Socialist Party of Ireland (1904)
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Socialist Party of Ireland
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| Founded | 1904 |
| Preceded by | Irish Socialist Republican Party |
| Succeeded by | Irish Worker League |
| Newspaper | Workers' Republic |
| Youth wing | Young Communist League |
| Ideology | Communism |
| International affiliation | Communist International (from 1921) |
The Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI) was a small political party in Ireland associated with James Connolly.
Until 1904, Connolly was the leading figure in the Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP). However, the ISRP had lost many members following internal disputes, with some forming the rival Irish Socialist Labour Party (ISLP). The ISLP attempted to affiliate to the recently founded British Socialist Labour Party, but was advised to attempt to merge with the ISRP first. With Connolly out of the country, this was achieved, the two groups coming together to form the new "Socialist Party of Ireland".
Although the party's initial membership was based in Dublin, it soon established groups in Belfast and Cork. However, it was unable to attract the Belfast-based members of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) around William Walker to join, as they opposed the new party's principle of Irish Home Rule.
Despite some growth, the party remained small and only held its first conference in 1910. Connolly was chosen as its national organiser, while Francis Sheehy-Skeffington became president, Michael Mallin was secretary, and William X. O'Brien was also elected to the executive.
In 1912, Connolly called a socialist unity conference in Dublin, attended by the Belfast branch of the Socialist Party and four of the Belfast-based ILP branches, only Walker's own branch refusing to attend. The five groups united to form the "Independent Labour Party of Ireland", but this collapsed soon after the outbreak of World War I, after Connolly was banned from giving speeches alleged to be pro-German in Belfast by the local leadership of the group. Nationally, the SPI almost stopped operating during the war, but was revived by supporters of the Russian February Revolution and October Revolution.
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