Special Guest — Michael Quinn — a member of the Connolly Youth Movement in the 1970s, and Youth Officer of the County Kildare Constituency Council of the Labour Party in the 1980s. He was the founding Chair of the Maynooth Local History Group, and of the James Connolly Memorial Initiative. The Initiative commissioned the sculptor, the late Eamonn O’Doherty, to erect the memorial to James Connolly in Beresford Place, opposite Liberty Hall, Dublin, to coincide with the eightieth anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. In 2014 Michael was awarded a PhD at the Department of History, Maynooth University, for his thesis on the subject of Irish-Soviet diplomatic and friendship relations. T
Michael is telling about his book Irish-Soviet Diplomatic and Friendship Relations 1917-1991.
This book – the first of its kind – details the state-to-state relations that were conducted between Ireland and the Soviet Union, which were led on the Irish side by Eamon de Valera and Dr Garret FitzGerald. It also catalogues the myriad friendship, trade union, political, academic, cultural and trade interconnections that were formed by Irish and Soviet citizens throughout the short Soviet twentieth century.
This is the second interview of our guest to the programme.