Republicanism and Constitutional Politics: Differences in Strategy
Opening
Over the past few weeks I have taken time to reflect on the political path I travelled while a member of Aontú and on the principles and views that ultimately made my departure unavoidable. My resignation in October may have appeared, from a distance, abrupt or perhaps solely due to other factors outside of my control, particularly to those who encountered it only through the controversy that followed the leaking of private messages. But the truth is that the break had taken shape long before then and the weeks since have allowed me to examine that process with clarity, calmness and a renewed sense of purpose.
Political life is often noisy. It becomes easy, especially during moments of controversy, for external narratives to drown out the internal reasoning that leads a person to take a principled stand. The time since my resignation from Aontú has given me space to look back without distractions, separate ideological questions from rumours and speak plainly about why I could no longer remain in the party. This reflection is not an act of self-justification. It is an act of political honesty and transparency.
Since long before I resigned from Aontú and in fact before I had even joined the party, I had found myself examining the assumptions that underpin modern constitutional politics in Ireland. The deeper I engaged with the writings of Ó Brádaigh, Ó Conaill, Costello, Tone, Connolly, Mellows and others who shaped the wider Republican tradition, the more evident it became to me that the constitutional structures imposed on this island are designed not to deliver national liberation but to contain it. The gap widened gradually, as I read, debated and reflected on the realities of political power in Ireland today, as well as through lived experience of those realities. My understanding of this reality deepened while I was a member of the party, especially upon looking at a purely constitutional party from within. It became increasingly clear that the differences between my own positions and the party’s strategic direction were always impossible to ignore.
Over the spring and early summer of 2025, several episodes inside the party brought that divergence into sharp focus. In March, objections were raised by the leadership to a simple Ógra graphic depicting a crown being discarded, a piece of imagery that would once have been uncontroversial in any Republican movement. Around the same time, the party leadership publicly reaffirmed its support for the Good Friday Agreement. In April, an opinion piece I had written condemning cooperation with loyalist elements in anti-immigration protests was blocked from publication. In May, a Republican motion I had drafted for the Ard Fheis was removed from the agenda without notification to myself or to members of my cumann. By June, the tone of the party’s own Wolfe Tone commemorations had come to reflect what had already become clear to me, that Aontú understood Irish Republicanism primarily as the pursuit of Irish unity within an existing constitutional framework rather than as a challenge to that framework itself.
The purpose of this writing is not to relitigate personalities or to dwell on any controversies that surfaced after my departure. It is written in the recognition that political clarity is owed both to oneself and to anyone who wishes to understand the path ahead.
The weeks following my departure from Aontú have only reinforced my belief that the Republican struggle demands seriousness of thought and a willingness to speak plainly, even when doing so invites criticism.
Political Evolution
My political journey did not begin with Aontú, nor was it shaped by the internal dynamics of any single party. Almost all of the convictions I hold today were formed long before I considered entering politics and were shaped by experiences and influences that extend far beyond the boundaries of contemporary Irish party structures. To understand why my departure from Aontú was ultimately unavoidable, it is necessary first to understand the foundations that shaped my political outlook years before I joined.
Long before I had any developed political ideology, I carried a strong instinctive hostility to hierarchy and inherited privilege. Even as a child of seven or eight, I felt an instinctive dislike for monarchy and for the notion that a person could be considered ‘above’ others by the circumstances of their birth. Though I was raised in a broadly unionist family, many of whom shared a similar discomfort with aristocratic pretensions, this early aversion to hereditary power would later form the moral foundation of my political outlook. It was, in hindsight, the first expression of an egalitarian instinct that would eventually become a much more coherent worldview.
While I am a Protestant, my political thought was never confined by the narrow frameworks of constitutional nationalism or the sectarian narratives that have long distorted political life in the Occupied Six Counties. Instead, my earliest political influences were decisively socialist and anti-imperialist. Long before I ever read Costello or Ta Power, Ó Brádaigh or Ó Conaill, Pearse or Tone, I had been shaped by the struggles of people resisting domination across the world. Among the earliest influences on my thinking were the Palestinian movement for national liberation, the Vietnamese resistance to American and French imperialism, the African revolutions that overturned colonial and apartheid systems, particularly the example of Thomas Sankara’s Burkina Faso, all of which demonstrated how sovereignty, human dignity and socialism could be combined in a coherent revolutionary project. These struggles shaped my earliest understanding of imperialism and the moral duty to resist it.
