many Trotskyites and Trotskyite group as they could, right through the 20th century.
One file came that I came across had a snippet on Ireland. The confidential report on “Trotskyite Activities” from May 1943, under the “Colonial”,
section as this to say:
“Socialist Appeal has recently devoted great attention to Ireland, including special reports from Brian Aherne in Belfast. Young Jim Larkin at a recent Connolly Club meeting in London is reported to gave included a number of Trotskyist ideas in his speech. Socialist Appeal is now being sold in Dublin with no apparent interference from the authorities, who strictly maintain the ban on Communist publications. The Workers’ International League (W.I.L.) is reported (May 1943) to have formed an Irish Bureau.” CP/CENT/ORG/12/01
Harry Pollit (1880 - 1960) who was General Secretary of the CPGB from 1921-1939 and 1941-1956.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Harry Pollitt was an interesting person. His former partner Rose Cohen was a victim of the Gulag and Pollitt seemed not to mind.I was told that Young Jim Larkin was very upset that old Polish friends from his time in Moscow had been executed.
There is a biggish article on Irish Trotskyism of the time at
http://www.revolutionaryhistory.co.uk/rh06/rh0623.html
It was mainly written by Ciaran Crossey who also runs an archival site on the Irish in the Spanish Civil War
Thanks for that Jim.
I’m not sure Harry Pollitt ‘didn’t mind’ Rose Cohen being sent to the Gulag. But he decided, which in many ways is sadder, that to question it would serve only to aid opponents of communism: therefore he kept his mouth shut. He was independent minded enough to criticise the Nazi-Soviet pact and was sidelined from the British CP leadership for a couple of years as a result. Hence his not being general secretary from 1939-1941.