Democratic Socialist Party (Ireland)

This article is about the political party dissolved in 1990. For the political party founded in 2015, see Social Democrats (Ireland).

Democratic Socialist Party
Founder and Leader	Jim Kemmy
Founded	1972
Dissolved	1990
Merger of	Limerick Socialist Organisation Socialist Party of Ireland
Merged into	Labour Party
Ideology	Democratic socialism, Secularism Anti-nationalism
Political position	Left-wing
Politics of the Republic of Ireland Political parties Elections

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 Labour Party in 1972. A number of members of the British and Irish Communist Organisation also joined the party.

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 1980s Workers' Party, despite disagreeing with the WP on other issues. 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 the Catholic Church attracted members of the British and Irish Communist Organisation (BICO) to it. In 1982, the Socialist Party of Ireland joined.

It merged with the Labour Party in 1990. Many of the BICO members in the party later joined the Democratic Left when that party was established in 1992.

A number of former members became successful electorally with the Labour Party such as Limerick TD Jan O'Sullivan, Dublin TD Michael Conaghan who was Lord Mayor of Dublin in 2004 and TD Eamonn Maloney. The historian John de Courcy Ireland was also a member of the party and a candidate in the 1984 European elections.

List of the DSP electoral candidates

Election	Candidate	Constituency
February 1982 general election	Jim Kemmy	Limerick East
1982 Dublin West by-election	Michael Conaghan	Dublin West
November 1982 general election
	Garry O'Sullivan	Cork South-Central
	Philip O'Connor	Dublin North-Central
	Séamus Rattigan	Dublin South-Central
	Denis O'Connor	Dublin South
	Michael Conaghan	Dublin West
	John de Courcy Ireland	Dún Laoghaire
	Jim Kemmy	Limerick East
1984 European Parliament election	John de Courcy Ireland	Dublin
1987 general election
	Philip O'Connor	Dublin North-Central
	Eamonn Maloney	Dublin South-West
	Michael Conaghan	Dublin West
	Jim Kemmy	Limerick East
1989 general election
	Michael Conaghan	Dublin West
	Jim Kemmy	Limerick East

General election results

Election	Seats won	±	Position	First Pref votes	%	Government	Leader
1982 (Nov)	0 / 166		None	7,012	0.4%	No Seats	Jim Kemmy
1987	1 / 166	1	6th	7,424	0.4%	Opposition	Jim Kemmy
1989	1 / 166		6th	9,836	0.6%	Opposition	Jim Kemmy