A large part of what drew me to Irish Republicanism, to the ideals articulated by Theobald Wolfe Tone, William Drennan and the United Irishmen, was that it stood alone in Irish political history as a doctrine that rejected the ethno-religious framing that had shaped centuries of conflict. Republicanism offered a vision of national liberation rooted in shared political principle, expressed in the aspiration for unity of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter under the common name of Irishman. In Tone and Drennan’s formulation I recognised, even then, the same universal, civic and anti-imperialist character that had defined many of the global movements that first shaped my political imagination.
This same anti-imperialist instinct was reinforced by my own history. The British establishment’s treatment of my Presbyterian ancestors, many of whom once stood on the side of radicalism, dissent, freedom and equality in this country, left a deep impression on me. The persecution they suffered at the hands of the British state and the Anglican Ascendancy, followed by the gradual erasure of their political legacy and of the democratic, egalitarian and often revolutionary impulses within the Presbyterian community, along with the broader manipulation of Protestant identity for imperial ends, made clear to me, even in my early teenage years, that the British state was neither a protector nor a neutral arbiter in Ireland, but a force fundamentally hostile to democracy, sovereignty and Irish nationhood itself. In time, as I read certain statistics and documents relating to the conflict in the Occupied Six Counties and learned about the lives and sacrifices of Protestant Republicans such as Ronnie Bunting and John Turnley - figures who, to my mind, established a strong modern precedent for Protestant Republicanism - my opposition to the existence of any political connection between Britain and Ireland became absolute. This conviction laid the groundwork for my eventual embrace of Republicanism.
When I was fifteen years of age, I already rejected the notion that constitutional politics could be relied upon to deliver freedom in any country, let alone in Ireland, where the institutions of political life have been manipulated and constrained by Britain for over eight centuries. This scepticism pre-dated my involvement in any party and has only strengthened with time. I have never believed that structures built to stabilise partition could somehow be repurposed to dismantle it. The more I studied history and political theory, the clearer this became.
It is important to emphasise that the political positions I hold today, on the broader issues of legitimacy, sovereignty, socialism, imperialism and, to an extent, the nature of the Irish Republic, pre-dated my membership of Aontú by years. I did not suddenly adopt these positions after joining the party, nor did they emerge in reaction to internal disagreements. They are the product of a much longer ideological development, rooted in both personal history and political conviction.
The only area where my views were still forming around the time I joined Aontú was the question of abstentionism. For most of my adult life I had been torn between abstentionism and participation, though I already leaned strongly towards opposing any presence in Stormont. I used to joke that if I were ever elected there, I would consider standing through entire sessions, because there was no chance that my Republican-minded backside would ever grace a seat in that God-forsaken chamber. It was only around May or June 2025, through deeper engagement with the legitimist tradition and a clearer understanding of the constitutional reality in Ireland today, that abstentionism became not merely the more attractive option but, in my view, the only principled one. I came to see participation in Leinster House as a concession to an illegitimate constitutional order and as something incapable of advancing either national freedom or the cause of labour in Ireland. In the months, weeks and even days leading up to my exit from the party, that conviction only sharpened. By the time I first drafted my resignation letter, months before later revising and submitting it, the question was fully settled in my mind.
In the final month before my departure, my political evolution was already evident in my actions. I found myself quietly stepping back from Aontú events and instead attending events organised by more genuinely Republican formations and collectives. These were not impulsive choices but the visible expression of a shift that had been underway for some time. The ideological break had already happened and my attendance patterns simply reflected the reality that my political home no longer lay within the party I had joined in hope of something that could be used as a vehicle to bring about real change.
