Workers' Party of Ireland
Encyclopedia
The Workers' Party is a left-wing
republican
political party
in Ireland
. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982.
", the republican movement, with a new military and political leadership, undertook a complete reappraisal of its raison d'être.
Under the guidance of figures such as Cathal Goulding
and Sean Garland
, the leadership of both Sinn Féin and the IRA sought to shift their emphasis away from the traditional republican goal of a 32 County Irish Republic redeemed (since Republicans regard the republic declared in 1916 as still in existence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty as invalid) by military action and concentrate more on socialism and civil rights related activities.
In doing so, they gradually abandoned the military focus that had previously characterised republicanism. The leadership were substantially influenced by a group led by Roy Johnston
who had been active in the Communist Party of Great Britain
's Connolly Association
.
In this group's analysis, the primary obstacle to Irish unity was the continuing division between the Protestant and Catholic working classes. This it attributed to the 'divide and rule' policies of Capitalism, whose interests a divided working class served. Military activity was seen as counterproductive since its effect was to further entrench the sectarian divisions. If the working classes could be united in class struggle to overthrow their common rulers, a 32 county socialist republic would be the inevitable outcome.
Although this Marxist
outlook became unpopular with many more traditionalist republicans, and the party/army leadership was criticized for failing to defend northern Catholic enclaves from loyalist
attacks (these debates were held against the background of the violent beginning of what were to become The Troubles
). A growing minority within the rank-and-file wanted to maintain traditional militarist policies aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland
.
An equally contentious issue was whether to or not to continue with the policy of abstentionism
, that is, the refusal of elected representatives to take their seats in parliament. A majority of the leadership was in favour of abandoning this policy.
A group consisting of Seán Mac Stiofáin
, Dáithí Ó Conaill
and Seamus Twomey
, together with others, established themselves as a "Provisional Army Council" in 1969 in anticipation of a contentious 1970 Sinn Féin Árd Fheis
(delegate conference).
At the Árd Fheis, the leadership of Sinn Féin failed to attain the prerequisite two-thirds majority necessary to change the party's position on abstentionism. The debate was charged with allegations of vote rigging and expulsions. When the Árd Fheis went on to pass a vote of confidence in the official Army Council (which had already approved an end to the abstentionist policy), Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
led the minority in a walk out, and went to a prearranged meeting in Parnell Square where they announced the establishment of a 'caretaker' executive of Sinn Féin. The respective camps became known as 'Provisional Army Council' and Sinn Féin
/ Provisional IRA, while those remaining became known as Official Sinn Féin / Official IRA.
There was no dissension in 1977 when Official Sinn Féin ratified the parties new name: Sinn Féin The Workers' Party. According to Richard Sinnott, this 'symbolism' was completed in April 1982 when the party became simply the Workers’ Party. Official Sinn Féin, under the leadership of Tomás Mac Giolla, remained aligned to Goulding's Official IRA
.
The minority, those supportive of Seán Mac Stiofáin
's "Provisional Army Council", endeavoured to achieve a united Ireland
by force. As the Troubles
escalated, this "Provisional Army Council" would come to command the loyalty of the IRA national organisation save for a few isolated instances (that of the IRA Company of the Lower Falls road, Belfast under the command of Billy McMillen
and other small units in Derry, Newry, Dublin and Wicklow), and eventually become accepted by the media as simply 'the IRA'.
A key factor in the split was the desire of what became the Provisionals to make military action the key object of the organisation, rather than a simple rejection of leftism.
, it gradually stepped down its military campaign against the United Kingdom
's armed presence in Northern Ireland, declaring a permanent ceasefire in May 1972. Following this, the movement's political development increased rapidly throughout the 1970s.
On the national question, the Officials saw the struggle against religious sectarianism and bigotry as their primary task. The party's strategy was based on the "stages theory": firstly, working class unity within Northern Ireland had to be achieved, followed by the establishment of a united Ireland
, and finally a socialist society would be created in Ireland.
In 1977, the party published and accepted as policy a document called the Irish Industrial Revolution. Written by Eoghan Harris
and Eamon Smullen, it outlined the party's economic stance and declared that the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland was "distracting working class attention from the class struggle to a mythical national question." The policy document used Marxist jargon, and identified American imperialism
as the now dominant political and economic force in the southern state and attacked the failure of the national bourgeoisie
to develop Ireland as a modern economic power.
Official Sinn Féin evolved towards Marxism-Leninism
and became fiercely critical of the physical force republicanism still espoused by Provisional Sinn Féin. Its new approach to the Northern conflict was typified by the slogan it was to adopt: "Peace, Democracy, Class Politics". It aimed to replace sectarian politics with a class struggle which would unite Catholic
and Protestant workers. The slogan's echo of Lenin
's "Peace, Bread, Land" was indicative of the party's new source of inspiration. Official Sinn Féin also built up fraternal relations with the USSR and other socialist, workers' and communist
parties from around the world.
Throughout the 1980s the party became staunch opponents of terrorism and were one of the few organisations on the left of Irish politics to oppose the republican hunger strike of 1981.
The WP (especially the faction around Harris) was strongly critical of traditional Irish Republicanism
, causing some of its critics such as Vincent Browne
and Paddy Prendeville to accuse it of having an attitude to Northern Ireland that was close to Ulster unionism.
