It is easy to overlook the world of blogging as the preserve of nerdish amateurs; however, you are as likely to find decent left-wing literature in the blogsphere as you are looking through party publications. That said, the following is a guide of the blogs I have stumbled across in the hope that you will find something worthwhile.

Notes From The Front - http://notesonthefront.typepad.com/

Michael Taft is a known Keynesian economist, a member of the Labour party and researcher with the UNITE union. While Taft might not share the SWP’s perspective position with regards the solution to the current crisis, his analysis as to what has gone wrong (and how the government are making it worse) is brilliant. His blog provides a valuable source of data for anyone interested in formulating a coherent case against Fianna Fail’s ''deflationary'' economic policies. Taft’s blog may prove a tad in depth for those unfamiliar with economic terminology, however wikipedia should prove helpful.

Cedar Lounge revolution - http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/

Winner of the 2009 best political blog award. This blog has been around for a while and is fairly well known within the left-wing blogging . Made up of numerous writers, it tends to deal with current political issues as well as left wing/labour history. The posts on political history tend to be good.

Circumlimina - http://circumlimina.wordpress.com/

Personal favourite. What distinguishes this from the other blogs has to be the style; every post has a poetic quality. The issues covered range from football to technology, although it is predominantly political in context. The sole blogger (dublindillatente) has a keen eye for local political issues and tends to keep up to speed with the Labour Parties shenanigans. Highly recommended.

Dublin Opinion - http://dublinopinion.com/

The home of Conor McCabe, frequent contributor to Irish Left Review. Dublin Opinion contains some hard hitting economic material while retaining light-hearted appeal. Far as blogs go it covers a lot of ground, from posts such as ''Irish employment by industry 1951-1971'' to the slightly less in depth ''Put Tony Blair’s book in the crime section of your bookshop''.

The Irish Liberty Forum - http://irishliberty.wordpress.com/

This isn't exactly a left wing blog; in fact it is a bastion of right wing libertarianism. The people who post here are the sorts who think Obama is a communist, the gold standard will save us and that the tea party movement represents ''the little guy''. Full of Randites & Friedmonites, this blog will keep you laughing until the early hours of the morning. Thought lack of regulation precipitated the sub-prime crash? Think again, apparently it was too much regulation (smothering market forces and whatnot).

Irish Labour and Working Class History - http://irishlabour.com/

Excellent blog, it tends to cover Ireland left wing history in depth from political parties to unions, each post is well researched and offers something new. The pictures it uses are brilliant and gives it certain ambiance. It covers events from the Dublin Lockout & Limerick Soviet, to lesser known pieces of history like the involvement of Irish volunteers in the Spanish civil war.