By the time the formal separation occurred in mid-October, my ideological trajectory was already clear. Aontú had been moving in one direction and I had moved in another, not in haste, not in anger, but through a gradual and principled commitment to a Republican tradition older and deeper than any contemporary electoral project.
To be clear and fair to all involved, it is important to outline in concrete terms the political differences between myself and Aontú, many of which had existed since the beginning of my membership and became more pronounced over time. I have chosen to express these differences in the form of two separate lists, with one outlining Aontú’s positions and the other outlining my own.
What follows is not a critique of individuals but a straightforward comparison of political positions as I understand them.
The Points of Political Difference
Positions Held by Aontú
1. View of Constitutional Structures
Accepts Leinster House and Stormont as the governing legislatures on the island. The party operates within Leinster House and does not question the constitutional legitimacy of these institutions, regarding participation in them as a practical means of advancing Irish unity and pursuing social and legislative reforms through political methods.
2. Approach to Abstentionism
Opposes taking seats in Westminster on the grounds that it would involve taking an oath of loyalty to the British monarch. Fully participates in Leinster House sessions and, as it stands, would participate in Stormont as well.
3. Position on the Good Friday Agreement
Fundamentally supports the Good Friday Agreement and the institutions created by it, although the party has stated that certain aspects require reform. Officially opposes the St Andrews Agreement, though no comprehensive policy has yet been developed regarding it.
4. Attitude to Cross-Border Institutions
Supports North–South and East–West cooperation through existing arrangements, including those associated with the Good Friday Agreement framework. Supports the Common Travel Area arrangement.
5. Economic Policy Focus
Centre-left social democratic orientation. Advocates expanded welfare provision, higher taxation on corporations and the protection of public services. Occasionally references Nordic social-market economies as examples when discussing welfare and public policy. Supports continued foreign direct investment and operates within a capitalist economic framework rather than advocating socialist economic structures.
6. Social Policy Emphasis
The party’s membership broadly spans the centre to right of the political spectrum on social issues. Pro-life. Critical of contemporary gender identity frameworks. Generally supportive of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual rights and representation but opposes surrogacy on ethical and pro-life grounds. Partnered with the NGO Irish Network Against Racism (INAR). Believes that families and local communities are central to social wellbeing and public order and prioritises parental choice in children's upbringing and community spirit.
7. Immigration
Opposes the relatively high rate at which asylum seekers and refugees are arriving in Ireland. "Compassion and common sense" is a frequent talking point used by the party in discussions on asylum and refugee policy. Has made relatively few public statements regarding migrant workers or foreign students, although a motion calling for a cap on the number of student visas issued recently passed. Has at times proposed tighter immigration controls, including measures that could involve identity checks on individuals travelling to the Six Counties via Britain, which would effectively amount to a sea border for people.
8. Citizenship
Aontú opposes the awarding of citizenship or residency to anyone convicted of a violent crime. The party leader Peadar Tóibín voted in favour of restoring unconditional birthright citizenship in 2019.
9. Justice and Policing
Places significant emphasis on justice, transparency and accountability within the existing criminal-justice systems. The party has taken part in campaigns such as Justice for Noah Donohoe, advocating for full disclosure and independent investigation in cases where public trust in policing has broken down. While frequently critical of corruption, bureaucracy and political interference within the PSNI and An Garda Síochána, Aontú nonetheless recognises both as essential institutions of law and order. Advocates a justice system grounded in moral responsibility, community safety and rehabilitation rather than purely punitive measures. The party also calls for stronger action against organised crime, drug trafficking and sexual exploitation, while urging reforms to bring about more community-based policing and better support for victims. Its overall stance is one of reform from within and seeking to restore public faith in policing through accountability and service to the community rather than through abolition or total replacement.
10. Education
Supports parental choice in education and defends the right of faith-based schools, particularly Catholic schools, to maintain their ethos while receiving full state funding. The party is broadly supportive of denominational schooling as a means of preserving community identity and moral formation, while also recognising a role for civic and integrated education. In practice, Aontú has prioritised defending Catholic schools from perceived state overreach rather than advocating a transition toward integrated or civic models.
