sentences:  However he became active in working class politics.On 7 June 1896 he chaired an open-air meeting on the steps of the Custom House in Dublin which launched the Irish Socialist Republican Party, although he declined to join it himself.The first elections for Dublin Corporation under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, held on 17 January 1899, involved a huge extension of the municipal franchise, from 7,954 to 38,769 in the constabulary borough, and opened up new possibilities for working class politics.