In Limerick, Ireland's fourth largest city, the workers and their representatives take over running the city and their action is declared a 'Soviet'. The British authorities see it as a serious threat to their rule in Ireland.

The first Soviet in either Ireland or Britain was set up in Limerick in 1919. It published its own newspapers, issued its own currency and won worldwide publicity. Regarded by the British authorities as a major threat to security and a source of potential revolution, the city was soon put under strict military control.

In the spring of 1980, the Irish Department of Defence sanctioned the establishment of a new unit within the Irish Defence Forces and the Irish Army Ranger Wing (ARW) came into being. In the decades that followed, its soldiers have been deployed on active service at home and abroad, generally without the knowledge of the wider public. The ARW is made up of seasoned men from across the island, who are selected through tough competition. Only the best of the best make it through and are trained in an extraordinary range of specialist skills. Being one of these elite operators takes more than simply being a skilled soldier – it means believing you are the best. Shadow Warriors tells the story behind the creation of the ARW, from its origins in specialist counter-terrorism training in the late 1960s and the preparation of small unconventional units in the 1970s to the formation of the ARW itself in 1980 and its subsequent history. The first and only authoritative account in the public domain of this specialist unit, authors Paul O'Brien and Sergeant Wayne Fitzgerald have been granted access to the closed and clandestine world of Ireland's Special Forces, who train hard, fight harder and face unconventional types of warfare, yet prefer to stay out of the limelight.

Rebellion, Resistance and the Irish Working Class: The Case of the ‘Limerick Soviet’ explores the background and history of a major strike which occurred in Limerick city, Ireland, in 1919. This industrial dispute made headlines worldwide given that many central aspects of the dispute impacted on controversies as relating to workers’ rights in both Ireland European at this juncture. In this volume the “Limerick Soviet,” as it was known, is considered as a seminal element within Ireland’s local and regional history. This volume is an important addition to the historical literature, one which illuminates Ireland’s symbolic role within more large-scale European events of this historical period—the Russian Revolution and the mass protests by striking workers in both Germany and Scotland being just two examples.

This in-depth exploration of five industries in the Kola Peninsula examines Soviet power and its interaction with the natural world.

The story of an epochal event in German history, this is also the story of the most important revolution that you might never have heard of.