Editing Workers' Party (Ireland) (section)

====OIRA ceasefire====
[[File:Tomás Mac Giolla (cropped).jpg|thumb|200px|[[Tomás Mac Giolla]] served as leader of the Workers' Party for over a quarter of a century]]
Although the Official IRA became drawn into the spiralling violence of the early period of conflict in [[Northern Ireland]], it almost immediately reduced its military campaign against the [[United Kingdom]]'s armed presence in Northern Ireland, declaring a permanent ceasefire in May 1972. Following this, the movement's political development increased rapidly throughout the 1970s.<ref name=lost/>

On the national question, the Officials saw the struggle against religious sectarianism and bigotry as their primary task. The party's strategy stemmed from the "stages theory": firstly, working-class unity within Northern Ireland had to be achieved, followed by the establishment of a [[united Ireland]], and finally a socialist society would be created in Ireland.<ref>See Swan,(pgs 303,330) and Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, ''The Lost Revolution'', 2009 (pgs. 220, 256–7).</ref>