Seamus Costello

Seamus Costello was an Irish politician who played a key role in the republican movement and the socialist movement in Ireland. He joined the IRA and Sinn Féin at the age of 16 and participated in the border campaign of 1956-62. He was arrested and interned several times, but used his time in prison to study and develop his political views. He was influenced by the Vietnamese struggle for independence and the Cuban revolution, and advocated for a combination of armed struggle and grassroots activism. He was elected to both Bray Urban District Council and Wicklow County Council in 1966, and became a prominent figure in the left-wing faction of the republican movement. He supported the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and opposed the split in the IRA and Sinn Féin in 1969-70. He remained loyal to the Official IRA and Official Sinn Féin, which later became the Workers' Party. He became the vice-president of the party and the chief of staff of the Official IRA. He was involved in several initiatives to end the violence and achieve a political settlement, such as the 1972 ceasefire and the 1975 truce. However, he also clashed with the leadership of the party over the direction and strategy of the movement. He opposed the ceasefire policy and the gradual abandonment of republicanism and socialism. He also criticised the party for being too bureaucratic and elitist, and for neglecting the interests of the working class and the rural poor. He advocated for more democracy and participation within the party, and for more cooperation with other left-wing groups and trade unions. He also called for a revival of the armed struggle against British imperialism and the establishment of a socialist republic in Ireland. In 1974, he was expelled from the party for alleged indiscipline and factionalism. He then founded the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), which aimed to continue the fight for a united and socialist Ireland. He became the leader of the IRSP and the INLA, and tried to build a mass movement that would challenge the status quo in both parts of Ireland. He faced fierce opposition and repression from the British and Irish states, as well as from his former comrades in the Official IRA and the Workers' Party, who accused him of being a traitor and a splitter. He was also involved in a violent feud with the Provisional IRA, which saw him as a rival and a threat. He was assassinated by a gunman from the Official IRA on 5 October 1977 in Dublin, becoming the first party leader to be killed in the state. He was buried in his hometown of Bray, where he was mourned by thousands of people. He is remembered as a visionary and a revolutionary, who dedicated his life to the cause of Irish freedom and social justice.