The 32 County Sovereignty Movement (often abbreviated to 32CSM or 32csm) is an Irish republican political organisation favouring a united Ireland and British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. Many of its founder members had previously been involved in a subgroup of Sinn Féin called the 32 County Sovereignty Committee.
The organisation was founded on 7 December 1997 at a meeting in Fingal in the Republic of Ireland by republican activists who were opposed to the direction taken by Sinn Féin and other mainstream republican politicians in the peace process, which would lead to the Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement) the following year. The same division in the republican movement led to the paramilitary group known as the Real Irish Republican Army breaking away from the Provisional IRA at around the same time. The 32 County Sovereignty Movement is often considered to be the ‘politcal wing’ of the Real IRA (for instance it is referred to as such in [1]). Most of its founders had been members of Sinn Féin; some had been expelled from the party and others felt they had not been properly able to air their concerns within Sinn Féin at the direction its leadership had taken. Prior to the referranda on the Good Friday Agreement the 32CSM lodged a legal submission with the United Nations challenging British sovereignty in Ireland.
The name refers to the 32 counties of Ireland which were established when the whole island of Ireland was under British rule. 26 of these counties now form the Republic of Ireland and the other six remain under British control as Northern Ireland.
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