(IRSP) with Seamus Costello
, who had been expelled from the Official IRA, as its chairperson. Also formed was its paramilitary wing, the Irish National Liberation Army
(INLA). There was a number of tit-for-tat killings in a subsequent feud until a truce was agreed in 1977.
, a party which would later merge with the Labour Party in 1999.
The reasons for the split were twofold. Firstly, a faction led by Proinsias De Rossa wanted to move the party towards an acceptance of free market economics. Following the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, they felt that the Workers' Party's Marxist stance was now an obstacle to winning support at the polls. Secondly, media accusations had once again surfaced regarding the continued existence of the Official IRA
which, it was alleged, remained armed and involved in fund-raising robberies, money laundering and other forms of criminality.
De Rossa and his supporters sought to distance themselves from alleged paramilitary activity at a special Árd Fheis held at Dún Laoghaire
in on 15 February 1992. A motion proposed by De Rossa and General Secretary Des Geraghty
sought to stand down the existing membership, elect an 11 member provisional executive council and make several other significant changes in party structures was defeated. Many of those who subsequently remained with the Workers' Party in the wake of the split regarded those who broke away as careerists and social democrats who had taken flight after the collapse of the Soviet Union
and denounced those who left as 'liquidators'.
The motion to "reconstitute" the party achieved the support of 61% of delegates. However, this was short of the two-thirds majority needed to change the WP constitution. The Workers' Party later claimed that there was vote rigging by the supporters of the De Rossa motion. As a result of the conference's failure to adopt the motion, De Rossa and his supporters split from the organisation and established a new party which was temporarily known as "New Agenda" before the permanent name of "Democratic Left" was adopted. In the South the rump of the party was left with seven councillors and one TD
.
In the North before the 1992 split, the party had 4 councillors - Tom French stayed with the party, Gerry Cullen (Dungannon) and Seamus Lynch (Belfast) joined New Agenda/Democratic Left, and David Kettyles ran in subsequent elections in Fermanagh as an Independent or Progressive Socialist.
While the majority of public representatives left with De Rossa, many rank-and-file members remained in the Workers' Party, with Marian Donnelly
replacing De Rossa as President from 1992 to 1994. In 1994, Tom French
became President and served for four years until Sean Garland
was elected President in 1998. Garland retired as President in May 2008 and was replaced by Mick Finnegan
.
A further minor split occurred when a number of members left and established Republican Left; many of these went on to join the Irish Socialist Network
. In 1998 another split occurred after a number of former OIRA members in Newry and Belfast who had been expelled formed a group called the Official Republican Movement, which recently announced it was decommissioning.
The party continues to hold a strongly anti-sectarian position and supported an independent anti-sectarian candidate, John Gilliland in the 2004 European elections in Northern Ireland.
Waterford City remained something of a holdout for the party during the 1990s and early 2000s. In the 1997 Irish general election
Martin O'Regan narrowly failed to secure a seat in the Waterford
constituency. However in February 2008, John Halligan of Waterford resigned from the party when it refused to drop its opposition to service charges. He subsequently became Mayor of Waterford after joining a pact with Fine Gael, the Labour Party, and a number of independents.
Mick Finnegan
is the current party President, having been elected at the party's Árd Fheis on 16/17 May 2008 to replace Seán Garland
who had announced his decision to retire from the position after ten years. The General Secretary is John Lowry
and the party's Director of International Affairs is Gerry Grainger. The WP in Northern Ireland is registered with the British Electoral Commission
, with Lowry named as its leader.
The Workers' Party called for a "No vote" in the June 2008 Lisbon Treaty referendum and was part of the successful "No campaign". It also campaigned for a "No vote" in the rerun of the referendum in October 2009 in which the treaty was passed.
won a seat in Cork East
. It increased this to three seats in 1982 and to four seats in 1987. The Workers' Party had its best performance at the polls in 1989 when it won seven seats in the Irish general election as well as winning one seat and 7% of the vote in the European election
. This was its highest ever share of the vote in the Republic with over 70,000 votes in the Dublin constituency
being sufficient to have the party president, Proinsias De Rossa
, elected to the European Parliament
, where he took a seat with the communist Left Unity group.
Following the split of 1992, Tomás Mac Giolla, a TD in the Dublin West constituency and President of the party for most of the previous 30 years, was the only member of the Dáil parliamentary party not to side with the new Democratic Left
. Although Mac Giolla was to lose his seat in the general election later that year, he would be elected Lord Mayor of Dublin
in 1993. The Workers' Party also maintained elected representation on Dublin, Cork and Waterford corporations in the aftermath of the split.
In Waterford
the party performed well in the 1992 and 1997 general elections. Outside of the south east, the WP retains active branches in various areas of the Republic, including Dublin, Cork
, County Meath and County Louth
. It failed to gain any seats in the 1997 Irish General Election. In the local elections in 1999 it lost all of its seats in Dublin and Cork and only managed to retain three seats in Waterford City. Further electoral setbacks and a minor split left the party after the 2004 Local Elections with only two councillors, both in Waterford
.
