Revision 1012257101 of "James Connolly" on enwiki

{{short description|Irish republican and socialist leader}}
{{Other people}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = James Connolly
| image         = James_Connolly2.jpg
| alt = A side view black-and-white photo of Connelly in a suit
| caption       = Connolly in {{circa}} 1900
| nickname      = 
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1868|6|5|df=yes}}
| birth_place   = [[Cowgate]], [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1916|5|12|1868|6|5|df=yes}}
| death_place   = [[Kilmainham Gaol]], [[Dublin]], Ireland
| party         = {{plainlist|
*[[Social Democratic Federation]] {{small|(1892−1903)}}
*[[Irish Socialist Republican Party]] {{small|(1896–1904)}}
*[[Socialist Labor Party]] {{small|(1903–1907)}}
*[[Irish Socialist Federation]] {{small|(1904–1910)}}
*[[Socialist Party of America]] {{small|(1907–1910)}}
*[[Labour Party (Ireland)|Irish Labour Party]] {{small|(1912–1916)}}}}
|module       = {{Infobox military person
|embed        = yes
|embed_title  = Military service
| allegiance    = {{plainlist|
*[[Irish Citizen Army]]
*[[Irish Republic]]}}
| branch        = 
| serviceyears  = 1913–1916
| rank          = [[Commandant-general|Commandant General]]
| battles       = [[Easter Rising]]
| placeofburial = [[Arbour Hill Prison]], Dublin
}}}}
{{Marxism}}
'''James Connolly''' ({{lang-ga|Séamas Ó Conghaile}};<ref>Ó Cathasaigh, Aindrias. 1996. ''An Modh Conghaileach: Cuid sóisialachais Shéamais Uí Chonghaile''. Dublin: Coiscéim, ''[[passim]]''</ref> 5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) was an [[Irish republicanism|Irish republican]] and [[socialist]] leader.

Connolly was born in the [[Cowgate]] area of [[Edinburgh]], Scotland, to Irish parents. He left school for working life at the age of 11. He also took a role in [[Scottish politics|Scottish]] and [[United States|American politics]]. He was a member of the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] and founder of the [[Irish Socialist Republican Party]]. With [[James Larkin]], he was centrally involved in the [[Dublin lock-out]] of 1913, as a result of which the two men formed the [[Irish Citizen Army]] (ICA) that year. He opposed [[British rule in Ireland]], and was one of the leaders of the [[Easter Rising]] of 1916. He was executed by firing squad following the Rising.

==Early life==
Connolly was born in an Edinburgh slum in 1868, the third son of Irish parents John Connolly and Mary McGinn.<ref name=jcpbe>{{Cite book | last = Connolly | first = James |author2=Ellis, Peter Berresford | title = James Connolly: selected writings | publisher = Pluto Press | year = 1988 | location = London | page = 9 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TGwCEc2DyGgC&pg=PA9 | isbn = 978-0-7453-0267-6}}</ref>{{refn|He gave his place of birth as County Monaghan in the 1901 and 1911 censuses.<ref>{{cite web | title = 1911 Census form | work = Census of Ireland 1901/1911 | publisher = The National Archives of Ireland | url = http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000119513/ | access-date =30 October 2010}}</ref>|group=note}}  His parents had moved to Scotland from [[County Monaghan]], Ireland, and settled in the Cowgate, a [[ghetto]] where thousands of Irish people lived.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Dangerfield | first = George | title = James Joyce, James Connolly and Irish Nationalism | journal = Irish University Review | volume = 16 | issue = 1 | at=5| date = Spring 1986 | jstor = 25477611 | issn = 0021-1427 }}</ref> He spoke with a Scottish accent throughout his life.<ref>Donal Nevin. 2005. "James Connolly: A Full Life", p. 636 Gill and Macmillan; {{ISBN|0-7171-3911-5}}</ref>

