Cathal Goulding
was born in East Arran Street, Dublin on 2nd January 1923. His whole family background was one of involvement in the Irish
revolutionary struggle stretching back to the middle of the 19th century.
Cathal joined Na Fianna
Éireann in 1931 when he was just 8 years of age. He joined the Irish Republican
Army in 1939 when he was sixteen years of age.
He was first arrested
in 1940 and was interned without trial in the Curragh Internment Camp until 1945. After
his release he, along with a small number of comrades, began rebuilding the IRA. Following
the Felstead arms raid in England he was jailed from 1953 to 1959. In 1962 Cathal was elected Chief
of Staff of the IRA and immediately began a process of bringing socialist politics into the IRA.
He was a life-long member
of Sinn Féin and was instrumental in bringing about fundamental change in that organisation, culminating in the name change
to Sinn Féin the Workers’ Party and the building of the Workers’ Party into a force in Irish politics.
He was a member
of the Party’s Political and Central Executive Committees (Ard Comhairle) until he died.
His life’s struggle to achieve a United, Socialist Irish Republic is an everlasting example to all true revolutionaries.
