Democratic Socialist Party (Ireland)

The Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) was a small left wing political party in the Republic of Ireland. It was a merger of Jim Kemmy's Limerick Socialist Organisation and the Socialist Party of Ireland. Jim Kemmy was an Irish politician and member of Dáil Éireann. He left the left the Labour Party in 1972.The Dynamics of Irish Politics by Paul Bew, Ellen Hazelkorn, Henry Patterson, (1989).

The party had a political stance to the left of Labour, and was strongly opposed to nationalist positions regarding Northern Ireland. Journalist Brian Trench claimed the DSP shared "the anti-republicanism and economism" of the 1980sWorkers' Party, despite disagreeing with the WP on other issues."Radical Fragments in a SouthernWilderness", Brian Trench, Fortnight Magazine, no. 196 (Jul/Aug),1983 pp. 5-6. In 1983 the party made submissions to the New Ireland Forum reflecting its non-nationalist position. It also held a strongly secularist position, opposing the influence of the Catholic Church on issues such as contraception, divorce and abortion.

The party never held any Dáil seats other than Kemmy's seat in Limerick East. Outside of Limerick City its membership was very small, although its positions on Northern Ireland and...
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