"Labour Opposition" in Northern Ireland
Complete Reprint of Northern Ireland's First Labour Newspaper, 1925-26

The 17 issues of this newspaper, reproduced in this book, originally appeared between March 1925 and June 1926. It sought to define the terms of engagement for conflict between the newly-formed Northern Ireland Labour Party and the Unionist Government of the newly-created state of Northern Ireland.

Having been generated as part of the British Labour movement, and having contemplated the prospect of functioning in Home Rule Ireland, it suddenly found itself within the novel Constitutional and political entity called Northern Ireland - an unanticipated form of state, without tradition to sustain it or clear perspective to guide it. The Labour Opposition displayed great vigour and spirit in its efforts to cope with this new confusion of circumstances. But, in the end, circumstances got the better of it. Circumstances have changed a little. And some of us may feel we are a bit wiser than they were. But what those socialists who produced The Labour Opposition had in abundance - the vigour, the spirit, the belief in socialist possibility - is sadly lacking in the smarter but more cynical attitude of the present day. The Labour Opposition of the twenties failed in the most glorious spirit. It failed with a kick, and this record of its failing remains to kick-start the Labour Opposition of today.