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Irish Socialist Republican Party

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the party founded in Belfast in 1944, see Socialist Republican Party (Ireland). For the party founded in Dublin in 1974, see Irish Republican Socialist Party.

Irish Socialist Republican Party
LeaderJames Connolly
FoundedMay 1896[1]
Dissolved1904
Preceded byDublin Socialist Club
Succeeded bySocialist Party of Ireland (1904)
IdeologySocialism
Irish republicanism
Anti-imperialism
Marxism
Political positionLeft-wing

The Irish Socialist Republican Party was a small but pivotal Irish political party founded in 1896 by James Connolly. Its aim was to establish an Irish workers' republic. The party split in 1904 following months of internal political rows

History

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The party was small throughout its existence. According to ISRP historian David Lynch, the party never had more than 80 active members. Upon its founding one journalist commented that the party had more syllables than members.[2] The party emerged out of the Dublin Socialist Club when a motion was put forward at Pierce Ryan's pub on Thomas Street, Dublin to form a party. Connolly and six others were present at inaugural meeting.[3]

Nevertheless, the ISRP is regarded by many Irish historians as a party of seminal importance in the early history of Irish socialism and republicanism. It is often described as the first socialist and republican party in Ireland, and the first organisation to espouse the ideology of socialist republicanism on the island.[4] During its lifespan it only had one really active branch, the Dublin one. There were several attempts to create branches in Cork, Belfast, Limerick, Naas, and even in northern England but they never came to much.[5] The party established links with feminist and revolutionary Maud Gonne who approved of the party.[2]

The party produced the first regular socialist paper in Ireland, the Workers' Republic, ran candidates in local elections, represented Ireland at the Second International, and agitated over issues such as the Boer War and the 1798 rebellion commemorations.[6][7][8] Politically the ISRP was before its time, putting the call for an independent "Republic" at the centre of its propaganda before Sinn Féin or others had done so.[9] The ISRP opposed Home Rule as a middle-class and capitalist effort that was unlikely to achieve social reforms.[10]

A public meeting held by the party is described in Irish socialist playwright Seán O'Casey's autobiography Drums under the Window.[11]

In 1900 it sent delegates to the International Socialist Congress of the Second International in Paris, representing Ireland instead of Britain.[6] It also became involved in the campaign against the Boer War.[7] In 1902, Connolly ran as an ISRP candidate in that years elections to Dublin Corporation, failing to unseat the incumbent Patrick Joseph McCall (United Irish League) but did receive 431 votes (21.07%).[12][13]

Connolly, who was the full-time paid organiser for the party, subsequently left Ireland for the United States in 1903 following internal conflict; in fact it seems to have been a combination of the petty infighting and his own poverty that caused Connolly to abandon Ireland (he returned in 1910). Connolly had clashed with the party's other leading light, E. W. Stewart, over trade union and electoral strategy. A small number of members around Stewart established an anti-Connolly micro organisation called the Irish Socialist Labour Party. In 1904, this merged with the remains of the ISRP to form the Socialist Party of Ireland.[14]

References

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  1. ^ Connolly, James (March 1902). "Taken Root!". Workers’ Republic. Retrieved 11 March 2025 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  2. ^ a b Collins, Lorcan (2012). James Connolly. 16 Lives. Vol. 1. The O'Brien Press. p. 55, 65-66. ISBN 9781847171603.
  3. ^ Grant, Adrian (September 2012). Irish socialist republicanism, 1909–36. Four Courts Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-84682-361-9.
  4. ^ O'Connor, Emmet (2005). "The age of the red republic: the Irish left and nationalism, 1909—36". Saothar. 30. Irish Labour History Society: 73. JSTOR stable/23199800.
  5. ^ Lynch, David (2005). Radical Politics in Modern Ireland: The Irish Socialist Republican Party, 1896-1904. Irish Academic Press. ISBN 9780716529613.
  6. ^ a b Berresford Ellis, Peter (1985). A History of the Irish Working Class. Pluto Press. p. 175. ISBN 9780745300092.
  7. ^ a b Lane, Fintan (1997). The Origins of Modern Irish Socialism, 1881-1896. Cork University Press. p. 221. ISBN 9781859181522.
  8. ^ Paseta, Senia (Summer 1998). "1798 in 1898: The Politics of Commemoration". The Irish Review (Cork) (22). Cork University Press: 46–47. doi:10.2307/29735888. ISSN 0790-7850. JSTOR stable/29735888.
  9. ^ Irish Socialist Republican Party. Transcribed by The James Connolly Society. 1997 [1896]. Retrieved 11 March 2025 – via Marxists Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ^ "The Seven Signatories of the Proclamation: James Connolly, Vice-President of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic". National Library of Ireland. The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  11. ^ O'Casey, Seán (1945). Drum under the windows (PDF). Macmillan & Co. pp. 9–14 – via Internet Archive.
  12. ^ "Freeman's Journal - Wednesday 15 January 1902". Freeman's Journal. 15 January 1902. p. 6. Retrieved 11 March 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ Johnson, Michael (26 July 2017). "Uniting the Dublin socialists". Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  14. ^ Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (2000). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations. A & C Black. p. 251. ISBN 9780826458148.

Further reading

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  • David Lynch, Radical Politics in Modern Ireland: A History of the Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP) 1896-1904, (Dublin: Irish Academic Press 2005) ISBN 0-7165-3356-1
  • Mike Milotte, Communism in Modern Ireland: The Pursuit of the Workers' Republic since 1916, (Dublin 1984)
  • Charles Townshend, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion (London 2006)
  • Charles Townshend, The Republic: The Fight For Irish Independence (London 2013)
  • Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin 2007)
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