The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America (IRSCNA) was founded at a conference held March 23–25, 1984 in Saint Paul, Minnesota as a support group for the Irish Republican Socialist Movement. In 1998, it was recognized as the North American section of the IRSM. For most of its history, the IRSCNA was based in San Francisco, California, but is now based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The IRSCNA contributes financially to the Irish Republican Socialist Party. History There had been discussion of whether to establish a distinct, partisan support group for the IRSM from at least 1981, as October of that year was the first time someone was allowed to join the Irish Republican Socialist Party while resident in North America, when activists Caitlin Hines and Peter Lorenzen were admitted to the party, but it was agreed that a broad front type of formation best suited the needs of the IRSM at the time. The IRSP's leadership favored pursuit of support through work in broad front organizations. As a result, a network of IRSP supporters and members developed within the H-Block/Armagh Committees of the U.S. and Canada. With the growing and increasingly overt hostility of the Provisional Republican Movement (Provisional Sinn Féin and the Provisional Irish Republican Army) toward the IRSM, it was determined by supporters in North America that it was no longer effective to attempt to work exclusively through broad front formations and the Ard Chomhairle (National Executive) of the IRSP was petitioned for permission to establish a distinct support group for the IRSM. Brigid Makowski from Derry, then the treasurer of the IRSP and an elected Shannon Town councillor, represented the IRSP at the IRSCNA's founding convention. Delegates to the founding convention came from New York City, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Eugene, Oregon, with fraternal greetings received from Vancouver, British Columbia and Regina, Saskatchewan. Formal IRSP sanction and mandate was provided by the Ard Chomhairle of the IRSP in a letter from the IRSP's then General Secretary in 1986 and recognition of the exclusivity of the IRSCNA's mandate for North America was reiterated by the Ard Chomhairle in 1987. The IRSCNA grew steadily, creating in new chapters in the states of Florida, Arizona, Virginia, Washington, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Ohio, as well as the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. The Irish Political Prisoners Children's Fund was founded by members of the IRSCNA