The ( political party in the
Republic Of Ireland . Founded by
James Connolly in
1912 as the political wing of the
Irish Trade Union Congress , it claims to be the country's oldest political party. It holds 21 of the 166 seats in
Dáil Éireann , and is the third largest political party in the State. In the
2002 Dáil Elections it gained 10.8% of the popular vote. The Labour Party has served in government for a total of almost 20 years, six times in coalition either with
Fine Gael alone or with Fine Gael and other smaller parties, and once with
Fianna Fáil . It is currently in opposition. The current leader of the party is
Pat Rabbitte .
In
1912 James Connolly ,
James Larkin and
William X. O'Brien established the Irish Labour party as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. This party would represent the workers in the expected Dublin Parliament under the Third
Home Rule Act 1914 . However, after the defeat of the trade unions in the
Dublin Lockout of
1913 the labour movement was weakened, and the emigration of James Larkin in
1914 and the execution of James Connolly in
1916 further damaged it.
In Larkin's absence,
William X. O'Brien became the dominant figure in the
Irish Transport And General Workers' Union and wielded considerable influence in the Labour Party. O'Brien also dominated the Irish Trade Union Congress. The Labour party, now led by
Thomas Johnson , as successor to such organisations as
D.D. Sheehan 's, (independent labour MP.'s)
Irish Land And Labour Association (ILLA), declined to contest the
1918 General Election , in order to allow the election to take the form of a plebiscite on Ireland's constitutional status. It also refrained from contesting the
1921 general election. As a result the party was left out of the
Dáil during the vital years of the independence struggle.
The
Anglo-Irish Treaty divided the Labour party. Some members sided with the Irregulars in the
Irish Civil War that quickly followed. O'Brien and Johnson encouraged its members to support the Treaty. In the
1922 general election the party won 17 seats. However there were a number of strikes during the first year and a loss in support got the party. In the
1923 election Labour only won 14 seats. From 1922 until
Fianna Fáil TD s took their seats in
1927 , Labour was the major opposition party in the
Dáil . It attacked the lack of social reform by the
Cumann Na NGaedhael government.
In
1923 Larkin returned to Ireland. He hoped to take over the leadership role he had left, but O'Brien resisted him. Larkin sided with the more radical elements of the party and in September that year he established the
Irish Worker League .
In
1932 the Labour Party supported
Eamon De Valera 's first Fianna Fáil government, which had proposed a programme of social reform with which the party was in sympathy. In the 1940's it looked for a while as if Labour would replace
Fine Gael as the main opposition party. In the
1943 general election the party won 17 seats, its best result since
1927 .
The Larkin-O'Brien feud still continued, and worsened over time. In the 1940s the hatred caused a split in the Labour party and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. In
1944 O'Brien left and founded the
National Labour Party . O'Brien also withdrew the ITGWU from the Irish Trade Unions Congress and set up his own congress. The split damaged the Labour movement in the
1944 general election. It was only after Larkin's death in
1947 that an attempt at unity could be made.
During this period the party also occasionally stood for election in
Northern Ireland , on occasion winning the odd seat at both the
Westminster Parliament and
Stormont Parliament in the
Belfast area. However the party is not known to have contested an election in the region since
Gerry Fitt , then the party's sole Stormont MP, left the party to form the
Republican Labour Party in
1964 .
From
1948 -
1951 and from
1954 -
1957 the Labour Party was the second-largest partner in the two inter-party governments.
William Norton , the Labour leader, became
Tánaiste and Minister for Social Welfare on both occasions.
In
1960 Brendan Corish became the new Labour leader. As leader he advocated and introduced more socialist policies to the party. Between
1973 and
1977 the Labour Party formed a coalition government with
Fine Gael . The coalition partners lost the subsequent election in
1977 . Corish resigned immediately after the defeat.
From 1981 to 1982 and from 1982 to 1987, Labour participated in coalition governments with
Fine Gael . In the later part of the second of these coalition terms, the country's poor economic and fiscal situation required strict curtailing of government spending, and Labour bore much of the blame for unpopular cutbacks in health and other social services. In the
1987 general election it received only 6.4% of the vote, and its vote was increasingly threatened by the growth of the
Stalinist Workers Party . Fianna Fail formed a minority government from 1987 to
1989 and then a coalition with the
Progressive Democrats .
The
1980s saw fierce disagreements between left and right wings of the party. The more radical elements, led by figures including
Emmet Stagg , opposed the idea of going into coalition government with either of the major
Centre-right parties. At the 1989 Labour conference in
Tralee a number of socialist and Marxist activists, organised around the
Militant newspaper, were expelled. These expulsions continued during the early
1990s and those expelled, including
Joe Higgins went on to found the
Socialist Party .
In
1990 Mary Robinson became the first
President Of Ireland to have been proposed by the Labour Party, although she contested the election as an independent candidate. Not only was it the first time a woman held the office but it was the first time, apart from
Douglas Hyde , that a non-
Fianna Fáil candidate was elected.
Mary Robinson became one of the most outspoken and active Presidents in the history of the state.In 1990 the Party merged with the Jim Kemmy's Democratic Socialist Party and in 1992 it merged with the
Declan Bree 's Independent Socialist Party(Sligo/Leitrim).
In
1993 the Labour Party returned to government, forming a coalition with
Fianna Fáil .
Dick Spring of Labour became
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs. After less than two years the government fell and Labour engaged in somewhat controversial moves to establish a new coalition (this was the first time in Irish political history that one coalition replaced another without a general election). Between
1994 and
1997 Fine Gael , the Labour Party, and
Democratic Left governed in the so-called 'Rainbow Coalition'.
Dick Spring of Labour became
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs again.
Labour presented the 1997 election, held just weeks after spectacular victories for the French
Parti Socialiste and Tony Blair's
New Labour , as the first ever choice between a government of the left and one of the right, but the party, as had often been the case following its participation in coalitions, lost support and failed to retain half of its Dáil seats. A poor performance by Labour candidate
Adi Roche in the subsequent election for
President Of Ireland led to Spring's resignation as party leader.
In
1997 Ruairi Quinn became the new Labour leader. Negotiations started almost immediately and in 1999 the Labour Party merged with Democratic Left, keeping the name of the larger partner.
Quinn resigned as leader in
2002 following the poor results for the Labour Party in the general election. Former Democratic Left
TD Pat Rabbitte became the new leader, the first to be elected directly by the members of the party.
In the June
2004 elections to the
European Parliament ,
Proinsias De Rossa retained his seat for Labour in the
Dublin constituency. This was Labour's only success in the election.