Promotes the teaching of Irish history, language and culture as central to national consciousness and moral character and advocates the expansion of Irish-medium education across the island.
While Aontú also supports greater access to apprenticeships and technical training as alternatives to university pathways, its education policy remains primarily focused on moral formation, social cohesion, Irish language promotion and academic achievement.
11. Strategy for Political Engagement
Fully constitutional in political outlook. Works within existing political institutions to advance its objectives.
12. International Alignment
Ireland should remain within the EU but never join any military pact while maintaining the Triple Lock mechanism. Supports a two-state solution in Palestine.
13. Attitude to the Church and State
While the vast majority of its members are Roman Catholic, the party supports separation of Church and state. Pluralism is regularly emphasised as an important value.
14. Irish Language and Culture
Strongly supportive of Irish-language revival and cultural heritage. The party advocates for comprehensive Irish-medium education from preschool to third level across the 32 counties and regularly champions the role of Irish in public life. Both the leader and deputy leader are fluent speakers of Irish.
15. Long-Term Vision for Irish Sovereignty
Views the ending of partition via entirely political means as the realisation of the promise of sovereignty outlined in the 1916 Proclamation. At present, does not oppose EU membership and uses EU membership as a key selling point of Irish unity.
Positions Held by Irvine
1. View of Constitutional Structures
Rejects the legitimacy of Leinster House and Stormont. Upholds the position that the Second Dáil was the last lawful Dáil Éireann, in keeping with the position of those who opposed the Treaty of 1921, including Comdt. Tom Maguire and the abstentionists who reaffirmed this interpretation during both the 1970 and 1986 splits.
2. Approach to Abstentionism
Opposes participation in Westminster, Leinster House or Stormont.
3. Position on the Good Friday Agreement
Opposes the Good Friday Agreement.
4. Attitude to Cross-Border Institutions
Regards such initiatives with deep scepticism, viewing them primarily as mechanisms for managing partition and maintaining British influence in Ireland rather than overcoming it.
5. Economic Policy
Left-wing and socialist in orientation. Advocates an economic system in which working people exercise direct control over production and decision-making, both within workplaces and in national and provincial economic planning. Supports the transfer of natural resources, banks, insurance and key industries into public ownership under democratic administration, ensuring that national wealth serves the people rather than private capital. Supports green industrialisation.
6. Social Policy Emphasis
Centre-right on social issues. Pro-life. Opposed to the promotion of certain gender identity frameworks to young people and opposed to surrogacy on ethical and pro-life grounds. Rejects both ethnic chauvinism and the dominance of the NGO sector, instead promoting a civic nationalist outlook grounded in loyalty to the Republic and solidarity among all who serve the Irish nation. Emphasises the importance of families and local communities in maintaining social wellbeing and public order and supports strong parental choice in children’s upbringing.
7. Immigration
Believes that the current rate of immigration is unsustainable and poses a serious threat to Ireland's social cohesion and national stability, while emphasising that employers importing cheap labour are a primary driver of the immigration crisis. While critical of the economic structures driving mass immigration, supports a humane and sustainable policy that allows space for some genuine refugees fleeing conflict or persecution as well as some international students. Advocates stricter immigration controls, including opposition to the Common Travel Area between Ireland and Britain and the introduction of identity checks on all individuals arriving in Ireland via Britain.
8. Citizenship
Believes naturalised citizenship should be granted only to those who have resided in Ireland for at least fifteen years, forfeit their previous citizenship and who demonstrate loyalty to the Irish nation and rootedness in its culture. Supports the creation of Permanent Residence Visas, similar to those used in China, as a practical alternative to full citizenship. Opposes automatic birthright citizenship.
9. Justice and Policing
Rejects political policing and denies the legitimacy of any police force operating under British jurisdiction in Ireland. Regards both the PSNI and An Garda Síochána as instruments used to preserve the existing political order. Supports the Justice for Noah Donohoe campaign and campaigns addressing miscarriages of justice involving Irish Republicans, including JFTC2. Supported calls for the release of Tony Taylor and continues to support initiatives aimed at improving the welfare of Irish Republican prisoners and raising awareness of their conditions. Advocates the development of community-based systems of justice and accountability consistent with the principles of the All-Ireland Republic.
