page_title: Workers' Party of Ireland
section_title: The party today
hierarchical_section_title: Workers' Party of Ireland / History / The party today
caption_attribution_description: English: Workers' Party Councillor Éilis Ryan speaking at a protest at the Department of Health against ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital by the Sisters of Charity.
context_page_description: The Workers' Party is a Marxist–Leninist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
  It arose as the original Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, but took its current form in 1970 following a division within the party, in which it was the larger faction. This majority group continued under the same leadership as Sinn Féin or Official Sinn Féin, while the breakaway group became known as Sinn Féin or Provisional Sinn Féin. The party name was changed to Sinn Féin – The Workers' Party in 1977 and then to the Workers' Party in 1982.
  Throughout its history, the party has been closely associated with the Official Irish Republican Army. Notable organisations that derived from it include Democratic Left and the Irish Republican Socialist Party. The party has one representative at local government level: Ted Tynan on Cork City Council.
context_section_description: The Workers' Party has struggled since the early nineties to rejuvenate its fortunes in both Irish jurisdictions. The Workers' Party maintains a youth wing, Workers' Party Youth, and a Women's Committee. It also has offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Waterford. Apart from its political work at home in Ireland, it has sent numerous party delegations to international gatherings of communist and socialist parties.
  The party supported an independent anti-sectarian candidate, John Gilliland, in the 2004 European elections in Northern Ireland.
  Waterford City remained a holdout for the party in the 1990s and early 2000s. In the 1997 Irish general election Martin O'Regan narrowly failed to secure a seat in the Waterford constituency. However, in February 2008, John Halligan of Waterford resigned from the party when it refused to drop its opposition to service charges. He was later elected a TD for Waterford in the 2011 general election. The party's sole remaining councillor in Waterford lost his seat in the 2014 local elections. 
  Michael Donnelly, a Galway-based university lecturer, was elected as the party President at the party's Ard Fheis on 27 September 2014 to replace Mick Finnegan who had announced his decision to retire from the position after six years.
  
  The Workers' Party called for a No vote against the Treaty of Lisbon in both the June 2008 referendum, in which the proposal was defeated, and the October 2009 referendum, in which the proposal was approved. It was the only left-wing party to campaign for a No vote in the 2013 Seanad Abolition referendum.  It called for a Yes vote in the marriage equality referendum in 2015. The party supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum.
  The Workers' Party has undergone a revival in the Dublin area since 2014. Éilis Ryan, an independent Councillor for the North Inner City ward of Dublin City Council, joined the Workers' Party in 2015.
  The party has been heavily involved in campaigning for public housing and renters' rights as a response to the ongoing housing crisis in Ireland. In 2016 the party published Solidarity Housing, a public housing policy that proposed a cost-rental housing model for Ireland. Later that year a Workers' Party motion for 100% mixed-income public housing on the publicly owned O’Devaney Gardens site in the north inner city was passed by Dublin City Councillors, but was later overturned after an intervention by then Minister for Housing Simon Coveney.
  The party retains a strong tradition of secularism. In April 2017 Councillor Éilis Ryan organised a demonstration against the proposed control of the new National Maternity Hospital by the Sister of Charity. The Workers' Party also campaigned for a yes vote in the referendum to repeal the 8th amendment in May 2018, having been the only party in the Dáil to oppose the introduction of the 8th amendment in 1983.
caption: Workers' Party Councillor Éilis Ryan speaking at a protest at the Department of Health against ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital by the Sisters of Charity.
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