Éirígí

Éirígí is a socialist republican political party in Ireland. It was formed by a small group of activists in Dublin in April 2006 as a political campaigns group. On 12 May 2007, at the party's first árd fheis (conference), its members voted to become a fully-fledged political party, and at its 2009 conference passed a motion to register as a political party in the Republic of Ireland. Since March 2010, the party has been registered to contest local elections only. The party Chairman is currently Brian Leeson. Breandán Mac Cionnaith was elected General Secretary in May 2009.

The party name, "Éirígí", means "rise" in the second person plural imperative in Irish and is a reference to a quote from the Irish trade union leader, Jim Larkin: "The great appear great to us only because we are on our knees; let us rise!" In 2009, it gained its first local councillors when two former Sinn Féin councillors, Dungannon councillor Barry Monteith and Dublin city councillor Louise Minihan, joined the organisation.

Aims
The party seeks a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland and the establishment of a 32-county republic based on democratic socialist principles. Established in 2006, shortly before the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, Éirígí was originally set up as a Dublin-based campaigns group. Éirígí has participated in a range of campaigns including Shell to Sea and Reclaim the Republic which involved the organisation distributing 60,000 1916 Proclamations nationwide.

The twentieth Independent Monitoring Commission report said the group was "a small political grouping based on revolutionary socialist principles". While it continues to be a political association, albeit with aggressive protest activities, it was not seen as paramilitary in nature.

Emblem
For its emblem, the party uses a green star as it incorporates both the national colour of Ireland and the international symbol of socialist struggle. The full national colours of the Irish state are achieved when the green star is combined with the word éirígí in the colour orange (signifying the cultural identity of some of Ireland's Protestants) set on to a white background. The green star is also the symbol of the international language Esperanto, which the party supports as an alternative to English. The party derives its position on Esperanto from the Irish Socialist leader James Connolly, who supported its use.