Irish Republicanism - Political Parties

Political Parties

The following are active republican parties in Ireland.

• Sinn Féin is the largest republican party in Ireland. Throughout the Northern Ireland troubles it was closely allied with the Provisional Irish Republican Army, publicly arguing for the validity of its armed campaign. Its policy platform combines civic nationalism with socialist views on economic and social issues. It is led by Gerry Adams, and organises in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Party was also known as "Provisional" Sinn Féin by the media and commentators, having split from what later became known as the "Official" Sinn Féin (later the Workers' Party) in 1970, because the latter had voted to enter a 'partitionist parliament'. In 1986 it reversed its original policy of not taking seats in Dáil Éireann, prompting another split, when Republican Sinn Féin was formed. By the early 21st century it had replaced the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) as Northern Ireland's largest nationalist party. As of 2012, it holds five seats in the British parliament, fourteen seats in the Dáil, three in the Seanad and 28 in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Sinn Féin members contest elections to the British parliament on an abstentionist basis, that is, they refuse to take their seats in that parliament as they refuse to accept the right of that body to rule in any part of Ireland.

• Republican Sinn Féin was formed in 1986 by former Sinn Féin leader Ruairí Ó Brádaigh who led traditional republicans in a break with Sinn Féin over the ending of the policy of abstention in relation to elections to Dáil Éireann. The party continues to operate on an abstentionist basis: it would not take seats in the assemblies of either the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland because it views neither as legitimate. It is linked to the Continuity IRA, whose goals are the overthrow of British rule in Northern Ireland and the unification of the island to form an independent country. In November 2009, Des Dalton replaced Ó Brádaigh as leader of Republican Sinn Féin.

• Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) was founded in 1974 by former Official IRA militant Seamus Costello, who possibly had an eye towards James Connolly's Irish Socialist Republican Party of the late 19th/early 20th century when coining the party's name. Costello led other former Official IRA members dissatisfied with Cathal Goulding's policies and tactics. The party quickly organised a paramilitary wing called the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) which has decommissioned recently. It claims to follow the principles of republican socialism as set out by the 1916 rebellion leader Connolly and radical 20th-century trade unionist James Larkin.

• Éirígí was formed by a small group of former Sinn Féin activists in Dublin in April 2006 as a political campaigns group, and became a full-fledged political party at the party's first Ardfheis (conference) in May 2007. An Independent Monitoring Commission report said the group was "a small political grouping based on revolutionary socialist principles". While it continues to be a political association, albeit with aggressive protest activities, it was not seen as paramilitary in nature.