“It is with deep sadness and regret that the Workers Party announces the death of Sean Garland, a life-long comrade, a member of the Party’s Central Executive Committee and one of the people who most influenced and shaped the Workers Party over many decades.

Party President Michael Donnelly has paid tribute to Mr Garland saying that he was “a unique and charismatic individual whose contribution to Irish political life cannot be overestimated”.

The socialist project

“Sean never took the easy option or the path of least resistance”, he said, “he always based his decisions, and his actions, on what he adjudged to be in the best interests of working class people and the revolutionary socialist project.”

Internationalism

“Sean’s contribution to rethinking and redefining the republicanism of the late 1950s and early 1960s was immense. It changed the course of progressive political thought, emphasised the internationalism of the class politics of the Workers Party and the common struggle of all workers wherever they lived and decisively rejected the narrow nationalism that others chose to pursue with catastrophic consequences.”

Legacy

“Comrade Sean Garland devoted his life to the struggle to build a socialist future. His legacy and his influence will endure in the class politics which he espoused and in the generations of working people at home and abroad that he has influenced and inspired. We extend our deepest sympathy to his family at this time. We have all lost a fearless revolutionary standard bearer, a colossus of socialist politics, a comrade and friend”, Mr Donnelly concluded.