Irish Republicanism, having blossomed as a distinctly Liberal movement in the 1790s, would have a mixed relationship with eastern Communist movements around 130 years later in the Irish Revolutionary Period.

The Easter Rising of 1916 would prove to be the first link between Irish Republicanism and the socialistic forces who, in just a few years' time, would coalesce into the revolution which formed the Soviet Union. I am going to be focusing primarily on Russian support (mostly soft support, but to an extent fiscal aid) in this account. First, we must analyse the diverse politics of the Rising's leaders, their links to socialism, their influence on subsequent revolution and, finally, how that relates to Soviet support.

Any socialist thought within the Rising is best embodied in the outsider to the cliques which comprised the Military Council of the Rising -- James Connolly, commander of the Marxist 'Irish Citizen Army' which was briefly folded alongside the Irish Volunteers into an 'Army of the Irish Republic' of which Connolly was a Commandant-General. Connolly himself was an extremely influential socialist who made his opposition to the "Imperialist War" known.

Patrick Pearse, although of a more romantic strain of nationalism than Connolly, was also regarded as a thinker with clear socialist aims, if not through as doctrinaire means as Connolly. Pearse was regarded by contemporary revolutionaries such as Ernie O'Malley as, like Connolly, promoting a "revolutionary economic programme". Indeed, Pearse advocated for the poor during the Dublin lock-out, and in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, socialist ideas are vaguely alluded to: "We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland... the suffrage of all her men and women...".

Eastern communists such as Lenin were inspired by the Rising, Lenin himself considering James Connolly to be greater than other contemporary European socialists. The Russian Soviet Republic was later formed under Lenin's regime, and this was closely followed by the declaration of the Irish Republic, whose 'Democratic Programme' espoused the ownership of Ireland's resources by the Irish people (through the state) and other socialist sentiments, although again vague and unable to be carried out due to the War of Independence and Civil War.

Soviet Russia and the Irish Republic did not have open relations in the Anglo-Irish war period, especially as Russia was entrenched in a civil war, but there were (to an extent) dealings between the two revolutionary nations insofar as a loan exchanged in 1920 and diplomatic relations between Soviet representatives and Irish rebels. With the Anglo-Irish war's conclusion and the following Irish Civil War creating a Free State headed by the anti-communist, conservative Cumann na nGaedheal, cooperation between an Irish state and a Soviet state ceased.

This, however, did not stop cooperation between eastern communists and Irish republicans. Rejecting the Catholic-influenced conservatism of Cumann na nGaedheal (later Fine Gael) and Fianna Fáil, the IRA formed a political group called Saor Éire, and essentially officialised its Marxism. IRA members negotiated with Stalin and received monetary support in exchange for subversive actions toward the British state. Despite this mutual support, the IRA members who were in the know about this deal were extremely cautious about it, Chief of Staff Moss Twomey remarking that "they are out to exploit us". The level of involvement the Soviets had in the IRA gradually decreased until it was reignited in the 1970s with minor instances of gunrunning for the Official IRA, though this itself ended when the Official IRA became defunct and the ensuing Provisional IRA, whilst retaining socialist values (as stated in their constitutions), were not explicitly Marxist.