Des Geraghty is a born-and-bred Liberties man who grew up in a family with a strong tradition of trade unionism. In We Dare to Dream he explores some of the history of the first century of Irish independence, from the idealism of Larkin and Connolly to the cruel reality of our current homelessness crisis, through the story of his own family’s involvement in a multitude of social, political, and cultural movements.

From the republican and trade unionist activities of his parents, Lily O’Neill and Tom Geraghty, in the fraught years of the 1913 Lock-Out and the Civil War, through the crushing conservatism of both Church and State in the newly independent Ireland, to the intimate involvement Des and his four brothers had in trade unionism and Irish traditional music and poetry in the latter half of the twentieth century, We Dare to Dream takes us on an intimate journey along the rocky road of change during the first century of Ireland’s ‘two-state solution’, imposed after the War of Independence.

Many of the characters in this story of Ireland never achieved any great fame or fortune. Nor did they seek it, but by their efforts they helped to determine the essential nature of the country we now inhabit. We Dare to Dream challenges us to learn from our successes and failures, to retain the best of the past and embrace the possibilities of the future, while always refusing to be prisoners of our own chequered history.

We Dare to Dream is directed at everyone who has chosen to live on this island and who wishes to join us on our long, rocky road toward equality and diversity, and a better life for all.