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Republican Socialist Collective

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Republican Socialist Collective
LeaderJimmy Brown
FounderJimmy Brown
Gerard Steenson
Martin 'Rook' O'Prey
Founded1986 (1986)
Dissolved1992
Split fromIrish Republican Socialist Party
NewspaperSocialist Republican[1]
Paramilitary wingIrish People's Liberation Organisation
Ideology
Political positionFar-left

The Republican Socialist Collective was a fringe Irish republican political group in Northern Ireland formed in 1986. The RSC was formed at the behest of Jimmy Brown to serve as the political arm of the Irish People's Liberation Organisation, a splinter group of the Irish National Liberation Army formed by Gerard Steenson, Jimmy Brown and Martin 'Rook' O'Prey.[2][3] Ideologically the group endorsed a militant brand of revolutionary socialism.[4]

Although the party did not take part in any elections it did organise a number of public meetings and debates in Belfast and Newry.[2] It was disestablished at the end of October 1992 when the Provisional IRA eliminated the IPLO, whilst Brown was killed earlier in August by a rival faction within the IPLO shortly before an internal feud began.[2][5]

The group also published a quarterly newspaper called the Socialist Republican.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Socialist Republican, Vol. 1, No. 1". Socialist Republican Collective. 3 June 1988.
  2. ^ a b c "Irish Nationalist & Irish Republican political groups". Archived from the original on 18 August 2011.
  3. ^ Leslie, David (15 May 2014). Lighting Candles: A Paramilitary's War with Death, Drugs and Demons. Black & White Publishing. ISBN 9781845027940. While Manny was in jail, the arguing and infighting had come to a head and a core of the INLA, including Gerard Steenson, Manny's good friend Jimmy Brown and Martin 'Rook' O'Prey, had broken away and set up the Irish People's Liberation Organisation. At Brown's behest, a political wing, the Republican Socialist Collective was also formed.
  4. ^ Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish political organizations: parties, groups and movements of the 20th century, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000, p. 247
  5. ^ McDonald, Henry; Holland, Jack (2010). INLA - Deadly Divisions. Poolbeg. p. 420. ISBN 9781842234389.