10. Education
Supports an integrated civic model of education aimed at uniting all traditions under a shared moral and cultural framework rather than maintaining separate denominational systems. Supports continued state funding for faith-based schools in order to protect parental choice, alongside expansion of Irish-medium education. Favors a broadly Christian civic ethos in state schools emphasising duty, discipline and moral character.
Advocates a major rebalancing of Ireland’s education system toward technical education, apprenticeships and vocational training, elevating the social status and pay of skilled trades to parity with university-educated professions. Views this shift as essential to national self-reliance, productive industry and working-class dignity.
Supports the teaching of civic virtue, Irish history and the principles of the All-Ireland Republic alongside strong literacy, STEM and language education. Draws inspiration from the educational systems of Finland, Poland and socialist Yugoslavia, as well as the educational ideas of Pádraig Mac Piarais, combining moral formation with technical and academic excellence. Believes education should produce capable citizens rooted in national culture, moral integrity and service to their communities.
11. Strategy for Political Engagement
Seeks to advance the restoration of the Republic proclaimed in 1916 through community activism, political education and the assertion of Republican legitimacy.
12. International Alignment
Supports Irish withdrawal from the European Union. Supports anti-imperialist movements internationally and is strongly opposed to Zionism.
13. Attitude to the Church and State
Supports separation of Church and state while opposing efforts to remove the cultural and moral influence of Christianity from Irish public life, media and education.
14. Irish Language and Culture
Supports the revival of Gaelic culture and the Irish language as central elements of Irish national identity, while also recognising the importance of Ulster Scots cultural traditions. Supports Irish-language initiatives while personally identifying more strongly with the Ulster Scots strand of Irish heritage. Does not personally speak Irish.
15. Long-Term Vision for Irish Sovereignty
Supports the realisation of the Éire Nua programme, a 32-County Federal Democratic Socialist Republic and the convening of a Third Dáil Éireann in Athlone. Opposes Ireland’s continued membership of the European Union.
The comparison above illustrates the nature of the ideological divergence that had gradually developed during my time in Aontú. While there were areas of overlap, particularly on certain social issues, the fundamental differences concerned constitutional legitimacy, the Good Friday Agreement, the role of political institutions and the economic direction of Irish society. These differences ultimately made continued membership of the party impossible.
Why I Joined Aontú and Why I Left
It is worth briefly explaining why I joined Aontú in the first place and why I ultimately resigned, given that most of the political differences outlined above long pre-dated my membership. The only major question on which my views were still developing at the time was abstentionism. On most other issues, such as constitutional legitimacy, sovereignty and socialism, my outlook had already formed for the most part.
I joined the party because I believed, at the time, that its structure and internal culture might permit a genuinely Republican direction to be argued for and developed. Comparisons were sometimes drawn online between Peadar Tóibín’s leadership style and that of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, as well as between Aontú’s internal organisation and that of pre-1986 Sinn Féin. In theory, it seemed possible that a more principled Republican position could be advanced through internal debate and through the Ard Fheis process.
However, between the spring and early summer of 2025 it became increasingly clear that this was not the case. Expressions of more traditional Republican thinking often met resistance from within the leadership, including objections to imagery that Ógra had used, such as a simple graphic depicting a crown being discarded. Around the same time the party leadership publicly reaffirmed its support for the Good Friday Agreement and over the following months it became evident to me that acceptance of the GFA framework and participation in constitutional initiatives such as Ireland’s Future formed the core of the party’s strategic outlook. At that point it was apparent that any attempt to move the party in a more traditionally Republican direction was unlikely to succeed.
In the interest of clarity, it is also necessary to address the timing of my resignation. The ideological break described above had been developing for many months and my decision to leave the party had already taken shape during the summer of 2025. In fact, as the documents reproduced elsewhere on this site make clear, I had drafted a version of my resignation letter well before the events of October.
