18 Facts About Saoradh

Saoradh is a far-left political party and pressure group formed by dissident Irish republicans in 2016.

Saoradh believes that Ireland should be governed by the Irish People with the wealth and wealth-producing mechanisms in the ownership of the Irish People.

Saoradh will seek to organise and work with the Irish People rather than be consumed and usurped by the structures of Ireland's enemies,.

Saoradh's emblem combines the sunburst flag with the socialist red star, a pike which references the 1798 United Irishmen Rebellion, and the three national colours of Ireland: green, white and orange.

Saoradh added that it "will be very interesting to see what, if any, support this new political party will have".

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Ulster Unionist Party declared that it welcomed anyone engaging in the political process but that Saoradh have adopted "a tired and outdated abstentionist programme that has failed in the past and will fail again".

Saoradh said nobody had invited her or told her the branch would be named after him and added that she didn't know if he would have approved of it.

In November 2020 the leadership of Saoradh was contacted by the national chairman of Sinn Fein, Declan Kearney, who sought to include Saoradh alongside other Republican groups in a united campaign for a Border Poll in Northern Ireland.

Saoradh did not respond to the request and later stated they would not support any border poll or referendum on Irish unification unless that poll's electorate was the entirety of Ireland, not two separate referendums in the jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein defended the action saying the inclusion of groups such as Saoradh would bring those groups into the democratic process.

Saoradh held an Easter Rising commemoration parade in front of the General Post Office, the main site of the Rising in 1916, in Dublin on Easter Saturday, 21 April, less than three days after the death of McKee.

In November 2019, five properties associated with Saoradh including the party's headquarters, were raided by anti-terror police allegedly on the basis that an illegal lottery was being run.

Saoradh called the raid an attempt to "thwart community activism and the support network for current Republican Prisoners and their dependents" and claimed that since its inception in 2016, harassment of Irish republicans by security forces had been "stepped up".

Collins, a former Saoradh member, alleged that the agents tried to pressure him into infiltrating republican groups by claiming a "prominent republican" was out to get him and that they offered a large sum of cash as leverage.

Saoradh claimed that threats of violence were made by the agents against his family members and that during one of the occasions he was held at gunpoint and led to a room by Spanish police in at a Majorcan airport.

Saoradh claimed he was led to a small room where two people claiming to be of "British Military Intelligence" attempted to recruit him as a human intelligence asset.

Saoradh seeks to establish a 32-county socialist republic across the island of Ireland, regarding Northern Ireland's status in the UK as an "illegal occupation".

Shortly after the killing of journalist Lyra McKee, Saoradh released a statement that it was not linked to the New IRA nor any other organisation.