C. Desmond Greaves

Charles Desmond Greaves (27 September 1913 – 23 August 1988) was a British-Irish Marxist activist and historian. He wrote a number of books on Irish history as a Marxist historian.

Greaves was born at 7A Rockville Street, Birkenhead. His father, Charles Edward Greaves, a post office official, and his mother, Amy Elisabeth Taylor, were Methodists, of mixed English, Irish and Welsh background. He studied at Liverpool University where he graduated in chemistry and botany, he worked as a research chemist at Powell Duffryn. In 1934 he joined Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1941 he joined the Connolly Club which became the Connolly Association, and became editor of its magazine, The Irish Democrat.

His library of Irish books is held at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, deposited by his executor Anthony Coughlan. The Desmond Greaves summer school is held each year as a forum for discussing topics which exercised him, such as Irish left wing, and republican politics.

Books and Publications

• The Life and Times of James Connolly (1961)
• The Easter Rising as History (London 1966)
• The Irish Crisis
• Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution (1971)

External links

• C. Desmond Greaves profile, irishdemocrat.co.uk; accessed 10 March 2015.
• The Desmond Greaves School official website; accessed 10 March 2015.