[5] Along with other activists, he was dissatisfied with the group's tactics and policies, especially on the issues surrounding the 1972 OIRA ceasefire and his growing belief that the emerging conflict was sectarian.

[12] In December 1975 she resigned following the failure of a motion to be passed which would have brought the INLA under the control of the IRSP Ard Comhairle (executive committee).

[20][21][22] Three members of the INLA and IRSP died in the 1981 Irish hunger strike in HM Prison Maze, also known as Long Kesh: Patsy O'Hara, Kevin Lynch, and Michael Devine.

[9] The IPLO, which was heavily involved in drug dealing, was forcibly disbanded by the Provisional IRA in a large scale operation in 1992.

[35] In November 2016, after a number of raids on members of the party's homes, the IRSP issued a warning saying the PSNI were "playing with fire".

IRSP's Lower Falls representative Michael Kelly claimed that "British security forces risk bringing serious conflict onto the streets" and said that "The Irish Republican Socialist Party has been in existence for over 40 years, in that time we have never tolerated attacks on our membership from any quarter," The comments drew criticism from UUP MLA Doug Beattie and SDLP Alex Attwood.

[36] During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the IRSP launched Republican Socialist Aid, which aimed to distribute PPE to healthcare and essential workers in communities across Ireland at risk of exposure to the virus.

[37][38][39] In September 2020 the IRSP started a 'Drop The Rents' campaign,[40] requesting landlords and letting agencies in North Belfast and West Belfast to lower their rent prices to local housing benefit levels and protesting against landlords and letting agencies that would not [41] and that issued threats of eviction.

[54] The IRSP put forward five candidates in the 2011 Northern Ireland local elections, its first foray into electoral politics in almost 30 years.

The IRSP also see their own modern policies as the "logical development in the twenty-first century of the programme established under Connolly’s leadership by the Irish Socialist Republican Party".

[62] As of 11 October 2009, the INLA has ordered an end to the armed struggle,[4] because unlike during the Troubles, the current political stance in Ulster allows the IRSP to contest fairly in new campaigns and local elections, as mentioned in their 2009 statement.

INLA admitted to "faults and grievous errors" in their prosecution of the armed struggle, stating that "innocent people were killed and injured" and offering "as revolutionaries" a "sincere and heartfelt apology".

It included a picture of IRSP members posing in front of Free Derry Corner with the flags of the Soviet Union and the Donetsk Republic.

[66] In August 2022, IRSP members and Russian nationalists staged a protest against the Ukrainian military, outside Dublin's General Post Office.

[67] IRSP members have publicly supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the INLA have been accused of receiving "dark money" from the Russian state.

In 2006 it proclaimed on its website that "The Starry Plough is the only paper that stands firmly against British rule and for the destruction of capitalism in Ireland.

The decision to use the name the Starry Plough was inspired by a newspaper produced by Official Sinn Féin in Derry City in the early 1970s.

[77] Subsequent editors included Osgur Breatnach, James Daly, Mary Reid, Seamus Ruddy and (again) Mick Ahern.

Important contributors have included Bernadette McAliskey, Tom Hayes, Ite Ni Chionnaith, Eamonn McCann, Niall Leonach, Redmond O'Hanlon, Gerry Lawless, Siobhan Molloy, and London SWP cartoonist Phil Evans.