The party fielded twelve candidates in the June 2009 local elections. The party fielded Malachy Steenson in the Dublin Central by-election on the same date.
Ted Tynan
was elected to Cork City Council
in the Cork City North East ward. Davy Walsh retained his seat in Waterford City Council
.
In the 2011 general election the Workers Party ran six candidates, without success.
Former Workers Party councillor John Halligan was elected as an independent TD for Waterford.
. Four years later, in May 1977
, this had dropped to six council seats and 2.6% of the vote. One of their best results was when Tom French
polled 19% in the 1986 Upper Bann by-election, although no other candidates stood against the sitting MP and a year later, when other parties contested the constituency, he only polled 4.7% of the vote.
Three councillors left the party during the split in 1992. Davy Kettyles became an independent 'Progressive Socialist' while Gerry Cullen in Dungannon and the WP northern chairman Seamus Lynch
in Belfast, joined Democratic Left
. The party held onto its one council seat in the 1993 local elections
with Peter Smyth retaining the seat formerly held by Tom French in Craigavon
. This was lost in 1997
, leaving them without elected representation in Northern Ireland.
The party performed poorly in the March 2007 Assembly election. No seats were won and its best result came in West Belfast where it gained 1.26% of the vote. The party did not field any candidates during the 2010 UK elections.
In the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2011 the Workers' Party ran in four constituencies, securing 586 first-preference votes (1.7%) in West Belfast and 332 (1%) in North Belfast.
At the Ard Fheis in January 1977, the Officials renamed themselves Sinn Féin The Workers Party. Their first seats in Dáil Éireann
were won under this new name. In 1979, a motion at the Ard Fheis to remove the Sinn Féin prefix from the party name was narrowly defeated. The change finally came about three years later in 1982.
In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin was organised under the name Republican Clubs (a name that was used to escape a ban, introduced in 1964 under Northern Ireland's Emergency Powers Act
), and the Officials continued to use this name after 1970. The party later used the name "The Workers Party Republican Clubs". In 1982, both the northern and southern sections of the party became simply "The Workers' Party".
The Workers Party is sometimes referred to by other Republicans as the "Sticks" or "Stickies" because it uses adhesive stickers of the Easter Lily
emblem for its 1916 commemorations whereas others, most notably (Provisional) Sinn Féin use a pin for theirs.
(the traditional newspaper of the republican movement) monthly until May 1980. In 1973 the party launched a weekly paper The Irish People
, which was focused on issues in the 26 counties, there was also a The Northern People published in Belfast and focused on northern issues. The party published an occasional international bulletin and a woman's magazine called Women's View. From 1989 to 1992 it produced a theoretical magazine called Making Sense. Other papers were produced such as Workers' Weekly.
The party currently produces a magazine, Look Left. Originally conceived as a straightforward party paper, Look Left was relaunched as a more broad-left style publication in March 2010 but still bearing the emblem of the Workers' Party. It is distributed by party members and supporters and is also stocked by a number of retailers including Eason's and several radical/left-wing bookshops.
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
republican
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982.
Origins
The modern origins of the party can be found in the early 1960s. After the failure of the then IRA's 1956-62 "Border CampaignBorder Campaign (IRA)
The Border Campaign was a campaign of guerrilla warfare carried out by the Irish Republican Army against targets in Northern Ireland, with the aim of overthrowing British rule there and creating a united Ireland.Popularly referred to as the Border Campaign, it was also referred to as the...
", the republican movement, with a new military and political leadership, undertook a complete reappraisal of its raison d'être.
Under the guidance of figures such as Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA.One of seven children born into a republican family in East Arran Street in the north inner city of Dublin, Goulding was involved as teenager in Fianna Éireann, the IRA youth wing which he joined with his...
and Sean Garland
Seán Garland
Seán Garland is a former President of the Workers' Party in Ireland.-Early Life:Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954, he briefly joined the British Army as an IRA agent and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in...
, the leadership of both Sinn Féin and the IRA sought to shift their emphasis away from the traditional republican goal of a 32 County Irish Republic redeemed (since Republicans regard the republic declared in 1916 as still in existence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty as invalid) by military action and concentrate more on socialism and civil rights related activities.
In doing so, they gradually abandoned the military focus that had previously characterised republicanism. The leadership were substantially influenced by a group led by Roy Johnston
Roy Johnston
Roy Johnston is an Irish physicist. He was a Marxist who as a member of the IRA in the 1960s argued for a National Liberation Strategy to unite the Catholic and Protestant working classes...
who had been active in the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
's Connolly Association
Connolly Association
The Connolly Association is an organisation based among Irish emigrants in Britain which supports the aims of Irish republicanism. It takes its name from James Connolly, an socialist republican, born in Edinburgh, Scotland and executed by the British Army in 1916 for his part in the Easter Rising...
.
In this group's analysis, the primary obstacle to Irish unity was the continuing division between the Protestant and Catholic working classes. This it attributed to the 'divide and rule' policies of Capitalism, whose interests a divided working class served. Military activity was seen as counterproductive since its effect was to further entrench the sectarian divisions. If the working classes could be united in class struggle to overthrow their common rulers, a 32 county socialist republic would be the inevitable outcome.
