The Labour Party is a social democratic political party in Ireland, founded in 1912 in County Tipperary as the Marxist political wing of the trade union congress. The party's founders were the labor union activists James Connolly, James Larkin, and William X. O'Brien, and the party supported democratic socialism and independence from the United Kingdom, arming the Irish Volunteers to protect laborers from the police. Labour was one of the few Irish parties to not trace its origins to Sinn Fein, and it became one of the largest left-wing parties in the country during the early 20th century. The Labour Party had the distinction of having the second-longest time in government, spending 19 years as a part of a coalition government with Fianna Fail, the only party to beat the Labour Party's record of consecutive years spent in the government. The party was in a coalition government with Fine Gael six times and with Fianna Fail once, maintaining its political influence. In 2017, the party held 7/158 Dail Eireann seats, 5/60 Seanad Eireann seats, and 50/949 local government seats.
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