The Ta Power Document

We hear a lot about the Ta Power Document but what exactly does it contain? Certainly, one could probably read Ta Power critique of the IRSM in an afternoon, but arguably the best way to appreciate fully what is contained in his critique, is to take the time to read it as one would approach a serious study. This is because there is so much content of both retrospective and contemporary value compounded into the Document’s pages, that a quick reading will never do justice to Ta Power’s project, which was so comprehensively written, often under the most difficult of conditions, notably partly within a cramped prison cell.

It is also helpful to acquaint oneself with the life of Thomas ‘Ta’ Power as the INLA guerrilla and the Revolutionary Socialist theorist. Ta Power’s life was very closely associated with the earlier years of the nascent Irish Republican Socialist Movement. Contained within the pages of the Ta Power Document is the genuine, early history of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, written by an INLA Guerrilla who knew only too well, that as a committed revolutionary, he was simply, as he fearlessly stated, a “dead man on leave!”

James Connolly, Ireland’s first Marxist Revolutionary, wrote 89 years before Ta Power’s assassination that: “Apostles of Freedom are ever idolised when dead, but crucified when alive.” They were prophetic words both for Connolly, Ta Power and all those who have sought to bring revolutionary change to Ireland, defy Imperialism and fight for a Socialist Republic.