Sam Nolan, a stalwart figure in Ireland's workers movement and keeper of the Dublin Mayday flame, passed away in Dublin recently. His personal journey not only traces a life lived at the forefront of countless collective campaigns spanning seven decades, but it also serves as a testament to the profound impact people coming together can have on shaping history.

Born in 1930, his journey into activism began in the aftermath of World War II when he joined the Irish Workers' League.  During the 1950s as the world boomed Ireland went broke, and Sam became involved with the Unemployed Protest Committee, an organisation famous for its rallies outside labour exchanges, marches carrying home-made black coffins and even going onto elect its own TD.

Throughout the 1960s, he played a prominent role in the Dublin Housing Action Committee. Similar to now, a scarcity of housing was exacerbated by a surplus of vacant properties, with the deliberate dereliction and destruction of parts of the city carried out to make way for gleaming modernist office blocks. The hidden history of the Dublin Housing Action Committee’s tactics of militant mass direct action and squatting still echoes down the corridors of the past to inspire housing activists today. 

Sam's dedication to social causes was matched by his commitment to leftist politics. He played a pivotal role in the formation of the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI), serving as its inaugural Deputy General Secretary after the merger of the Irish Workers League and the Communist Party of Northern Ireland in 1970. Sam eventually parted ways with the party, joining the Labour Party instead. Here, he co-founded Labour Left and contributed significantly to the party's administrative council. His work extended beyond politics as he became a full-time organiser for the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians.

Paying tribute to Sam Nolan’s immense contribution to the labour movement, Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said: “Sam was never one to be afraid of the fray, he was deeply involved in the labour movement all his life. Elected first as the Secretary of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions in 1979, he held the position until the 2010s.  Not only did he ensure that there was an annual Dublin Mayday march, but he was one of the people involved in setting off the chain reaction of motions and collective action that led to the creation of a public holiday celebrating Mayday.”  

Speaking to Dublin Community TV in 2011, remarkably on the eve of his 50th Dublin Mayday march address, Sam described how: "We began to agitate that May Day should become a public holiday, and we passed a resolution at the Dublin Council of Trade Unions. Eventually, we garnered support with resolutions passed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. In 1993, during a coalition government with Fianna Fáil and Labour, Ruairí Quinn was the Minister for Enterprise and Trade. Eventually, Ruairí Quinn enacted an order making the first Monday in May a public holiday."

Speaking in the wake of Sam’s death, President Micheal D. Higgins described how “With the passing of Sam Nolan, the Trade Union Movement, the Labour Movement and the entire Left has lost an outstanding figure who played an important role in so many of the key campaigns of the last 70 years. Sam Nolan combined his activism with a substantial knowledge of, and interest in, the history of the workers’ struggle and the forces with which it had to contend.”

While Sam may have passed, his flame will surely not as the annual Mayday March he was involved in for so many years will once again gather on Wednesday 1st, May 2024 at the Garden of Remembrance.

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