Rayner Lysaght: a parent of modern Irish Trotskyism
Daniel Rayner O’Connor Lysaght (30 January 1941 - 2 July 2021) was a revolutionary Marxist activist and historian widely respected for his decades-long involvement in Ireland’s socialist movement and his consistently non-sectarian approach. Involved in Trotskyism since the 1960s, he joined the Fourth International’s section in Ireland, the Revolutionary Marxist Group, which later merged with People’s Democracy. A leading member of the Irish Labour History Society, he leaves behind a vast literary legacy, from his 1971 book The Republic of Ireland and groundbreaking writings on the 1919 Limerick Soviet to his preface to the Irish language translation of Trotsky’s Transitional Programme, An tIdirchlár. RISE sends condolences to his family, friends and comrades. To commemorate his life, Rupture invited Fourth International supporter John Meehan to reflect on Rayner’s legacy.
Many thanks to Deirdre White for contributing the wonderful illustration of Rayner.
Article originally published in Issue 5 of Rupture, Ireland’s eco-socialist quarterly, buy the print issue:
Rayner Lysaght was born in Llanishen, Cardiff, Wales. He was a direct descendant of the radical Chartist Feargus O'Connor (1796-1855), an Irish-born leader of the radical Chartist movement in Britain. Rayner's literary works were signed D(aniel) R(ayner) O'Connor Lysaght. After his death many wrote generous personal tributes.[1][2]
Rayner was a pioneering labour historian of the 1919 Limerick Soviet. In the 1960s, he studied at Trinity College Dublin. He became a well-known activist on the Irish left. He was a founding member in 1972 of the Revolutionary Marxist Group (RMG), the Irish section of the Fourth International. This group fused with People's Democracy (PD) in 1978. I knew Rayner since joining the RMG in 1974.
In 1976, on the 60th anniversary of the Easter 1916 Rising, the Fine Gael-Labour government banned a Sinn Féin commemoration. The RMG participated in a successful weekend tribute to the Rising at Liberty Hall, HQ of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU). Rayner served on the organising committee, delivering the opening paper. Participants included then ITGWU General Secretary Michael Mullen. PD comrades from Belfast participated, saying often they had the same policy as the RMG – and vice versa! I spent the weekend registering attendees. Political police stopped everyone entering the event and special branchmen camped outside my family home, unsuccessfully threatening my widowed mother.
The RMG-PD Trotskyist stream notably worked to end the partition of Ireland, and promoted the feminist cause. RMG-PD activists helped to found and build Irish Women United, advancing the concept of an autonomous women's movement.
Dan Finn summarises this stream of Irish Trotskyism very well :
"Apart from a short-lived grouplet established during the Second World War, the history of Irish Trotskyism dates back to the late 1960s. A number of groups emerged from the left-wing student milieu of that time. People's Democracy (PD), which became the official section of the Fourth International, had the highest profile, because of its role in the political crisis that engulfed the North of Ireland. PD activists were prominent in the civil rights movement whose protests destabilized the Stormont system. A decade later, they promoted the idea of a broad campaign in support of republican prisoners demanding political status. Sinn Féin belatedly took up this proposal during the hunger strikes of 1980-81, with consequences that are still being felt today.
PD was always a small organization, and by the late 1980s it had lost whatever influence it once possessed on the wider political scene."[3]
Rayner Lysaght's politics show up well in this extract from a People's Democracy bulletin opposing the 1983 anti-abortion amendment to the Irish constitution. A Workers' Party Árd Fheis had voted against extending the British 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. He wrote:
"Despite their nationalist origins, the Workers' Party are extremely anti-Republican……Republicans often object to any British Act on principle. This sort of approach is deeply rooted in the traditions of Irish Republicanism. It is based on absolute morality: things are black or they are white, and there are no intermediate colours or shades in the spectrum.
Rejection of all British Acts on principle may seem uncompromising. In fact it is juvenile. For example, at the turn of the century, many families were paid by the British state so that they could buy their own farmsteads. Members of these same families still did their bit for Ireland in the national liberation struggle. They participated in the armed struggle against the soldiers and police of the same British state that had helped Irish tenant farmers to buy their own land.
It is tempting to judge cases like this on their individual merits. But that can lead to opportunism…... It is much better to use this yardstick: Do Westminster Acts of parliament extend or contract the range of the British state's repressive apparatus?
On this criterion all socialist republicans should support the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to the North of Ireland. It is a necessary part of the struggle to achieve Free Abortion on Demand for all Irish Women.
We are working towards the day when all Irish people, men and women, will make democratic and socialist laws themselves in a 32 County Workers' Republic…..That day will come nearer only if we support all progressive measures today. It is no good putting things off to a future "stage" that will be reached once we achieve Irish unity."[4]
Let us continue that struggle - a fitting tribute to D.R. O'Connor Lysaght.
Notes
1. O’Connor Lysaght, Rayner (Daniel), rip.ie, https://rip.ie/death-notice/rayner-daniel-o-connor-lysaght-killester-dublin/463010
2. ‘D. R. O’Connor Lysaght’, The Cedar Lounge Revolution, 2 July 2021, https://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2021/07/02/d-r-oconnor-lysaght/
3. Daniel Finn, ‘The Tributary’, Sidecar, August 4 2021 https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/the-tributary?fbclid=IwAR3ko2MHiEevmIB_zPMVnlRMYFKVU3Ehk3G-dtQutNkoPWfT-kCjgENIrvI
4. People’s Democracy, Anti-Amendment Campaign Broadsheet No. 3, May 1983.