New edition of Eamonn McCann's '˜War and an Irish Town' launched tomorrow

McCann’s account of what it was like to grow up a Catholic in a Northern Irish ghetto was first published in 1974.

The author was, of course, at the centre of the civil rights movement in Derry in the late 1960s and his book paints a vivid picture of an era when peaceful protest was driven off the streets and quickly developed into armed insurrection.

The author will be joined at Saturday’s launch by John Gray, a founder of People’s Democracy and author of ‘City in Revolt: James Larkin and the Belfast Dock Strike of 1907’.

This new edition of the book, published by Haymarket Books, features a new introduction by the author in which he argues the ideas of “internationalism and revolt from below” that animated young people fifty years ago are even more relevant and necessary today.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.