Hotel Lux: An Irishwoman in Moscow

From the Russian Revolution until the Second World War, radicals from all over the world spent time in Moscow’s famous Hotel Lux, the so-called ‘living quarters of the world revolution.’

In this talk, historian Dr. Maurice Casey will share the story of the witty translator who lived in room number five of the Lux during four tumultuous years in the nineteen twenties: May O’Callaghan, a forgotten radical journalist who was raised in the small Wexford village of Ballinesker.

Why did an Irishwoman move to 1920s Russia? What were her experiences of revolution and romance in the revolutionary capital? How did a woman who once partied with Soviet celebrities end up dying in obscurity in a North London nursing home?

To answer these questions and more, Maurice will draw from histories told for the first time in his new book Hotel Lux. The book traces the life of May O’Callaghan and her friends – a set of revolutionaries who came to the Hotel Lux from Ireland, Germany, America, Ukraine, Britain and beyond.

Dr. Maurice J. Casey, originally from Cahir, is a historian based at Queen’s University Belfast. He received his PhD in History from the University of Oxford in 2020. He also studied at Trinity College Dublin, Cambridge University and Stanford University. His first book Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals was published this August by Footnote Press.

Hotel Lux will be available to purchase at the event.

Ticket: Free but pre-booking advised