Although this Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
outlook became unpopular with many more traditionalist republicans, and the party/army leadership was criticized for failing to defend northern Catholic enclaves from loyalist
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
attacks (these debates were held against the background of the violent beginning of what were to become The Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
). A growing minority within the rank-and-file wanted to maintain traditional militarist policies aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
An equally contentious issue was whether to or not to continue with the policy of abstentionism
Abstentionism
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...
, that is, the refusal of elected representatives to take their seats in parliament. A majority of the leadership was in favour of abandoning this policy.
A group consisting of Seán Mac Stiofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin was an Irish republican paramilitary activist born in London, who became associated with the republican movement in Ireland after serving in the Royal Air Force...
, Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill was an Irish republican, a member of the IRA Army Council, vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA.-Joins IRA:...
and Seamus Twomey
Seamus Twomey
Seamus Twomey was an Irish republican and twice chief of staff of the Provisional IRA.-Biography:Born in Belfast, Twomey lived at 6 Sevastopol Street in the Falls district...
, together with others, established themselves as a "Provisional Army Council" in 1969 in anticipation of a contentious 1970 Sinn Féin Árd Fheis
Ard Fheis
Ardfheis or Ard Fheis is the name used by many Irish political parties for their annual party conference. The term was first used by Conradh na Gaeilge, the Irish language cultural organisation, for its annual convention....
(delegate conference).
At the Árd Fheis, the leadership of Sinn Féin failed to attain the prerequisite two-thirds majority necessary to change the party's position on abstentionism. The debate was charged with allegations of vote rigging and expulsions. When the Árd Fheis went on to pass a vote of confidence in the official Army Council (which had already approved an end to the abstentionist policy), Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is an Irish republican. He is a former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army , former president of Sinn Féin and former president of Republican Sinn Féin.-Early life:...
led the minority in a walk out, and went to a prearranged meeting in Parnell Square where they announced the establishment of a 'caretaker' executive of Sinn Féin. The respective camps became known as 'Provisional Army Council' and Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
/ Provisional IRA, while those remaining became known as Official Sinn Féin / Official IRA.
There was no dissension in 1977 when Official Sinn Féin ratified the parties new name: Sinn Féin The Workers' Party. According to Richard Sinnott, this 'symbolism' was completed in April 1982 when the party became simply the Workers’ Party. Official Sinn Féin, under the leadership of Tomás Mac Giolla, remained aligned to Goulding's Official IRA
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles"...
.
The minority, those supportive of Seán Mac Stiofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin was an Irish republican paramilitary activist born in London, who became associated with the republican movement in Ireland after serving in the Royal Air Force...
's "Provisional Army Council", endeavoured to achieve a united Ireland
United Ireland
A united Ireland is the term used to refer to the idea of a sovereign state which covers all of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. The island of Ireland includes the territory of two independent sovereign states: the Republic of Ireland, which covers 26 counties of the island, and the...
by force. As the Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
escalated, this "Provisional Army Council" would come to command the loyalty of the IRA national organisation save for a few isolated instances (that of the IRA Company of the Lower Falls road, Belfast under the command of Billy McMillen
Billy McMillen
Billy McMillen was an Irish republican activist and an officer of the Official Irish Republican Army...
and other small units in Derry, Newry, Dublin and Wicklow), and eventually become accepted by the media as simply 'the IRA'.
A key factor in the split was the desire of what became the Provisionals to make military action the key object of the organisation, rather than a simple rejection of leftism.
Political development
Although the Official IRA was drawn into the spiraling violence of the early period of conflict in Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, it gradually stepped down its military campaign against the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's armed presence in Northern Ireland, declaring a permanent ceasefire in May 1972. Following this, the movement's political development increased rapidly throughout the 1970s.
On the national question, the Officials saw the struggle against religious sectarianism and bigotry as their primary task. The party's strategy was based on the "stages theory": firstly, working class unity within Northern Ireland had to be achieved, followed by the establishment of a united Ireland
United Ireland
A united Ireland is the term used to refer to the idea of a sovereign state which covers all of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. The island of Ireland includes the territory of two independent sovereign states: the Republic of Ireland, which covers 26 counties of the island, and the...
, and finally a socialist society would be created in Ireland.
In 1977, the party published and accepted as policy a document called the Irish Industrial Revolution. Written by Eoghan Harris
Eoghan Harris
Eoghan Harris is an Irish journalist, fiction writer, director, columnist and politician. He currently writes for the Sunday Independent. He was a member of Seanad Éireann from 2007–11, having been nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern....
and Eamon Smullen, it outlined the party's economic stance and declared that the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland was "distracting working class attention from the class struggle to a mythical national question." The policy document used Marxist jargon, and identified American imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
as the now dominant political and economic force in the southern state and attacked the failure of the national bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
to develop Ireland as a modern economic power.
Official Sinn Féin evolved towards Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
and became fiercely critical of the physical force republicanism still espoused by Provisional Sinn Féin. Its new approach to the Northern conflict was typified by the slogan it was to adopt: "Peace, Democracy, Class Politics". It aimed to replace sectarian politics with a class struggle which would unite Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and Protestant workers. The slogan's echo of Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's "Peace, Bread, Land" was indicative of the party's new source of inspiration. Official Sinn Féin also built up fraternal relations with the USSR and other socialist, workers' and communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
parties from around the world.
