When I was researching the story of Ethel Voynich, I came across the following link

I couldn’t of course access it as I’m not a UCC student or staff member, but fortunately the State Library of Victoria also provides access to the Irish Times archive.

When I found the article in the archive, it turned out to be about a new production of Овод an opera based on the Russian translation on Ethel Voynich’s novel, and didn’t add much to what I already knew.

But while I was searching the archive, I came (I was a bit sloppy, I thought ‘soviet opera ireland’ would be a good enough search string) across the following

And that led me down an interesting internet rabbit hole:

In 1919 British rule in much of Ireland had collapsed, and in many places, in the absence of any competent authority, the local trades unions formed councils to run various towns, the most famous being the Limerick Soviet.

These councils were usually called called ‘soviets’ in emulation of the revolutionary events in Russia.

Soviet – совет – in Russian originally simply meant ‘council’ although post revolution it acquired the specific meaning of ‘workers council’.

Bruree Workers Soviet – public domain image

But the Limerick Soviet was by no means the first.

In January 1919 the staff of the Monaghan Lunatic Asylum, in protest at poor working conditions, formed a workers council and occupied the asylum, hoisting the red flag on the roof, and barricading it with the assistance of some of the less disturbed inmates.

A squad of armed police were sent and there was a standoff. Questions were asked in the British House of Commons.

At first the authorities offered better conditions for the male staff numbers and not the women, but the staff stuck together and demanded better conditions for all.

After twelve days the authorities caved in and the workers, both male and female, were granted better working conditions.

The red flag was hauled down, the barricades removed and the workers victory was celebrated with a dance party…