Proinsias De Rossa (born Francis Ross on 15 May 1940, in Dublin) is an Irish Labour Party politician and former President of the Workers Party and subsequently leader of Democratic Left. May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ... Logo of the Irish Labour Party The Irish Labour Party (Irish: Páirti an Lucht Oibre) is the third largest political party in the Republic of Ireland. ... Politics is the process by which groups make decisions. ... Categories: Ireland-related stubs | Irish political parties | Republic of Ireland political parties | Northern Ireland political parties ... In Ireland, Democratic Left was a socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland between 1992 and 1997. ...

He was Minister for Social Welfare from 1994 to 1997. Since 1999 he has been a member of the European Parliament in the Party of European Socialists group. The Minister for Social & Family Affairs is the chief person at the Department of Social & Family Affairs in the Irish Government. ... 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... The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a European political party whose members are 33 social democratic, socialist and labour parties of the European Union member states as well as Norway. ...

Early political activity

De Rossa was educated at Marlborough Street National School and Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Kevin Street. He was politically active in Sinn Féin and the IRA from an early age, and was interned in the Curragh from 1956 until 1959 for his part in the Border Campaign (IRA). Sinn Féin (pronounced in English, in Irish) is a name used by a series of Irish political movements of the 20th century, each of which claimed sole descent from the original party established by Arthur Griffith in 1905. ... Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, the Irish Republican Army in the 26 counties that were to become the Irish Free State split between supporters and opponents of the Treaty. ... Internment camp for Japanese in Canada during World War II Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. ... The Curragh is a plain in County Kildare Ireland. ... The Border Campaign (December 12, 1956 - February 26, 1962) was an operation (codenamed Operation Harvest) carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against targets in Northern Ireland. ...

He worked in his family's fruit and vegetable shop and later was employed as a postman and an encyclopaedia salesman. He took the Official Sinn Féin side in the 1970 split. In 1977 he contested his first general election for the party, which that year was renamed Sinn Féin the Workers Party (in 1982 the name changed again to The Workers Party). Official Sinn Féin (later renamed Sinn Féin the Workers Party) was a Stalinst political party which evolved from the split in Sinn Féin and the IRA that took place in 1970. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Categories: Ireland-related stubs | Irish political parties | Republic of Ireland political parties | Northern Ireland political parties ...

He was successful on his third attempt in February 1982, and retained his Dublin North-West seat until 2002, when he did not contest the general election in order to devote more time to his work in the European parliament.

Workers Party leadership and split

In 1988, De Rossa succeeded Tomás Mac Giolla as president of the Workers Party. The party had been growing steadily in the 1980s and had its best ever electoral performance in the general and European elections held in 1989. The party won 7 Dáil seats with 5% of the vote. De Rossa himself was elected to the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency, where he topped the poll and the party almost succeeded in replacing Fine Gael as the capital's second-largest party. Tomás Mac Giolla (1924- ) is a former Irish politician. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ... Fine Gael (IPA: , though often anglicized to (approximate English translation: Family of the Irish) and officially, Fine Gael - The United Ireland Party, is the second largest political party in Ireland, presently forming the largest opposition party in the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament), and claims a membership of over 34,000. ...

In 1992, long-standing tensions within the Workers Party pitting reformers, including most of the party's Teachtaí Dála (members of Dáil Éireann), against hardliners centred around party general secretary Seán Garland came to a head. Disagreements on policy issues were exacerbated by the desire of the reformers to ditch the democratic centralist nature of the party structures and remove any remaining questions about alleged party links with the Official IRA, a topic which had been the subject of persistent and embarrassing media coverage. De Rossa called a Special Ard Fheis (party congress) to debate changes to the constitution. The motion failed to get the required two-thirds majority and subsequently De Rossa led the majority of the parliamentary group and councillors out of a meeting of the party's Central Executive Committee, splitting the party. Seán Garland (born 7 March 1934) is president of the Workers Party of Ireland. ... Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. ... The term Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA refers to one of the two organisations - the other being the Provisional Irish Republican Army - that emerged from the split in the then Irish Republican Army in 1969-70. ...

Democratic Left

De Rossa and the other former Workers Party members then established a new political party, provisionally called New Agenda. At its founding conference in March 1992 it was named Democratic Left and De Rossa was elected party leader. Later that year, he resigned his European Parliament seat in favour of Democratic Left general secretary Des Geraghty. In Ireland, Democratic Left was a socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland between 1992 and 1997. ...

Following the collapse of the Fianna Fáil-Labour Party coalition government in 1994, Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left successfully negotiated a government programme for the remaining life of the 27th Dáil. De Rossa became Minister for Social Welfare. In his term of office he initiated Ireland's first national anti-poverty strategy as well as a commission on the family and a commission to examine national pension policy. His tenure was not without controversy however and the 1995 Budget allocation of 2.5% to pensioners and the unemployed led to widespread criticism of De Rossa. Later he was heavily criticised for the number of Democratic Left party members who had been appointed by the government to state boards and he was forced to apologise to the Dáil after a job in his office was advertised only in a Democratic Left internal newsletter. Fianna Fáil - The Republican Party (IPA ; (mistranslated by the party into English as Soldiers of Destiny, though a literal translation is Soldiers [Fianna] of Ireland),¹ is currently the largest political party in Ireland with 55,000 members. ... Logo of the Irish Labour Party The Irish Labour Party (Irish: Páirti an Lucht Oibre) is the third largest political party in the Republic of Ireland. ... Fine Gael (IPA: , though often anglicized to (approximate English translation: Family of the Irish) and officially, Fine Gael - The United Ireland Party, is the second largest political party in Ireland, presently forming the largest opposition party in the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament), and claims a membership of over 34,000. ... The Minister for Social & Family Affairs is the chief person at the Department of Social & Family Affairs in the Irish Government. ... Democratic Left is the name of a number of political parties: In Ecuador, Democratic Left led by Guillermo Landazuri. ...

After the 1997 general election and the defeat of the outgoing coalition, Democratic Left merged with the Labour Party. Labour leader Ruairí Quinn became leader of the unified party while De Rossa took up the symbolic post of party president, which he held until 2002. Ruairi Quinn (born 1946) is an Irish politician. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

In 1999 Proinsias De Rossa contested the European Parliament election in Dublin. He was elected and in the 2004 elections retained his seat. De Rossa did not contest his Dáil seat in the 2002 general election. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dáil Éireann[1] is the lower house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of the Republic of Ireland. ...

His work as an MEP

De Rossa has been an active member of the European Parliament with a strong pro-integration approach from a distinctly Social Democratic perspective, as well as a keen interest in foreign policy and social policy. Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ...

De Rossa was a member of the European convention which produced the July 2003 draft European constitution. The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union. ...

On the controversial European software patent directive, De Rossa was initially unsure (see[[1]], [audio file of De Rossa speech]). De Rossa was absent for the first reading of the directive the Parliament. The European Union (EU) Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions (2002/0047/COD) was a proposal for an EU law which aimed to harmonise EU national patent laws and practices, which involved the granting of patents for computer-implemented inventions provided they meet certain criteria. ...

He later took a position against the patentability of software. When the directive was rejected on the second reading, he made a statement confirming his continued stance against software patentability (see [[2]]).

Sources

• The Politics of Illusion: A Political History of the IRA, Henry Patterson, ISBN 1-897959-31-1
• The Workers Party in Dáil Éireann: The First Ten Years, The Workers Party, 1991
• Patterns of Betrayal: The Flight From Socialism, The Workers Party, 1992

External links

• Website of Proinsias De Rossa
• Page on Labour.ie
• CV and functions (European Parliament)