For the American police officer, see Samuel Nolan.
Sam Nolan (1930 – 14 April 2024) was an Irish trade unionist and politician activist who was the secretary of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions.
Biography
Born in Dublin, Nolan became active in the Irish Workers' League soon after World War II,[1] and was a member of its executive committee by 1952.[2] In 1957, he became a member of the executive of the new Unemployed Protest Committee,[3] and was initially considered the most prominent figure in the movement.[4] At the 1957 Irish general election, he was asked to stand for the committee in Dublin South-Central, but refused, believing that anti-communist feeling following the Soviet invasion of Hungary made him an unsuitable candidate. Instead, the movement stood Jack Murphy, who was elected.[3]
In January 1976, Nolan resigned from the CPI alongside Joe Deasy, Paddy Carmody, George Jeffares, Mick O'Reilly and others, in protest at the party's change of line on the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia,[7] which they opposed. They subsequently formed the EurocommunistIrish Marxist Society, although this was short-lived, and Nolan soon joined the Labour Party,[8] where he was a founder of Labour Left. He was elected to the Labour Party's Administrative Council, and became a full-time organiser for the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians.[9]