My departure from Aontú was therefore politically inevitable. Shortly before my resignation I was informed that I had been suspended from the party following the leaking of messages from a private group chat. That suspension, which I understood to be primarily relating to allegations of factionalism, simply accelerated the timing of a decision that had already been all but made months beforehand. The public controversy that soon emerged attached itself to that decision, but it was not the cause of it.
To put it simply, the reasons which constituted my resignation from Aontú were political, long-standing and the subject of months of reflection. The suspension only affected the timing.
The Road Ahead
With my departure from Aontú behind me, my focus is now on the work that lies ahead. The political convictions outlined here are not rhetorical gestures or abstract theories. They form the basis of the political direction I intend to pursue. My aim is to contribute to the rebuilding of a serious, coherent and principled Republican tradition, one rooted in legitimacy, sovereignty, economic justice and national democracy.
For me, the continuity of the Republic proclaimed in 1916 is not an abstract matter of historical symbolism. It is a living political question concerning authority, legitimacy and the right of the Irish people to determine their own destiny. The project of national liberation is not complete, nor can it be completed through submission to institutions designed to manage partition rather than end it. My future political work will centre on reasserting the legitimacy of the All-Ireland Republic and helping to cultivate a deeper public understanding of that tradition intellectually, culturally and organisationally.
This involves more than critique. It requires building. Over the years ahead, my intention is to work within communities across Belfast and beyond to contribute to the development of serious Republican political awareness - the kind of disciplined, historically grounded study that once produced the clarity and confidence of earlier generations. Irish politics today is saturated with noise, spectacle, branding and cheap populism. What it lacks is ideological seriousness. My aim is to help fill that vacuum, however modestly, by promoting a thoughtful and rigorous approach to Republican politics that can outlast the temporary cycles of controversy and media churn. I will also take my own advice and endeavour to learn more about Republicanism, socialism and the Irish language.
In practical terms, this means continued involvement in community activism, support for grassroots initiatives and the slow, steady work of political organisation. I remain supportive of efforts to improve the welfare of Republican prisoners, to highlight cases of political policing and to assist campaigns grounded in sovereignty, justice and anti-imperialism. These struggles are all interconnected - the fight for national freedom is inseparable from the fight for working-class power and economic justice. Any genuine Republican movement must recognise this.
I also intend to deepen my engagement with the vision of Éire Nua, not as a nostalgic document from the past, but as a living proposal for a federal, democratic socialist Republic capable of binding together all traditions on this island. The idea of a Third Dáil convening in Athlone remains, in my mind, not only a symbolic horizon but a practical statement of political legitimacy. Sovereignty can only be real when it is rooted in the democratic authority of the Irish people as a whole, expressed through institutions of their own making.
The work ahead is long-term. It requires patience, discipline and clarity of purpose. I do not view my departure from Aontú as an end point, but as a necessary step in reorienting my efforts toward the political horizon I have long believed in - a sovereign, socialist, 32-County Republic. That remains the goal, and my work in the months and years ahead will be directed toward its restoration.
Closing Statement
I harbour no ill-will towards any of the individuals I met during my time in Aontú, many of whom are sincere people trying to pursue what they believe is right. I would be genuinely happy to see many of my former Aontú colleagues elected at a council level. My disagreement was never personal, it was only ever political, ideological and rooted in fundamentally different conceptions of sovereignty, legitimacy and the path to national freedom. It is in the nature of politics that people often part ways when their convictions lead them down different roads.
I leave that chapter behind with respect and appreciation for all of those who have helped me in any way, shape or form and I look ahead with confidence. My commitment remains unchanged, to the Republic proclaimed in 1916, to the sovereignty of the Irish people, to the liberation of the working class and to a future in which Ireland stands independent, united and self-determining.
I hope that the points raised here help others understand the direction I intend to take and the political principles that guide me. I welcome contact from those who share many of these views and who hope to see a similar future for Ireland realised.
Author’s Note: This essay was originally written in November 2025, shortly after my departure from Aontú. Minor stylistic refinements were made prior to publication, but the points and positions expressed reflect my views and understanding of the events discussed at the time it was written.
