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Peter Graham (Marxist)
Irish republican and Marxist (1945–1971) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Peter Graham (1945 – 25 October 1971) was an Irish republican and Marxist who worked as an electrician.
Graham was a member of various left-wing movements, a founder of the Young Socialists, and some sources identify him as a leader in the militant Saor Éire organisation.
He was killed in his flat in Dublin in unclear circumstances in October 1971.
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Early life
Graham was born in 1945[1][2] with father Joseph Graham and raised in The Coombe, Dublin.[3]
Graham was born into a Catholic family, but relinquished religion later in life.[3]
Activism
Graham worked as an electrician for the CIÉ and was a trade union activist in Ireland and London, England.[3]
Briefly a Labour Party member, Graham left in disillusionment and became a Trotskyite joining the Connolly Youth Movement and the Trotskyist Irish Workers Group (IWG) in 1967.[3] After growing dissatisfied with the ideological stance of the IWG, Graham left and started the League for a Worker's Republic.[3][4] He was also the chair of the Young Socialists[4]and a member of the International Marxist Group.[5]
After IWG collapsed, some members started the People's Democracy organisation, with some of them starting the Saor Éire organisation.[3] While sources identify Graham as a member of Saor Éire,[5] This Week magazine rejects that.[3] He organised a meeting bringing Saor Éire and others together in 1968.[3] He was friends with D.R. O’Connor Lysaght, who both broke away from the International Marxist Group.[6]
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Death
On 25 October 1971[7] he was murdered in his own flat on St Stephen's Green, Dublin[6] by rivals in Saor Éire, who accused him of being a police informant.[5] Graham was tortured with a hammer and shot in the neck.[8] He was 26.[6]
While magazine This Week reported that Graham's friends attribute his death to a false accusation of being a police informant and also suggested his death was possibly linked to a gun smuggling operation.[9]
Journalist Charlie Bird spoke at his funeral.[4] Both Charlie Bird and Tariq Ali raised a clenched fist at the cemetery.[3]
The Provisional Irish Republican Army issued a statement thanking him for his support.[3]
References
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