Back in January the party publicly announced two solid Republican Socialist community workers to put their program firmly into the public domain.
Dan Murphy a 27-year-old bar man and founder of the ‘Beechmount Resident’s Collective’ stood forward for West Belfast; while in Derry, 38-year-old Collie McLaughlin, a family man and founder of the equally effective ‘Galliagh Community Response’ group stepped up to the mark for the North West.
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| Dan Murphy |
Both typified the recent re-growth of a party which many had written off many times in the past only to be proved wrong.
In recent years and against all the odds, the IRSP have taken the concept of community work to new heights in working class areas of the North. Fighting off poverty, evictions and social disenfranchisement with a vigour matched by no other party. In no small way they also took the lead on the issue of Irish Unity. Launching a tour of public meetings under the banner ‘Yes for Unity’; stating that a United Ireland should not be trusted to the interests of big business and instead encouraging working class people to seize border poll initiatives here, before they became monopolised by the right.
This activism came with an enthusiasm and practical effectiveness that soon attracted an impressive new wave of talented, ideologically driven younger people to the party. Just as encouragingly, many older, once disillusioned, members began also to return to the IRSP, convinced that the time was finally right. The return to the party of their former Newry branch was a case in point, deeply moving for all and celebrated by everyone.
And it was in recognition of just this renewal, that the IRSP moved to utilise the electoral system in an attempt to promote their program in just the way which Seamus Costello had directed them to back in the late 1970s. May’s Assembly elections would be the chosen platform.
Party registration papers were submitted to the Electoral Commission on January 20th, inside the deadline. And there they sat for a full two months, with no objections raised and no comment made by those who had received them.
The IRSP went on to fundraise, canvass and strategize, for Dan Murphy in Belfast and Collie McLaughlin in Derry.
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| Collie McLaughlin |
A full two months later, on March 21st, the Electoral Commission replied that the IRSP application for party registration was rejected. The reason? An older digitally held version of the parties’ constitution (one which had been accepted by them in the past) had been mistakenly submitted instead of the updated model.
Within hours the party moved to rectify the situation and submitted the intended document; confident that with reason, rationality and common sense, their application to stand would move forward without any further delay.
They were wrong.
Now responding much more promptly than before (3 days, no less) the electoral commission informed the IRSP on 25th of March that they would not rectify the situation, regardless of our having applied well within the deadline and regardless of their own two-month silence as to the existence of an anomaly.
The IRSP were merely assured further that any re-application to register would be too late to meet the final election nomination deadline date of April 8th 2022.
The IRSP is now unashamedly suspicious of why the Electoral Commission – a state body tasked with the smooth running of elections - were so very slow to highlight a barrier to our participation, yet very quick to inform us (twice in the space of 3 days no less) that we could not stand candidates as the IRSP.
We reject their assertion that there is any real logistical barrier to their accepting our constitution between now and April 8th, and should they fail to make reasonable moves to rectify the situation, we can only assume that our party and our supporters, will have been deliberately disenfranchised by delay.
Whether under the banner of the IRSP or as independents; Collie McLaughlin and Dan Murphy will run for election on May 5th. Should their only option be the latter; the IRSP would ask all well-meaning Republicans, Socialists and progressives to show their support for reason and to stand against poorly hidden state censorship by giving them your vote.
⏩Michael Kelly is the Election Agent for Dan Murphy, IRSP
Within hours the party moved to rectify the situation and submitted the intended document; confident that with reason, rationality and common sense, their application to stand would move forward without any further delay.
They were wrong.
Now responding much more promptly than before (3 days, no less) the electoral commission informed the IRSP on 25th of March that they would not rectify the situation, regardless of our having applied well within the deadline and regardless of their own two-month silence as to the existence of an anomaly.
The IRSP were merely assured further that any re-application to register would be too late to meet the final election nomination deadline date of April 8th 2022.
The IRSP is now unashamedly suspicious of why the Electoral Commission – a state body tasked with the smooth running of elections - were so very slow to highlight a barrier to our participation, yet very quick to inform us (twice in the space of 3 days no less) that we could not stand candidates as the IRSP.
We reject their assertion that there is any real logistical barrier to their accepting our constitution between now and April 8th, and should they fail to make reasonable moves to rectify the situation, we can only assume that our party and our supporters, will have been deliberately disenfranchised by delay.
Whether under the banner of the IRSP or as independents; Collie McLaughlin and Dan Murphy will run for election on May 5th. Should their only option be the latter; the IRSP would ask all well-meaning Republicans, Socialists and progressives to show their support for reason and to stand against poorly hidden state censorship by giving them your vote.
⏩Michael Kelly is the Election Agent for Dan Murphy, IRSP
There is absolutly no reason the IRSP application should not be accepted, the same as any other party. That is, of course, if the playing field is level which it quite obviously is not. The Electoral Commission is a state body, and as the state, like any other capitalist state elsewhere in the capitalist world, is corrupt there is little wonder the commission arrived at this unsustainable decision. They are banking on the party having neither the time or, more importantly, the funds to mount a serious challenge to this obviously manufactured decision.
ReplyDeleteThe IRSP have always suffered at the hands of a corrupt state more than any other political party. To quote James Connolly, "we are out for economic as well as political freedom", and the IRSP are, rightly so, supporters of Connolly and his writings, as was their founder, Seamus Costello. Connolly's statements and policies back in his time frightened the living daylights out of the establishment, the bourgeoisie, middle classes and, it appears, the IRSP are continuing this republican socialist tradition. This is why, if the commission are honest - and thats a joke - their application has been first shelved, then rejected. Be under no illussions but finding proof of this would not be easy. Their club would link arms, legs and any other joint of their torso to save their already questionable integrity.
Caoimhin O'Muraile
"The IRSP have always suffered at the hands of a corrupt state more than any other political party. "
DeleteCan't imagine the Shinners not putting them in their place when it calls for it though.
Not in my experience, albeit some time ago. IRSP were, and as far as I know are, an autonomous Marxist, sinse the 1984 Ard Fheis, republican socialist party not influenced or dictated to by either of the Sinn Fein parties. I have seen, been involved with many political remonstrations with the "Shinners" "a frank and honest exchange of views".
ReplyDeleteI hope that burys that myth.
Caoimhin O'Muraile