He was born in [[St Patrick's Church, Edinburgh|St Patrick's Roman Catholic parish]], in the Cowgate district of Edinburgh known as "Little Ireland".<ref>{{Cite book | last = Levenson | first = Samuel | title = James Connolly: a biography | publisher = Martin Brian and O'Keeffe | year = 1973 | location = London | page = 28 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=atIuAAAAIAAJ&q=%22james+connolly%22++%22Little+Ireland%22. | isbn = 978-0-85616-130-8}}</ref> His father and grandfathers were labourers.<ref name=jcpbe/> He had an education up to the age of about ten in the local Catholic primary school.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Morgan | first = Austen | title = James Connolly : a political biography | publisher = Manchester University Press | year = 1990 | location = Manchester | page = 14 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8zToAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA14 | isbn = 978-0-7190-2958-5}}</ref> He left and worked in labouring jobs. Owing to the economic difficulties he was having,<ref>{{cite web | last = Jeffery | first = Keith   | title = Ireland and World War One | work = British History in-depth | publisher = BBC | date = 15 October 2010 | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/ireland_wwone_01.shtml | access-date =31 October 2010}}</ref> like his eldest brother John, he joined the [[British Army]].<ref>{{Cite book | last = Edwards | first = Ruth Dudley | title = James Connolly | publisher = Gill and Macmillan | year = 1981 | location = Dublin | pages = 1–2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7AM0AAAAMAAJ&q=joined+british+army | isbn = 978-0-7171-1112-1}}</ref>

He enlisted at age 14,<ref name=tor>{{cite web | last = O'Riordan | first = Tomás | title = James Connolly | work = Multitext Project in Irish History | publisher = University College Cork, Ireland | url = http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/James_Connolly | access-date = 31 October 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110611014410/http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/James_Connolly | archive-date = 11 June 2011 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> falsifying his age and giving his name as Reid, as his brother John had done.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Reeve | first = Carl |author2=Reeve, Ann Barton | title = James Connolly and the United States: the road to the 1916 Irish rebellion | publisher = Humanities Press | year = 1978 | location = Atlantic Highlands, N.J. | page = 10 | url = https://archive.org/details/jamesconnollyunitedstates | isbn = 978-0-391-00879-3}}</ref> He served in Ireland with the 2nd Battalion of the [[Royal Scots Regiment]]<ref name = tor/> for nearly seven years, during a turbulent period in rural areas known as the [[Land War]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Ireland: society & economy, 1870-1914 |publisher=University College Cork, Ireland |url=http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Ireland_society__economy_1870-1914 |access-date=8 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100910205309/http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Ireland_society__economy_1870-1914 |archive-date=10 September 2010 }}</ref>  He would later become involved in the land issue.

He developed a deep hatred for the British Army that lasted his entire life.<ref>Levenson 1973, p. 333</ref> When he heard that his regiment was being transferred to India, he deserted.<ref>{{cite web | last = McCartan | first = Eugene | title = The man looking over our shoulder | work = James Connolly Memorial Lecture | publisher = James Connolly Education Trust | date = 12 May 2006 | url = http://www.iol.ie/~sob/jcet/2006-05-12-emc.html | access-date = 21 April 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121007073308/http://www.iol.ie/~sob/jcet/2006-05-12-emc.html | archive-date = 7 October 2012 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>

Connolly had another reason for not wanting to go to India; a young woman by the name of [[Lillie Connolly|Lillie Reynolds]].<ref>Levenson 1973, p. 24</ref> Lillie moved to Scotland with James after he left the army and they married in April 1890.<ref>Morgan 1990, p. 15</ref> They settled in Edinburgh.  There, Connolly began to get involved in the [[Scottish Socialist Federation]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wallace|first=Martin|title=100 Irish Lives|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=1983|location=Lanham, MD|page=[https://archive.org/details/100irishlives00wall/page/147 147]|isbn=978-0-7153-8331-5|url=https://archive.org/details/100irishlives00wall/page/147}}</ref> but with a young family to support, he needed a way to provide for them.

