Ciaran was a phenomenal local historian, orator, poet, spoken-word artist, chair of the East Oxford Community Association, and Ruskin College alumnus, who died last May at the age of 57. He was a committed proponent of ‘history from below’ and was well known for his radical history walking tours of Oxford, featuring fiery expositions of 800 years of social struggle in the town.
Over the course of his life, Ciaran amassed an extensive library covering history, philosophy, political theory and much else besides. Now his friends and family are launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a library to house his collection and make it accessible to the public. The project hopes to raise £1,500 to fund two large movable shelving units, to be housed at Fusion Arts in the city centre, where they will be available for browsing and borrowing, as well as a space for reading, discussion groups and social justice activities.
The first annual Ciaran Walsh Resistance Celebration will be held at The Nest on Little Clarendon Street next Saturday, 28th February, in the week of what would have been his 58th birthday, from 5.30-11.00pm.
Honouring Ciaran’s legacy
Ciaran’s specialty as a local historian was on how ordinary people have come together to resist injustice, so the focus of the first event will be the 90th anniversary of the 1936 Battle of Carfax, when local bus drivers led the fightback against Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF). Mosley held a meeting in the Carfax Assembly Rooms, where his Blackshirt thugs attacked anti-fascists who were heckling him, but ended up getting at least as good as they got, forcing Mosley to flee the building.
The event marked the end of BUF influence in the town, leaving the movement reduced to a rump around its base in Oxford University. Many local people today only know this history thanks to Ciaran’s dramatic retelling of the story on his tour and elsewhere.
The event will feature speakers Louise Purbrick, editor and contributor to Dave Hann’s Physical Resistance: 100 Years of Anti-Fascism and Roger McKenzie, international editor of the Morning Star newspaper. It will also include music from local legends the Mighty Redox and DJ Zahra Haji Fath Ali Tehrani from the Young Women’s Music Project. The event is open to all, and entry is free/donation. Food will be provided, and the bar will be open from 8.30pm. Please contact Dan with any questions at danglazebrook2000@yahoo.co.uk.
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