Throughout the 1980s the party became staunch opponents of terrorism and were one of the few organisations on the left of Irish politics to oppose the republican hunger strike of 1981.
The WP (especially the faction around Harris) was strongly critical of traditional Irish Republicanism
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, causing some of its critics such as Vincent Browne
Vincent Browne
Vincent Browne is an Irish print and broadcast journalist. He is a columnist with The Irish Times and The Sunday Business Post and a part time barrister....
and Paddy Prendeville to accuse it of having an attitude to Northern Ireland that was close to Ulster unionism.
IRSP/INLA split and feud
In 1974, there was a split in the Official Republican Movement over the ceasefire and the direction of the organisation. This led to the formation of the Irish Republican Socialist PartyIrish Republican Socialist Party
The Irish Republican Socialist Party or IRSP is a republican socialist party active in Ireland. It claims the legacy of socialist revolutionary James Connolly, who founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party in 1896 and was executed after the Easter Rising of 1916.- History :The Irish Republican...
(IRSP) with Seamus Costello
Seamus Costello
Seamus Costello was a leader of Official Sinn Féin and the Official Irish Republican Army and latterly of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the Irish National Liberation Army ....
, who had been expelled from the Official IRA, as its chairperson. Also formed was its paramilitary wing, the Irish National Liberation Army
Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....
(INLA). There was a number of tit-for-tat killings in a subsequent feud until a truce was agreed in 1977.
The 1992 split
In early 1992, following a failed attempt to change the organisation's constitution, six of the seven party TDs, its MEP, numerous councillors and a significant minority of its membership broke off to form Democratic LeftDemocratic Left (Ireland)
Democratic Left was a democratic socialist political party active in Ireland between 1992 and 1999. It came into being after a split in the Workers' Party and, after just seven years in existence, it merged into the Irish Labour Party.-Origins:...
, a party which would later merge with the Labour Party in 1999.
The reasons for the split were twofold. Firstly, a faction led by Proinsias De Rossa wanted to move the party towards an acceptance of free market economics. Following the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, they felt that the Workers' Party's Marxist stance was now an obstacle to winning support at the polls. Secondly, media accusations had once again surfaced regarding the continued existence of the Official IRA
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles"...
which, it was alleged, remained armed and involved in fund-raising robberies, money laundering and other forms of criminality.
De Rossa and his supporters sought to distance themselves from alleged paramilitary activity at a special Árd Fheis held at Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...
in on 15 February 1992. A motion proposed by De Rossa and General Secretary Des Geraghty
Des Geraghty
Desmond "Des" Geraghty is a former Irish politician and trade union leader. He was president of SIPTU from 1999 to 2004. He stood unsuccessfully at the 1984 European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency as a Workers' Party candidate...
sought to stand down the existing membership, elect an 11 member provisional executive council and make several other significant changes in party structures was defeated. Many of those who subsequently remained with the Workers' Party in the wake of the split regarded those who broke away as careerists and social democrats who had taken flight after the collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and denounced those who left as 'liquidators'.
The motion to "reconstitute" the party achieved the support of 61% of delegates. However, this was short of the two-thirds majority needed to change the WP constitution. The Workers' Party later claimed that there was vote rigging by the supporters of the De Rossa motion. As a result of the conference's failure to adopt the motion, De Rossa and his supporters split from the organisation and established a new party which was temporarily known as "New Agenda" before the permanent name of "Democratic Left" was adopted. In the South the rump of the party was left with seven councillors and one TD
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...
.
In the North before the 1992 split, the party had 4 councillors - Tom French stayed with the party, Gerry Cullen (Dungannon) and Seamus Lynch (Belfast) joined New Agenda/Democratic Left, and David Kettyles ran in subsequent elections in Fermanagh as an Independent or Progressive Socialist.
While the majority of public representatives left with De Rossa, many rank-and-file members remained in the Workers' Party, with Marian Donnelly
Marian Donnelly
Marian Donnelly is a former President of the Workers' Party of Ireland and is a member of the District Policing Partnership for the Magherafelt district of Northern Ireland....
replacing De Rossa as President from 1992 to 1994. In 1994, Tom French
Tom French (politician)
Tom French is a former President of the Workers' Party of Ireland and former member of Craigavon Borough Council.Born in Belfast in 1934, French joined Sinn Féin as a youth and remained with the party as it evolved into the Workers' Party....
became President and served for four years until Sean Garland
Seán Garland
Seán Garland is a former President of the Workers' Party in Ireland.-Early Life:Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954, he briefly joined the British Army as an IRA agent and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in...
was elected President in 1998. Garland retired as President in May 2008 and was replaced by Mick Finnegan
Mick Finnegan
Mick Finnegan is the President of the Workers' Party of Ireland having been elected to that position on 17 May 2008 at the party's Ard Fheis / Annual Delegate conference to replace Sean Garland who retired after ten years in the position....
.
A further minor split occurred when a number of members left and established Republican Left; many of these went on to join the Irish Socialist Network
Irish Socialist Network
The Irish Socialist Network is a democratic socialist organisation formed in 2001. It is a campaigning organisation which works actively to fight for the rights of Irish workers and to help build a socialist Ireland. It is based in Belfast and Dublin...
