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13th December 1970, The Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI) was formed.

Unconnected with the contemporary Socialist Party, the SPI was formed by former members of Official Sinn Féin and others. It later merged with the Limerick Socialist Organisation to form the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP).

https://www.leftarchive.ie/calendar/on-this-day/12/13/#event-5655

On This Day, 13th December

Irish Left Archive

Scanned text, reading: Comrades,

As this is the first National Congress of our party, it is the duty of the inaugural Central Committee to put on record the circumstances which gave rise to the founding of the party, and to report on its development and activity since that time.

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The Socialist Party of Ireland was formed in Dublin on the 13th of December 1970.

The founding members appointed a Central Committee, which drew up a manifesto and a constitution. The manifesto announcing the formation of the party was published on the 19th January 1971.
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Two Irish general elections occurred , 6th June, in 1977 and 1997.

Here' the Socialist Party of Ireland's (SPI) Advance magazine profiling their candidate Eamonn O'Brien in 1977. The SPI went on to merge with the Democratic Socialist Party in the early 1980s, which ultimately merged with Labour in 1990. (It is not related to the current Socialist Party).

And from 1997, an analysis from Labour's Emmet Stagg in TILT of Labour's losses in that election (the party lost 16 TDs, going from 32 to 17).

https://www.leftarchive.ie/calendar/on-this-day/06/06/

On This Day, 6th June

Irish Left Archive

Front cover of Advance, No. 25, from the Socialist Party of Ireland, with the headline: General Election 1977; O Brien, Eamonn: Your Socialist Party TD for Ballymun and North County Dublin
Extracts from an article from Labour's TILT magazine headlined: No Disaster: Emmet Stagg Puts '92/'97 in Context
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28th May 1949, the Socialist Party of Ireland was founded.

"On May 28th, 1949, a number of workers, representing Socialist Groups in Dublin and Belfast, met in Belfast and decided that the Groups should coalesce and form the Socialist Party of Ireland. That decision was subsequently ratified by the members of the Dublin and Belfast Groups; and so was born the first political party in Ireland to publicly and unequivocally declare its object to be the establishment of Socialism."

The party was associated with the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) and later became the World Socialist Party.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/calendar/on-this-day/05/28/#event-4500

On This Day, 28th May

Irish Left Archive

Image of text reading: The Socialist Party of Ireland object:

The establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the whole community.
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In 1982 the SPI merged with Jim Kemmy's Limerick Socialist Organisation to form the Democratic Socialist Party.

Here are some documents from them in our collection: https://www.leftarchive.ie/organisation/251/

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Socialist Party of Ireland [1971]

Irish Left Archive

Pamphlet cover reading: The Socialist Party of Ireland - Report of the 1st National Congress - Dublin, 1-2 December 1973
Front cover of SuperSpi magazine
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In 1971 another Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI) was set up, with a number of former Official Sinn Féin members among the founders.

It identified strongly with the USSR, and was opposed to nationalism (forming part of the "Socialists Against Nationalism" campaign).

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Front cover of The Socialist Future: Programme of the Socialist Party of Ireland
Logo of the Socialist Party of Ireland [1971], showing a five-pointed star with a torch in the centre.
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The next Socialist Party of Ireland was formed in Belfast and Dublin on 28th May 1949. It was associated with the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) and the World Socialist Movement, a Classical Marxist left movement. (Sometimes associated with impossibilism, though the SPGB reject the term).

The 1949 SPI later became the World Socialist Party.

Here's their manifesto: https://www.leftarchive.ie/document/419/

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Manifesto of the Socialist Party of Ireland with Declaration of Principles (1949) — Socialist Party of Ireland [1949]

Irish Left Archive

Scanned text reading: The Socialist Party of Ireland object: The establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the whole community.
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The first Socialist Party of Ireland formed in the 1900s to continue James Connolly's Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP) after it collapsed. It briefly became the first Communist Party of Ireland in the 1920s, until the Comintern ordered its dissolution in favour of James Larkin's Irish Worker League.

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