Independent Republican

Under Independent Republican ( Irish poblachtach neamhspleách, dt independent Republican) as candidates Irish republicans to elections in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the 1920s.

The election candidates there are mostly members of the Sinn Fein or the Irish Republican Army ( IRA). These organizations used the title Independent Republican, especially in elections if their organizations were banned or they had to worry that they have problems with the voter registration. The term is also used more generally for candidates of Sinn Féin and used in other contexts, or to candidates who have withdrawn from the above organizations, such as Oliver Hughes, brother of the hunger strikers Francis Hughes, who is running for the local elections of 2011.

In Northern Ireland, as a candidate under the Independent Republican Gerry McGeough, for example, and Frank Maguire. Bobby Sands stood as a candidate under this name during the Irish hunger strike in 1981 and won out this election from prison. A month after winning the election, he died on hunger strike.