. In 1998 another split occurred after a number of former OIRA members in Newry and Belfast who had been expelled formed a group called the Official Republican Movement, which recently announced it was decommissioning.
The party today
The Workers' Party has struggled since the early nineties to rejuvenate its fortunes in both Irish jurisdictions. The party maintains a youth wing, Workers' Party Youth, as well as a Women's Committee. It also has offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Waterford. In recent years, apart from its political work at home in Ireland, it has also sent numerous party delegations to international gatherings of communist and socialist parties.The party continues to hold a strongly anti-sectarian position and supported an independent anti-sectarian candidate, John Gilliland in the 2004 European elections in Northern Ireland.
Waterford City remained something of a holdout for the party during the 1990s and early 2000s. In the 1997 Irish general election
Irish general election, 1997
The Irish general election of 1997 was held on Friday, 6 June 1997. The 166 newly elected members of the 28th Dáil assembled on 26 June 1997 when a new Taoiseach and government were appointed....
Martin O'Regan narrowly failed to secure a seat in the Waterford
Waterford
Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...
constituency. However in February 2008, John Halligan of Waterford resigned from the party when it refused to drop its opposition to service charges. He subsequently became Mayor of Waterford after joining a pact with Fine Gael, the Labour Party, and a number of independents.
Mick Finnegan
Mick Finnegan
Mick Finnegan is the President of the Workers' Party of Ireland having been elected to that position on 17 May 2008 at the party's Ard Fheis / Annual Delegate conference to replace Sean Garland who retired after ten years in the position....
is the current party President, having been elected at the party's Árd Fheis on 16/17 May 2008 to replace Seán Garland
Seán Garland
Seán Garland is a former President of the Workers' Party in Ireland.-Early Life:Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954, he briefly joined the British Army as an IRA agent and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in...
who had announced his decision to retire from the position after ten years. The General Secretary is John Lowry
John Lowry
For the 19th-century baseball player, see John Lowry .John Lowry is the General Secretary of the Workers' Party in Ireland. He is a native of the Lower Falls area of Belfast....
and the party's Director of International Affairs is Gerry Grainger. The WP in Northern Ireland is registered with the British Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission (United Kingdom)
The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. It regulates party and election finance and sets standards for well-run elections...
, with Lowry named as its leader.
The Workers' Party called for a "No vote" in the June 2008 Lisbon Treaty referendum and was part of the successful "No campaign". It also campaigned for a "No vote" in the rerun of the referendum in October 2009 in which the treaty was passed.
Republic of Ireland
The Workers' Party became a political force in the Republic in the 1980s, benefiting from public disillusionment with poor public services, high taxes and mass unemployment. The party made its electoral breakthrough in 1981 when Joe SherlockJoe Sherlock
Joe Sherlock was an Irish politician from County Cork. A member of Sinn Féin, then the Workers' Party and then the Labour Party, he was a Teachta Dála for Cork East from 1981–1982, 1987–1992 and 2002–2007....
won a seat in Cork East
Cork East (Dáil Éireann constituency)
Cork East is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...
. It increased this to three seats in 1982 and to four seats in 1987. The Workers' Party had its best performance at the polls in 1989 when it won seven seats in the Irish general election as well as winning one seat and 7% of the vote in the European election
European Parliament election, 1989 (Ireland)
The 1989 European Parliament election in Ireland was the Irish component of the 1989 European Parliament election. The election was conducted under the single transferable vote.-Results:-Voting details:-See also:...
. This was its highest ever share of the vote in the Republic with over 70,000 votes in the Dublin constituency
Dublin (European Parliament constituency)
Dublin is a constituency of the European Parliament in Ireland. It elects 3 Members of the European Parliament using the single transferable vote form of proportional representation .-History and boundaries:...
being sufficient to have the party president, Proinsias De Rossa
Proinsias De Rossa
Proinsias De Rossa is an Irish Labour Party politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency. He a former President of the Workers' Party and subsequently leader of Democratic Left, and later, a senior member of the Labour Party. He was Minister for Social Welfare from...
, elected to the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, where he took a seat with the communist Left Unity group.
Following the split of 1992, Tomás Mac Giolla, a TD in the Dublin West constituency and President of the party for most of the previous 30 years, was the only member of the Dáil parliamentary party not to side with the new Democratic Left
Democratic Left
Democratic Left, Democratic Left Party, or Party of the Democratic Left may refer to:-Political parties:*Democratic Left *Democratic Left *Democratic Left *Democratic Left *Democratic Left...
. Although Mac Giolla was to lose his seat in the general election later that year, he would be elected Lord Mayor of Dublin
Lord Mayor of Dublin
The Lord Mayor of Dublin is the honorific title of the Chairman of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The incumbent is Labour Party Councillor Andrew Montague. The office holder is elected annually by the members of the...
in 1993. The Workers' Party also maintained elected representation on Dublin, Cork and Waterford corporations in the aftermath of the split.
