:''See Irish Workers' Group (1976) for the Irish Workers' Group which was a member of the

League for a Fifth International The League for the Fifth International (L5I) is an international grouping of revolutionary Trotskyist organisations around a common programme and perspectives. History L5I was founded in 1989 as the Movement for a Revolutionary Communist Inter ...

.'' The Irish Workers' Group (IWG) was a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in Ireland. It originated as the Irish Workers Union, which later called itself the Irish Communist Group,See'' International Trotskyism, 1929-1985'' by Robert Jackson Alexander, Duke University Press, 1991 (pg. 570). and contained a variety of people who all considered themselves to be Marxists. Some were from an

Irish Republican Irish republicanism () is the political movement for an Irish republic, void of any British rule. Throughout its centuries of existence, it has encompassed various tactics and identities, simultaneously elective and militant and has been both w ...

background, and some, including Gerry Lawless,"''In 1965 he awlessset up the Irish Workers Group (IWG), the first Irish Trotskyist group since the 1940s. The IWG was small, but politically formative for a number of people who subsequently played significant roles in the Irish left – in particular, the leaders of People’s Democracy in the North.''
Maverick socialist whose charm won him friends in unlikely places
(Obituary of Gerald Lawless). ''The Irish Times'', 28 January 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2012. also became involved in

Saor Éire Saor Éire (; ) was a far-left political organisation in the Irish Free State established in September 1931 by communist-leaning members of the Irish Republican Army, with the backing of the IRA leadership. Notable among its founders was Pead ...

. In time the group developed distinct

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

and

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

wings. The latter broke away to form the Irish Communist Organisation, which evolved into the

British and Irish Communist Organisation The British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO) was a small group based in London, Belfast, Cork, and Dublin. Its leader was Brendan Clifford. The group produced a number of pamphlets and regular publications, including ''The Irish Commu ...

. The former became the Irish Workers' Group, set up by Lawless. The IWG produced a paper ''Irish Militant'' and a theoretical journal ''An Solas/Workers' Republic''. By 1967 the IWG, then based in London among exiled political activists, was failing and handed over their journal to Sean Matgamna and Rachel Lever who were about to launch Workers Fight. A section with support in Ireland then formed the

League for a Workers Republic The League for a Workers' Republic (LWR) was a Trotskyist organisation in Ireland. Foundation It was founded in 1968 by members of the Irish Workers' Group, which was mainly centred on Irish emigrants to Britain and was itself the result of ...

which entered discussions with the

Socialist Labour League The Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) is a Trotskyist group in Britain once led by Gerry Healy. In the mid-1980s, it split into several smaller groups, one of which retains possession of the name. The Club The WRP grew out of the faction Ger ...

, British affiliate of the

International Committee of the Fourth International The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) is a public faction of the Fourth International founded in 1953. Today, two Trotskyist List of Trotskyist internationals, internationals claim to be the continuations of the ICFI; o ...

. Other members of the IWG later influential in the Irish

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

were

Eamonn McCann Eamonn McCann (born 10 March 1943) is an Irish political activist, former politician and journalist from Derry, Northern Ireland. McCann was a People Before Profit (PBP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Foyle from 2016 to 2017. In ...

, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party, and Michael Farrell, a leader of the now defunct People's Democracy. This group seems to have ceased to exist in the late 1960s. A later Irish Workers' Group was an organisation that split from the Socialist Workers Movement in 1976. It maintained links with the British Workers Power group and the

.Glossary of the Left in Ireland 1960-83
/ref>

References

{{Authority control All-Ireland political parties Defunct political parties in Northern Ireland Defunct political parties in the Republic of Ireland Socialist parties in Ireland Trotskyist organisations in Ireland Trotskyist organisations in Northern Ireland