Chapter 2 looks at links with the homeland and Bengali politics. It begins with the movements for independence from Britain and for the formation of Pakistan; and it goes on to the growing movement for East Bengali autonomy and then independence, as the Bengalis came to believe they had exchanged colonialism under Britain for colonialism under West Pakistan. It also looks at Bengali responses to problems relating to immigration, which sometimes – as in the issuing of passports –overlapped with Pakistani politics. It charts the development of movements for democracy and independence in East Bengal and supportive activism in London. And it examines the role played by Bengali students and professionals in co-ordinating political mobilisation and in welfare activities – where, despite their radical left politics, they relied more on patriarchal bonds than on class analysis. The chapter explores the impact of Communist Party ideology on progressive politics, and especially revolutionary stages theory and popular-front organisation, which encouraged the activists to set aside long-term aims for socialism, and concentrate on immediate demands for national independence and on resolving community problems. It argues that, instead of leading to socialism, this marginalised the socialist aims that most activists claimed to support.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyses Irish society in the early twenty-first century, but seeks to do so by consciously avoiding myth-making and generalisation. It explores how power works ideologically and through policy instruments to support dominant models of capital accumulation. The book discusses how neo-liberalism as both an ideology and practice continues to 'fail forward' despite being implicated as cause and aftereffect of the global economic crisis. It describes the powerful discursive and disciplinary force of 'development'; how it is invoked in politics and the media to nullify debate and to disguise its own ideological underpinnings and the provisionality of its assumptions. The book presents twelve events that span the years 2001-2009.

This chapter offers a critical reading of the Uprising and its place in recent Irish history. It analyses the forms that resistance took and the extent to which it transgressed or reinforced the clientelist norms of political engagement in Ireland. For many participants in the Uprising, this was an opportunity to face down ageism, as reflected in the budget's targeting of older people and as a force within Irish society. Condemnation of Ireland's two-tier or 'apartheid' health services is commonplace. The health system itself is complex; private and public services coexist and even overlap, and entitlements are finely graduated so that only a minority qualify for free access to primary services via the medical card regime. Defending and rationalising medical card retrenchment, Minister Brian Lenihan also appealed to vague concepts of fairness and the presumed inefficiencies of universalism.

Community living for people with intellectual disability has been encouraged and supported for a number of decades in Ireland. Systematic reviews have demonstrated the merits of community living and social inclusion and have highlighted the relative cost-effectiveness of delivering care in the community to individuals with intellectual disability. This chapter focuses on resident characteristics, costs and outcomes of two types of community residential facilities for people with intellectual disability in Ireland: village campuses and dispersed housing. Residents in village campuses fared better in terms of lower levels of reported victimisation than did those in dispersed housing. Village campuses accommodated a higher proportion of people with more severe or profound intellectual disability. Assessments of residents indicated higher dependency across residents in village campuses, as compared to those in dispersed housing.

Chapter 4 looks at the Bengalis’ continued links with their now independent homeland and with its politics (which it outlines), as the London community consolidated and settled and men were joined by their wives and families. This is a smaller scale politics, with different groups taking different positions, but it involves strong loyalties. As well as activity in Britain and the influence of immigrant money, the chapter discusses direct political involvement by returned immigrants and the possibilities of two centred politics. It also discusses the relative disenchantment of the younger, British-educated generation, and continued bonds with Bangladesh that are less overtly political, such as through regional organisations and their charitable activities. The chapter includes a discussion of the different meanings of secularism, and a critical examination of the growing conflicts between secular and religious politics.

Chapter 9 looks at the attempt by some on the left (especially the Socialist Workers’ Party) to build on the movement against the Iraq war and create a new political party combining socialists and Muslims. It looks at the rise and fall of Respect in its power base of Tower Hamlets, including George Galloway’s defeat of Labour’s pro-war Oona King in the 2005 general election and more limited electoral successes in the local council. It argues that Respect was a coalition based on opportunism, and another example of the failure of popular front politics. It was conceived by a weakening left, prepared to compromise its socialist programme to make links with a strengthening Islamic movement. It made the left even weaker and strengthened religious organisations. The chapter examines at length whether religious and socialist organisations can work together beyond single issue campaigns. It concludes that while non-political Muslims might practise forms of socialism, Marxists and Islamists hold incompatible world views and any attempt at a more general coalition between the two would be bound to result in unacceptable compromise.

Chapter 8 looks to the future and discusses possible trajectories for the development of older people’s interest organisations and the potential area of focus they may adopt in the coming decades. It critically explores how older people’s interest organisation define their constituency, generational politics and ageing as a cross-generational issue, ageing in a globalised world and how the politics of old age and the notion of collective identities in later life may evolve in the coming decades.

While previous chapters looked at how popular-front politics postponed the development of socialist ideas indefinitely, this looks at how their cultural background impacted on the Bengali socialists. It looks at the continued importance of religion and of patriarchal relationships, at the Bengalis’ rural roots and position as landowners, and at their blurred definitions of class and rejection of working-class identity. It looks at how structural and working-class racism encouraged a wariness of white trade unionists; and how the growth of identity politics and separate organisation helped persuade the Bengalis to dismiss left-wing organisations as the ‘white left’, and not identify common cause. It looks at the failure of the British Communist Party to make effective links with Black and Asian immigrants in the early years, and at the limits of attempts to politicise and unionise the lascars. It examines the structural difficulties of unionising clothing workshops and restaurant workers, and at various attempts to overcome these. The chapter contrasts the Bengali experience with earlier Jewish immigrant trade-unionism, which was seen as important for working-class solidarity and for cutting across racism.

Chapter 4 provides a historical overview of the ideological evolution of social policy in Ireland and the contemporary politics of old age in Ireland. It provides an introduction into the development of social policy in Ireland, with a particular focus on social policy towards older people. It offers an overview of the emergence and evolution of older people’s interest organisations in Ireland and outlines the institutional and political structures facilitating their participation.

This chapter explores the responses to the Ryan Report and, more generally, to analyse differing explanations for the system of industrial and reformatory schools that operated for over 100 years. It describes the Irish experience in comparative perspective. Ireland was not unique in confronting abusive regimes in institutions where children were maintained by state, religious and other philanthropic bodies for their protection, reclamation and rescue. The chapter presents some methodological difficulties associated with understanding and interpreting past practices in such institutions, and with the use of commissions or committees of inquiry, which aim to serve both investigative and therapeutic functions. All of the institutions cited in The Magdalene Sisters of the alliance between Catholic Church and Irish state operated across Europe and North America; thus they were not unique to Ireland, as is sometimes intimated.