In Waterford
Waterford
Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...
the party performed well in the 1992 and 1997 general elections. Outside of the south east, the WP retains active branches in various areas of the Republic, including Dublin, Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
, County Meath and County Louth
County Louth
County Louth is a county of Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Louth. Louth County Council is the local authority for the county...
. It failed to gain any seats in the 1997 Irish General Election. In the local elections in 1999 it lost all of its seats in Dublin and Cork and only managed to retain three seats in Waterford City. Further electoral setbacks and a minor split left the party after the 2004 Local Elections with only two councillors, both in Waterford
Waterford
Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...
.
The party fielded twelve candidates in the June 2009 local elections. The party fielded Malachy Steenson in the Dublin Central by-election on the same date.
Ted Tynan
Ted Tynan
Timothy "Ted" Tynan is a member of Cork City Council and leading member of the Workers' Party of Ireland.Councillor Tynan was born in Cork city in 1942...
was elected to Cork City Council
Cork City Council
Cork City Council is the local authority which is responsible for the city of Cork and its immediate hinterland in Ireland. The Council is responsible for Housing and Community, Roads and Transportation, Urban planning and Development, Amenity and Culture, and Environment...
in the Cork City North East ward. Davy Walsh retained his seat in Waterford City Council
Waterford City Council
Waterford City Council is the local authority which is responsible for the city of Waterford and its immediate hinterland in Ireland. The Council is responsible for Housing and Community, Roads and Transportation, Urban planning and Development, Amenity and Culture, and Environment.The Chairman ...
.
In the 2011 general election the Workers Party ran six candidates, without success.
- Cllr. Ted TynanTed TynanTimothy "Ted" Tynan is a member of Cork City Council and leading member of the Workers' Party of Ireland.Councillor Tynan was born in Cork city in 1942...
(Cork North CentralCork North Central (Dáil Éireann constituency)Cork North–Central is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...
) - Malachy Steenson (Dublin CentralDublin Central (Dáil Éireann constituency)Dublin Central is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...
) - Mick Finnegan (Dublin Mid West)
- John Dunne (Dublin North WestDublin North West (Dáil Éireann constituency)Dublin North–West is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...
) - Seamus McDonagh (Meath West)
- Joe Tobin (WaterfordWaterford (Dáil Éireann constituency)Waterford is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...
)
Former Workers Party councillor John Halligan was elected as an independent TD for Waterford.
Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, the party gained ten seats at the 1973 Northern Irish local electionsNorthern Ireland local elections, 1973
Local government in Northern Ireland was reorganised in 1973 by the Local Government Act 1971 and the Local Government Act 1972...
. Four years later, in May 1977
Northern Ireland local elections, 1977
Elections for local government were held in Northern Ireland in May 1977.The elections saw good performances by the four largest parties: the Ulster Unionist Party , Social Democratic and Labour Party , Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and Democratic Unionist Party , while smaller parties failed...
, this had dropped to six council seats and 2.6% of the vote. One of their best results was when Tom French
Tom French (politician)
Tom French is a former President of the Workers' Party of Ireland and former member of Craigavon Borough Council.Born in Belfast in 1934, French joined Sinn Féin as a youth and remained with the party as it evolved into the Workers' Party....
polled 19% in the 1986 Upper Bann by-election, although no other candidates stood against the sitting MP and a year later, when other parties contested the constituency, he only polled 4.7% of the vote.
Three councillors left the party during the split in 1992. Davy Kettyles became an independent 'Progressive Socialist' while Gerry Cullen in Dungannon and the WP northern chairman Seamus Lynch
Seamus Lynch
Seamus Lynch is a former Irish republican and socialist politician.Born in North Belfast, Lynch became a republican activist around the start of The Troubles, and sided with the Official wing of Sinn Féin in the split of 1970. He was imprisoned from October 1971 until the following year...
in Belfast, joined Democratic Left
Democratic Left
Democratic Left, Democratic Left Party, or Party of the Democratic Left may refer to:-Political parties:*Democratic Left *Democratic Left *Democratic Left *Democratic Left *Democratic Left...
. The party held onto its one council seat in the 1993 local elections
Northern Ireland local elections, 1993
Elections for local government were held in Northern Ireland on 19 May 1993.-Overall:-Belfast:-References:...
with Peter Smyth retaining the seat formerly held by Tom French in Craigavon
Craigavon
Craigavon is a settlement in north County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It was a planned settlement that was begun in 1965 and named after Northern Ireland's first Prime Minister — James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon. It was intended to be a linear city incorporating Lurgan and Portadown, but this plan...
. This was lost in 1997
Northern Ireland local elections, 1997
Elections for local government were held in Northern Ireland on 21 May 1997, shortly after the 1997 general election across the entire United Kingdom.-Overall:-Belfast:-References:...
, leaving them without elected representation in Northern Ireland.
The party performed poorly in the March 2007 Assembly election. No seats were won and its best result came in West Belfast where it gained 1.26% of the vote. The party did not field any candidates during the 2010 UK elections.
In the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2011 the Workers' Party ran in four constituencies, securing 586 first-preference votes (1.7%) in West Belfast and 332 (1%) in North Belfast.
