Marx-Engels Correspondence 1872
Source: Marx and Engels on Ireland, Progress Publishers, 1971;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.
Sorge is very naive to demand a book on Ireland written from our standpoint. For the last two years I have been intending to write one, but the war, the Commune and the International have brought everything to a standstill. Meanwhile I recommend the following books to Sorge:
1. The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland by Prendergast. London, Longmans, Sec. Ed. 1870-71.
2. Memoir on Ireland by O'Connell. London — Duffy, 1869.
For the main historical events
3. The Irish People and the Irish Land by Isaac Butt. London-Ridgway.
This is all for the present.
However simple the Irish problem may be, it is nevertheless the result of a long historical struggle and hence has to be studied. A manual explaining it all in about two hours does not exist.