The Arigna Soviet Centenary Lecture: A Forgotten Revolution in the Coal-Fields of Roscommon.

Lecture delivered by Oisín Ó Drisceoil as part of Mohill Historical Society’s Decade of Centenaries Symposium at Lough Rynn Castle Hotel in September of 2021 on the subject of the Arigna Soviet, a long forgotten worker’s soviet that occurred at the Arigna Coal mines between March and September of 1921. That summer, a rancorous dispute broke out between the workers and management of the Arigna Mining Company over a proposed pay cut. This was not the first nor the last time that the troubled company would experience such a disagreement, however the actions taken by the workers to settle their grievances in this instance proved to be unique in the history of Arigna, and in that of Irish coal mining more generally. Taking full advantage of the disturbed state of the country at the time and following the example of workers in Limerick, Monaghan and elsewhere, the miners dramatically occupied the mine and ran it as a workers cooperative for around two months, eventually winning major concessions from an exhausted