Name
Official Sinn Féin was sometimes called Sinn Féin (Gardiner Place) in the early to mid 1970s, a reference to the location of its headquarters, to distinguish it from the rival offshoot of Sinn Féin, called Provisional Sinn Féin or Sinn Féin (Kevin Street) by the media in that period. For traditional republicans, the mention of the Gardiner Place headquarters carried symbolic power, because the Gardiner Place headquarters had been the headquarters of Sinn Féin for decades before the 1970 split. This sobriquet died out in the mid 1970s.At the Ard Fheis in January 1977, the Officials renamed themselves Sinn Féin The Workers Party. Their first seats in Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...
were won under this new name. In 1979, a motion at the Ard Fheis to remove the Sinn Féin prefix from the party name was narrowly defeated. The change finally came about three years later in 1982.
In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin was organised under the name Republican Clubs (a name that was used to escape a ban, introduced in 1964 under Northern Ireland's Emergency Powers Act
Emergency Powers Act
The title Emergency Powers Act has been included in the name of various UK laws:*Emergency Powers Act 1920*Emergency Powers Act 1926*Emergency Powers Act 1939*Emergency Powers Act 1940*Emergency Powers Act 1964...
), and the Officials continued to use this name after 1970. The party later used the name "The Workers Party Republican Clubs". In 1982, both the northern and southern sections of the party became simply "The Workers' Party".
The Workers Party is sometimes referred to by other Republicans as the "Sticks" or "Stickies" because it uses adhesive stickers of the Easter Lily
Easter Lily (badge)
The Easter Lily is a badge worn at Easter by Irish republicans as symbol of remembrance for Irish republican combatants who died during or were executed after the 1916 Easter Rising...
emblem for its 1916 commemorations whereas others, most notably (Provisional) Sinn Féin use a pin for theirs.
Publications
The party has published a number of newspapers throughout the years, with many of the theorists of the movement writing for these papers, after the 1970 split the Officials' kept publishing the United IrishmanUnited Irishman
The United Irishman title has been a very popular newspaper title in Ireland and a number of newspapers have been published under the title.*...
(the traditional newspaper of the republican movement) monthly until May 1980. In 1973 the party launched a weekly paper The Irish People
The Irish People
The Irish People has been a title of a number of mostly political newspapers in Ireland and America.**The Irish People was an Irish nationalist newspaper of the Fenian movement founded in 1863 by James Stephens. Nationalists Charles Kickham, Thomas Clarke Luby and John O’Leary were editors of this...
, which was focused on issues in the 26 counties, there was also a The Northern People published in Belfast and focused on northern issues. The party published an occasional international bulletin and a woman's magazine called Women's View. From 1989 to 1992 it produced a theoretical magazine called Making Sense. Other papers were produced such as Workers' Weekly.
The party currently produces a magazine, Look Left. Originally conceived as a straightforward party paper, Look Left was relaunched as a more broad-left style publication in March 2010 but still bearing the emblem of the Workers' Party. It is distributed by party members and supporters and is also stocked by a number of retailers including Eason's and several radical/left-wing bookshops.
Leaders
- Tomás Mac Giolla (1962–1988)
- Proinsias De RossaProinsias De RossaProinsias De Rossa is an Irish Labour Party politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency. He a former President of the Workers' Party and subsequently leader of Democratic Left, and later, a senior member of the Labour Party. He was Minister for Social Welfare from...
(1988–1992) - Marian DonnellyMarian DonnellyMarian Donnelly is a former President of the Workers' Party of Ireland and is a member of the District Policing Partnership for the Magherafelt district of Northern Ireland....
(1992–1994) - Tom FrenchTom French (politician)Tom French is a former President of the Workers' Party of Ireland and former member of Craigavon Borough Council.Born in Belfast in 1934, French joined Sinn Féin as a youth and remained with the party as it evolved into the Workers' Party....
(1994–1998) - Seán GarlandSeán GarlandSeán Garland is a former President of the Workers' Party in Ireland.-Early Life:Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954, he briefly joined the British Army as an IRA agent and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in...
(1998–2008) - Mick FinneganMick FinneganMick Finnegan is the President of the Workers' Party of Ireland having been elected to that position on 17 May 2008 at the party's Ard Fheis / Annual Delegate conference to replace Sean Garland who retired after ten years in the position....
(2008–)
Elected representatives
- Davy Walsh – Waterford City CouncilWaterford City CouncilWaterford City Council is the local authority which is responsible for the city of Waterford and its immediate hinterland in Ireland. The Council is responsible for Housing and Community, Roads and Transportation, Urban planning and Development, Amenity and Culture, and Environment.The Chairman ...
- Ted TynanTed TynanTimothy "Ted" Tynan is a member of Cork City Council and leading member of the Workers' Party of Ireland.Councillor Tynan was born in Cork city in 1942...
– Cork City CouncilCork City CouncilCork City Council is the local authority which is responsible for the city of Cork and its immediate hinterland in Ireland. The Council is responsible for Housing and Community, Roads and Transportation, Urban planning and Development, Amenity and Culture, and Environment...
Further reading
- The Politics of Illusion: A Political History of the IRA, Henry Patterson, ISBN 1-897959-31-1
- Official Irish Republicanism, 1962 to 1972, Sean Swan, ISBN 1430319348
- The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, ISBN 1844881202