Ciaran was a dear brother, son, father, husband, uncle and comrade well known to those active in the movements for social justice and solidarity in Oxford.
He was a phenomenal intellectual, orator, poet, and spoken word artist; chair of the East Oxford Community Association and a champion of the ‘Commons’. A Ruskin College alumni, he was a committed proponent of 'People’s History'- 'History from Below' in the Radical 'History Workshop' tradition of Raphael Samuels, and his radical history walking tours of Oxford are legendary.
Over the course of his life, Ciaran amassed an extensive library covering all aspects of the history of class struggle and anti-imperialism, as well as radical philosophy, political theory and much else besides.
Before he died, he had been working on a plan with other local comrades to make their libraries available to the local activist community. We are now teaming up with Fusion Arts to make this a reality - starting with Ciaran’s books. It is envisaged that the Ciaran Walsh Liberation Library will be the first stage of the Liberation Library project, to be located at Fusion Arts in the city centre, and open at least once a week (depending on voluntary staff capacity!) for browsing and borrowing, as well as a space for reading and discussion groups and solidarity activities.
We hope to launch the Ciaran Walsh Liberation Library at the first annual Ciaran Walsh Resistance Celebration event to be held at The Nest on February 28th 2026, the week of his 58th birthday. But to make this a reality we need to raise £1500 to commission a local woodworker to make two large sets of shelves, with lockable Perspex doors, mounted on wheels for moving around the space, to house his extensive collection!
Please contribute what you can to make Ciaran’s vision, of a free library to inform and inspire new generations of local organisers, become a reality!
