"Self-determination for the Irish People poster" [NMLH.2023.37]

Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.37

Object Name
Poster

Title
Self-determination for te Irish People

People
James Connolly, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx

Events
The Troubles

Date
1972-1982

Description
The Poster Collective was a collective formed in 1971 at the Slade School of Art,  a group formed to initially produce posters in response to the miners strike and on the wars in both Vietnam and Ireland. It was formed on the basis of developing a coherent visual style, which addressed the political issues of the time. This included the armed struggles against colonialism in Africa, the struggle of women for equal rights and the continuing struggle against racism. The collective was active in the 70's and 80's, producing posters on a wide range of issues, including for educational purposes. The group was not-for-profit and used a variety of hand-printing techniques to create their posters. This is a green poster which shows the The Starry Plough banner (Irish: An Camchéachta – the bent plough), a flag which was originally used by the Irish Citizen Army, a socialist Irish republican movement, and subsequently adopted by other Irish political organizations. Underneath the Starry
Plough is a quote: "During the guerilla struggle in Northern Ireland not only the Irish tricolour flew over the Republican ghettos but alongside it flew the 'Plough and the Stars', the flag of Connolly's citizen army." Beneath these are three photos depicting scenes from The Troubles- guerilla fighting, the barricades in Belfast, the sign into Free Derry- alongside quotes from Connolly, Lenin, and Marx: "Should the working class of Europe, rather than slaughter each other for the benefit of kings and financiers, proceed tomorrow to erect barricades all over Europe, to break up bridges and destroy the transport service that war might be abolished, we should be perfectly justified in following such a glorious example and contributing our aid to the final dethronement of the vulture classes that rule and rob the world." (Connolly) "A blow delivered against British imperialist bourgeois rule by a rebellion in Ireland has a hundred times greater political significance than a blow of equal
weight in Asia or Africa." (Lenin) "Ireland is the only excuse of the English government for maintaining a BIG STANDING ARMY which in case of need they send against the English workers...A people which enslaves another people forges its own chains." (Marx) Underneath these quotes and at the bottom of the poster is black text reading "SELF-DETERMINATION FOR THE IRISH PEOPLE"