| Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Coordinating Committee (Colm Mistéil, Danielle Ní Dhighe, Tj Ó Conchúir, Eric Hayes Patkowski, Mike Quinn) |
| Founded | March 1984 |
| Ideology | Irish Republicanism, Socialism, Marxism, Leninism |
| International affiliation | Irish Republican Socialist Movement |
| Website | |
| http://www.irscna.org/ http://www.irsp.ie/irscna.html |
|
The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America (IRSCNA) was founded in March 1984 in Saint Paul, Minnesota as a support group for the Irish Republican Socialist Movement. In 1998, it was formally recognized as the North American section of the IRSM.[1] For most of its history, the IRSCNA was based in San Francisco, California, but is presently based in Champaign, Illinois.
There was discussion of whether to establish a distinct, partisan support group for the IRSM from at least 1981, as October of that year was the first time someone was allowed to join the Irish Republican Socialist Party while resident in North America, but it was agreed that a broad front type of formation best suited the needs of the IRSM at the time.[2]
With the growing and increasingly overt hostility of the Provisional Republican Movement (Provisional Sinn Féin and the Provisional Irish Republican Army) toward the IRSM, it was determined by supporters in North America that it was no longer effective to attempt to work exclusively through broad front formations and the Ard Chomhairle (National Executive) of the IRSP was petitioned for permission to establish a distinct support group for the IRSM. Brigid Makowski from Derry represented the IRSP at the IRSCNA's founding convention.[3]
Formal IRSP sanction and mandate was provided by the Ard Chomhairle of the IRSP in a letter from the IRSP's then General Secretary in 1986 and recognition of the exclusivity of the IRSCNA's mandate for North America was reiterated by the Ard Chomhairle in 1987.[4]
At the 1998 IRSP Ard Fheis, it was resolved that the IRSCNA would be recognized as a component section of the IRSM and its members would be accorded the full rights of members of the IRSP, including participation in closed sessions of an Ard Fheis and voting rights at an Ard Fheis.[5]
In 2005, the IRSCNA was reorganized under a collective leadership (the Coordinating Committee) after the expulsion of co-founder and then leader Peter Urban and two of his supporters for engaging in public attacks on a leading member of the IRSP and attempting to split the IRSCNA away from the IRSM without the support of its members.[6]
Since reorganizing, the IRSCNA held an Ard Fheis in Kansas City in 2008[7] and Chicago in 2009.[8]
The organization currently has cumainn (branches) in Austin, Champaign, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Medford, New York City, Regina, and Seattle.[9]
In 2010, it was decided that only members of the Coordinating Committee would also have dual membership in the IRSP. The current Coordinating Committee is composed of Colm Mistéil, Danielle Ní Dhighe, Tj Ó Conchúir, Eric Hayes Patkowski, and co-founder Mike Quinn.