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===Becoming a Trotskyist===
Merrigan joined the [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Irish Labour Party]] in 1942<ref name="Lysaght">{{cite web |url=http://www.workersrepublic.org/Pages/Ireland/Trotskyism/merriganobit1.html |title=Matt Merrigan - a Political Assessment |last=O'Connor Lysaght |first=DR |date=2000 |website= |publisher= |access-date=14 January 2021 |quote=}}</ref> and stood successfully as a Labour candidate in the [[1942 Irish local elections]], earning himself a seat on the [[Dublin City Council|Dublin Corporation]].<ref name="Lysaght"/> However, the presence of people such as Merrigan (and more significantly, figures such as [[James Larkin]]) as Labour members triggered a split in the party as certain sections believed that the party was being infiltrated by Communists. In response, [[William O'Brien (trade unionist)|William O'Brien]] and [[James Everett (politician)|James Everett]] took a sizable portion of the Labour membership and split off to form the [[National Labour Party (Ireland)|National Labour Party]]. The National Labour Party would contest the [[1944 Irish general election]] and the [[1948 Irish general election]] separately from Labour.
Merrigan for his part became involved in Trotskyist groups in Ireland. In 1942 he came into contact with Jim McClean and Bob Armstrong, members of the Belfast section of the [[Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1944)|Revolutionary Communist Party]]. Armstrong was a former member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] and had fought in the [[Spanish Civil War]]. It was Armstrong's experience in Spain that had turned him against [[Stalinism]]. Influenced by McClean and Armstrong, Merrigan began to organise a branch in Dublin.<ref name="Third Camp">{{cite web |url=https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2013/07/17/matt-merrigan-fighter-third-camp-ireland |title=Matt Merrigan: a fighter for the Third Camp in Ireland |last= |first= |date= |website= |publisher= |access-date=14 January 2021 |quote=}}</ref>
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===Operating in the Labour Party===
Influenced by the ideas of the American [[Trotskyite|Trotskyist]] revisionist [[Max Shachtman]], Merrigan wrote for the journal of Shachtman's [[International Socialist League (UK)|International Socialist League]] into the 1950s. Investing himself in reading socialist theoretical literature, he attended both the People's College and the Review Group classes of [[John de Courcy Ireland]], as well as attending a correspondence course with the British National Council of Labour Colleges.<ref name="DIB"/>
Merrigan unsuccessfully contested the [[1954 Irish general election|1954 general election]] in [[Dublin South-West (Dáil constituency)|Dublin South-West]]. He was the lowest placed of three Labour candidates in the constituency and lost his deposit.<ref name="DIB"/>
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