It staged its first national congress in Dublin on 1–2 December 1973. The congress elected a seven-member central committee consisting of Fergus Brogan, Desmond Hughes, Deirdre Uí Bhrógáin, Éamonn Ó Fearghail, Seamus Ó Reachtagáin, Fergus Quinlan, and Séamas Ó Brógáin.
In the late 1970s, the party started discussions with several other groups with a similar policy on the National Question, including the British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO) and the Limerick Socialists headed by Jim Kemmy. Eventually the three groups merged forming the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) with one elected representative in the Dáil (Parliament). The DSP eventually merged with the Irish Labour Party which became a junior partner in a coalition government.
During its life, the SPI was very active in campaigning for divorce (Divorce Action Group), contraception (Contraception Action Campaign), abortion (Right to Choose) and, in particular, opposition to nationalism and the campaign of the Provisional IRA (Socialists Against Nationalism). It supported the Two States Theory which accepted the right of the Unionist population of Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom until such time as a majority of the population choose otherwise by democratic means.[1]
The party's head office was at 23 Parliament Street, Dublin 2. In 1976, it renamed itself the "Socialist Party".
Several SPI members ran as independents in Irish elections, the most successful being Eamonn O'Brien[2] from Ballymun, who won six percent of the vote in the Dublin County North constituency at the 1977 general election.[3] He also joined the Workers' Party and later the Labour Party and represented Ballymun as a city councilor.
Sinn Féin is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Seamus Costello was an Irish politician. He was a leader of Official Sinn Féin and the Official Irish Republican Army and latterly of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
The Workers' Party is an Irish republican, Marxist–Leninist communist party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Irish republicanism is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate.
Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in the election itself. Abstentionism has been used by Irish republican political movements in the United Kingdom and Ireland since the early 19th century. It was also used by Hungarian and Czech nationalists in the Austrian Imperial Council in the 1860s.
The Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) was a small left-wing political party in the Republic of Ireland. The party was formed by a merger of Jim Kemmy's Limerick Socialist Organisation and the Socialist Party of Ireland. Jim Kemmy was an Irish politician and member of Dáil Éireann. He left the Labour Party in 1972. A number of members of the British and Irish Communist Organisation also joined the party.
People's Democracy was a political organisation that arose from the Northern Ireland civil rights movement. It held that civil rights could be achieved only by the establishment of a socialist republic for all of Ireland. It demanded more radical reforms of the government of Northern Ireland than the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.
William O'Brien was a politician and trade unionist in Ireland. While rarely dominating the political spotlight, O'Brien was incredibly powerful and influential behind the scenes, maintaining a firm grip over Ireland's trade unions for many decades. Besides his leadership in the trade unions, O'Brien was a founder, alongside James Larkin and James Connolly, of the Labour Party of Ireland. In later years a rift formed between Larkin and O'Brien that would last the rest of their lives and often divide the labour movement in Ireland.
Sinn Féin is the name of an Irish political party founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith. It became a focus for various forms of Irish nationalism, especially Irish republicanism. After the Easter Rising in 1916, it grew in membership, with a reorganisation at its Ard Fheis in 1917. Its split in 1922 in response to the Anglo-Irish Treaty which led to the Irish Civil War and saw the origins of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two parties which have since dominated Irish politics. Another split in the remaining Sinn Féin organisation in the early years of the Troubles in 1970 led to the Sinn Féin of today, which is a republican, left-wing nationalist and secular party.
The British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO) was a small group based in London, Belfast, Cork, and Dublin. Its leader was Brendan Clifford. The group produced a number of pamphlets and regular publications, including The Irish Communist and Workers Weekly in Belfast. Τhe group currently expresses itself through Athol Books with its premier publication being the Irish Political Review. The group also continues to publish Church & State, Irish Foreign Affairs, Labour Affairs and Problems.
In Ireland, the two nations theory holds that Ulster Protestants form a distinct Irish nation. Advocated mainly by Unionists and loyalists, who used it as a basis for opposing Home Rule and, later, to justify the partition of Ireland, it has been strongly criticised by Irish nationalists such as John Redmond, Éamon de Valera, Seán Lemass and Douglas Gageby.
The Labour Party has been part of the political scene in Ireland throughout the state's existence. Although never attracting majority support, it has repeatedly participated in coalition governments. The party was established in 1912 by James Connolly, James Larkin, and William O'Brien and others as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress. It intended to participate in a Dublin Parliament that would follow passage of the Home Rule Act 1914, which was suspended on the outbreak of World War I. Connolly was executed following the Easter Rising in 1916, and was succeeded as leader by Thomas Johnson. The party stood aside from the elections of 1918 and 1921, but despite divisions over acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty it took approximately 20% of the vote in the 1922 elections, initially forming the main opposition party in the Dáil Éireann (parliament) of the Irish Free State. Farm labourers already influenced by D.D. Sheehan's Irish Land and Labour Association (ILLA) factions were absorbed into urban-based unions, which contributed significantly to the expansion of the Irish trade union movement after the First World War. For much of the 20th century, the Irish Labour Party derived the majority of its Dáil strength from TDs who were relatively un-ideological and independent-minded, and were supported by agricultural labourers. It was originally organised, and contested elections as, the Irish Labour Party and Trades Union Congress, until a formal separation between the ITUC and the political party occurred in March 1930.
The League for a Workers' Republic (LWR) was a Trotskyist organisation in Ireland.
Seán Ó Cionnaith was an Irish socialist republican politician, and a prominent member of the Workers' Party.
Patrick Thomas Daly, known as P. T. Daly was an Irish trade unionist and politician.
Eoin Ó Murchú is a writer and retired journalist in both Irish and English, a political activist and a former member of Official Sinn Féin/the Workers' Party, and the Communist Party of Ireland. He is currently the interim national chairperson of the Irish Communist Party.
Clann na hÉireann was a support organisation among Irish emigrants in Great Britain for Sinn Féin during the 1960s and its successor organisation the Workers' Party in the 1970s and the 1980s.
The Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI) was a small political party in Ireland associated with James Connolly.
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