| Summary: | This thesis focuses on Irish communism and the republican left, using Seán Murray’s political career as a nexus between Ireland and the international context. Using newly released and previously under-utilised archival material, the thesis concentrates on two main issues. Firstly, it addresses Murray’s relationship with the international communist movement, challenging and adding nuances to extant research on Irish ‘Stalinism’. Murray had a firm grasp of Marxist-Leninist theory, tactics and methods of organisation. Yet he endured a complex and difficult relationship with the international communist hierarchy and with the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in particular. Murray developed independent, nationally specific policies and tactics for the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI), often arguing for a liberal interpretation of Comintern policy. In fact, on a number of occasions, he anticipated shifts in Comintern thinking. Secondly, the thesis examines socialist republicanism between 1916 and 1962 from Murray’s perspective. It argues that a proclivity to pursue communist-republican alliances brought out in Murray both the crudest and most advanced forms of socialist republican thinking. Unique in his era, Murray combined aspects of Marxism-Leninism with fundamentally Connollyist analyses of Irish conditions and demonstrated an understanding of imperialism on two levels. He failed to develop a communist-republican synthesis. However, in the final analysis, he articulated an inclusive, left social democratic vision of republicanism which drew upon diverse sources of inspiration.
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