Politics in the north of Ireland is in crisis once again. The collapse of the political institutions, the ongoing Brexit negotiations, and the participation of the Democratic Unionist Party in the British government have placed additional pressure on an already-creaking peace process and opened the way for debates about a unity referendum.

One factor undermining any such campaign would be the continuing sectarianism of Ireland’s six northeast counties, with Green and Orange blocs remaining the dominant feature of its politics.

But this was not always the case — in the early part of the last century Catholic and Protestant workers united in a number of prominent struggles, often led by socialists, which threatened to place class politics on the agenda. Among the more important of these were the 1932 Outdoor Relief Riots, which were part of a campaign that brought tens of thousands together in the struggle against poverty and unemployment.