Forgotten limerick maoist bookshop

A little ways down from king johns castle on Nicholas street once stood a bright red communist bookshop. “Progress books” opened in the early 70s to much community backlash. The mayor at the time, Stevie Coughlan , went on a crusade across Limerick spreading the idea that there was a “red menace” attacking Limerick.

Coughlan believed over 200 Maoists were operating in limerick at the time. According to socialist historian Brian Hanley, there were more like 6 or 7. The small group was led by a Drogheda man named Arthur Allen. Allen came from a wealthy family and spent his time distributing radical literature up and down o Connell street in the local pubs.

Allen along with several of his comrades obtained a building in the parish of St Marys. They began selling literature relating to Lenin, Mao, Stalin, and Marx as well as several Chinese publications obtained from Hong Kong. The shop produced its own local paper which mainly focused on exposing the poor working conditions in Shannon. The group was small and its effect on the city was hugely exaggerated by the far right.

The campaign against the shop began when a local priest claimed he was attacked by a group of protesting Maoists. Rev Dawie De Villiers claimed that during a local protest a group of Maoists attacked the priest telling him that they intended to destroy the clergy of Limerick. In reality, the priest was knocked by a singular protester running from a group of gardai. The next morning the priest sensationalized the story and reported it as an attack on the very institution of the church. There is no evidence to suggest any Maoists attended the protest or were anywhere in limerick on the day.

Rumours began to spread that the group was recruiting schoolchildren and distributing anti-religious material. On January 26th, 1970, the Limerick Leader editorial stated, “the sooner they are driven out of limerick the better… we call on everyone and particularly the clergy and the trade unions to rise up and crush the menace that is threatening the youth of this city… they must be crushed in Limerick and run out of our city”. At the time the Limerick Leader was highly clerical and extremely conservative.

The mayor began to distribute letters to local pubs encouraging them to not allow the distribution of radical publications on their premises. Those who allowed the spread of the red menace propaganda would be labelled communist sympathizers. Coughlan stated that “as the mayor of Limerick I wish to alert the citizens to the dangers of the insidious propaganda being distributed by left-wing agents of a foreign power” He began touring local secondary schools warning the students of this so-called red menace. One Crescent College leaving cert student was targeted by Coughlan as a communist and he ordered the students expulsion. The student body refused and threatened a strike if the expulsion took place. Coughlan also called for the firing of a teacher by the name of Tony Pratscke for being a member of the labour party.

The clergy began to preach from the pulpit about the evils of the red menace threatening limerick. The irony Is that before Coughlan’s crusade the vast majority of Limerick didn’t even know of the existence of the small group. The power Allen and his comrades had over the city was non-existent. The number of active socialists in limerick at the time was below ten. In fact, Maoists were the smallest group on the Irish far left.

The rumours spread by Coughlan and the church culminated in several violent attacks on Progress books. The people of limerick were convinced that the youth of limerick as well as the good Catholics of the city were under direct threat from evil Chinese communists. In retaliation, the shop was attacked by locals. The windows were smashed numerous times, shots were fired into the building from a passing car and there was an attempted firebombing. The majority of the workers slept inside the shop, so they were in direct danger from these attacks. These attacks were dismissed as being committed by the workers themselves.

The fear of communist attack on the youth/clergy of limerick caused a strange political alliance. The National Movement was a neo-Nazi group that started a petition to shut the bookshop. Coughlan met with member John Buckley to praise him for his hard work. This group openly distributed a magazine that praised Hitler and featured material produced by the American Nazi party as well as the Ku Klux Klan. Its chairman J Brennan Whitmore, an 84-year-old veteran of the 1916 rising, was a virulent anti-Semite. He was obsessed with the idea of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy, a kind of predecessor to the modern Qanon / new world order conspiracy mindset. The national Movement distributed a youth edition of their magazine called nusight outside of secondary schools. The mayor did not comment on or condemn this action.

Nusight reported on the apparent unique right-wing tradition limerick was home to. They cited the example of the 1904 anti-Jewish boycott that took place. Due to misinformation by local clergy, each week for 6 months Jewish families were attacked. Their houses were broken into, they were attacked on the street and their children were abducted. The families were eventually run out of the city. This boycott is an extreme example of what can happen when the far-right uses fearmongering to discredit their opponents.

Coughlan used the movement against the Maoists to discredit and take support from the left wing of the labour party. He eventually lost his seat as he continued to call back to the 1904 Jewish boycott.

Today, there is no evidence that the shop ever existed. It is a unique piece of limerick history that needs to be remembered. Progress books is a cautionary tale of what can happen when misinformation is employed as a political tactic.