Éirígí

Éirígí was formed by a small group of group of community and political activists who had left Sinn Féin in Dublin on 24 April 2006, shortly before the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, as a political campaigns group. On 12 May 2007, at the party's first Ardfheis (conference), its members voted to become a full-fledged political party,[5][6] and at its 2009 conference passed a motion to register as a political party in the Republic of Ireland.[7]

It gained its first local councillors in 2009, when two former Sinn Féin councillors, Dungannon councillor Barry Monteith and Dublin City Councillor Louise Minihan, joined the organisation.[8] Former Wexford county councillor for Sinn Féin and New Ross town councillor John Dwyer also joined Éirígí. In the 2014 local elections, it didn't succeed in getting any of its eight candidates elected, leaving it without elected representation.

The party has become known for the use of nonviolent direct action and regular protests in Belfast,[9] Dublin,[10][11] and elsewhere.[12] It has launched a mobile app aimed at telling people their rights when they are stopped by the police.[13] Éirígí has organised protests against the visits of Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Princess Anne to Ireland.[14]

The party stood for election in Northern Ireland for the first time in the 2011 local elections, citing dissatisfaction with Sinn Féin's involvement in the Northern Ireland Executive, and claiming there was "a real appetite for a radical voice" in Northern Irish politics.[15] It registered with the Electoral Commission (United Kingdom) a month before the 2011 elections. Out of the two candidates Éirígí put forward in the 2011 elections, neither was elected, with Pádraic Mac Coitir securing 1415 votes in the Upper Falls ward [16] and John McCusker securing 647 votes in the Lower Falls ward.[17]

The party seeks the removal of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom,[18] and the establishment of a 32-county republic based on socialist principles. Éirígí has participated in a range of campaigns, including Shell to Sea and Reclaim the Republic (which involved the organisation distributing 60,000 1916 Proclamations nationwide).,[19] the Right2Water Campaign, the campaign to Repeal The 8th Amendment, and their Public Housing For all campaign, which calls for the state to introduce a housing system where all citizens have the legal right to rent a high-quality, affordable home regardless of their income. They also actively promote the restoration of An Teanga (Irish language) to widespread everyday use across Ireland

The party opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.[20]

The twentieth Independent Monitoring Commission report said the group is "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.[21]

Éirígí campaigned for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, describing the EU as "very much anchored in Neo-Liberal policies such as privatisation and austerity and programmes that have been enforced on countries such as Greece and Spain".[22] It previously campaigned for a No vote in Ireland's Lisbon Treaty referendum in 2009.[23]

Emblem

For its emblem, the party uses a green star as it incorporates both the national colour of Ireland and an international symbol of socialist struggle. The full national colours of the Irish Republic are achieved when the green star is combined with the word Éirígí in the colour orange (signifying the cultural identity of some of Ireland's Protestants) set on to a white background, it sometimes also uses the same emblem but with a yellow logo on a red background surrounded by the words 'Equality', 'Liberty', 'Community'.

Red and yellow star logo with the words Liberty, Equality and Community.

Members of Éirígí march in Derry, January 2013

Éirígí's National Executive is responsible for the day-to-day running of the party between meetings of the Ardfheis (Party conference). It is elected by the membership annually on a 'one member – one vote' basis. The chairpersons of each local branch are also members of the National Executive.

In the 2011 local election in Belfast — the only council the party contested during the local elections in Northern Ireland — the party stood in the Lower Falls[24] and Upper Falls[25] electoral areas, receiving over 2,000 first preference votes (10% plus), but failing to elect any councillors. The party unsuccessfully stood two candidates in the 2014 Belfast City Council election: Máire Drumm in the Collin electoral area, and Pádraic Mac Coitir in the Black Mountain electoral area polling a total of 1,756 (0.3%) first preference votes.[26]

The party also unsuccessfully stood three candidates in Dublin, two candidates in Wexford, and one candidate in Wicklow for the 2014 local elections polling a total of 3,120 (0.2%) first preference votes between all six southern candidates.[26]

In 2012, Ursula Ní Shionnain, a member of Éirígí,[27] was among four people charged under the Offences against the State Act with possessing weapons at Tullybeg, County Offaly, following an investigation by the Garda Special Detective Unit.

The party's press officer, Stephen Murney, was also taken into custody in November 2012 by the PSNI on terrorism charges for owning and publishing historical photographs of police officers on duty,[28] though he was later acquitted and cleared of all charges.[29]

• Official website