:''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 as the Movement for a Revolutionary Communist Internationa ...

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

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

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. 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 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 (; meaning 'Free Ireland') was a far-left political organisation 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 Peadar ...

. In time the group developed distinct

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

and

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

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 Comm ...

. 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 London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

among exiled political activists, was failing and handed over their journal to

Sean Matgamna Sean Matgamna is an Irish Trotskyist active in Britain. A founder of Workers' Fight in 1966, he is still a prominent member of the group, now called the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Early life Matgamna was born in 1941 in Ennis, County Clare ...

and Rachel Lever who were about to launch Workers Fight. A section with support in Ireland then formed the League for a Workers Republic which entered discussions with the

Socialist Labour League The Workers Revolutionary Party 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 Gerry Healy ...

, British affiliate of the

International Committee of the Fourth International The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) is the name of two Trotskyist internationals; one with sections named Socialist Equality Party which publishes the World Socialist Web Site, and another linked to the Workers Rev ...

. Other members of the IWG later influential in the Irish far-left were

Eamonn McCann Eamonn McCann (born 10 March 1943) is an Irish politician, journalist, political activist, and former councillor from Derry, Northern Ireland. McCann was a People Before Profit (PBP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Foyle from 201 ...

, 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