I was shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden death of my friend and socialist comrade John Molyneaux.

My first meeting with John was at an anti-war meeting in 2016 where I got the first of what would become a very familiar sighting – John with his shoulder bag flogging the Irish Marxist Review magazine. My last encounter with him was at the United against Racism rally last Thursday where – fittingly enough – he thrust a copy of the IMR into my hands and said he’ll get the fiver off me next time.

Since that first meeting, John has been a key figure in my political development, and it is clear from all the tributes being paid that I am just one of many new young activists for whom he had endless time and energy. 
He saw it as his role to pass on the tradition and to nurture us, indeed, he was more than happy to step back and let newer activists take on leading roles and responsibilities, all whilst making himself endlessly available to answer questions and give support. 

I remember texting John frantically under the table during a talk I was giving(!) at Marxism festival when someone in the crowd asked a question that I didn’t know the answer to. John deftly intercepted the question from the floor and somehow made it look like he was just clarifying something I had already said! 😂

A few years ago, John and I were discussing the conditions and social forces that have led people at different times in history to rise up in revolt against their oppressors, when he casually commented that he didn’t believe that he would see a socialist revolution in his own lifetime. I remember being struck by this.…as an impatient and considerably more selfish young buckeen myself, I couldn’t believe that John’s decades of tireless activism were in service of building a world that he mightn’t get to live in himself.

But John – though a materialist through and through – understood himself as a part of the big whole, which to me is actually kinda spiritual..(gasp!…sorry John!). It didn’t matter if he didn’t get there himself- a better world could and must be won.

Of course, along the way, he fought tooth and nail for social change and saw lots of it – in the last decade alone – marriage equality, the water charges, Repealing the 8th amendment, and the building of People Before Profit.

And because John helped make so many of us who we are, something of him stays with us – and in us – as we fight on. Our future struggle and our victories will bear his indelible mark. 

Rest in power John, ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.