He briefly established a [[Shoemaking|cobbler's]] shop in 1895, but this failed after a few months<ref>{{cite web|last=Mac Thomáis|first=Shane|title=Remembering the Past – James Connolly|work=anphoblacht.com|publisher=An Phoblacht|date=8 June 2005|url=http://aprnonline.com/?p=58474|access-date=26 April 2011}}</ref> as his shoe-mending skills were insufficient.<ref>Levenson 1973, p. 39</ref> He was strongly active with the socialist movement at the time, and prioritised this over his cobbling.

==Committed socialist ==
{{quotebox|width=30em|After Ireland is free, says the patriot who won't touch Socialism, we will protect all classes, and if you won't pay your rent you will be evicted same as now. But the evicting party, under command of the sheriff, will wear green uniforms and the [[Coat of arms of Ireland|Harp without the Crown]], and the warrant turning you out on the roadside will be stamped with the arms of the Irish Republic.|source=James Connolly, in ''Workers' Republic'', 1899<ref>{{cite news |title=Captain Moonlight Revived: Ireland's New Land War? |url=https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/12/21/captain-moonlight-revived-irelands-new-land-war/ |access-date=26 November 2019 |work=CounterPunch.org}}</ref>}}

In the 1880s, Connolly read [[Friedrich Engels]] and [[Karl Marx]].<ref name=morgan1>{{cite book|author=Austen Morgan|title=James Connolly: A Political Biography|year=1989|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-2958-5|page=17}}</ref> Connolly was impatient with with "theory" as such. Later, in America, he was to laud  the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] for never being "a party of theorickers". Having left formal education before his teens, it is suggested that Connolly read and absorbed influences "independently, sometimes putting those influences into play or into action in unorthodox ways" and that he would have agreed with Antonio Gramsci’s description of Marxism as a "philosophy of praxis".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=McCarthy|first=Conor|date=2018-12-01|title=James Connolly, Civil Society and Revolution|url=http://journals.openedition.org/osb/2778|journal=Observatoire de la société britannique|language=en|issue=23|pages=11–34|doi=10.4000/osb.2778|issn=1775-4135}}</ref> The result is what biographers have described as a mix of [[marxism]], [[nationalism]] and [[Christian ethics]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lubienski|first=Christopher Andrew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2i7ak67BG4EC&q=james+connolly+christian+socialism|title=James Connolly's Integration of Socialism, Nationalism, and Christianity in the Context of Irish History|date=1992|publisher=Michigan State University. Department of History|language=en}}</ref>  

In Scotland in 1889, living in Dundee, Connolly joined the [[Socialist League (UK, 1885)|Socialist League]], which had been founded by [[William Morris]], [[Eleanor Marx]] and others in 1885. Later he joined the [[Scottish Socialist Federation]], serving as its secretary from 1895 to 1896. He was also active in the [[Independent Labour Party]], founded in 1893 by [[Keir Hardie]] and allies. 

At some time during this period, he took up the study of, and advocated the use of, the neutral international language, [[Esperanto]].<ref>[http://esperanto.ie/en/ireland/connolly.html James Connolly and Esperanto] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161215171329/http://www.esperanto.ie/en/ireland/connolly.html |date=15 December 2016 }}, esperanto.ie; accessed 28 May 2017</ref> A short story, called ''The Agitator’s Wife'', which appeared in the ''Labour Prophet'', a short lived Christian Socialist journal, has been attributed to Connolly.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-01-15|title=Short story in 1894 journal may be lost James Connolly play|url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jan/15/short-story-in-1894-journal-may-be-lost-james-connolly-play|access-date=2020-12-19|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-03-01|title=Long-Lost James Connolly Play May Be Found|url=https://irishamerica.com/2019/03/long-lost-james-connolly-play-may-be-found/|access-date=2020-12-19|website=Irish America|language=en-US}}</ref> His interest in Esperanto is implicit in his 1898 article "The Language Movement", which primarily attempts to promote socialism to the nationalist revolutionaries involved in the Gaelic Revival.

In 1896, two months after the birth of his third daughter, word came to Connolly that the Dublin Socialist Club was looking for a full-time secretary, a job that offered a salary of a pound a week.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Kearney | first = Richard | title = The Irish mind: exploring intellectual traditions | publisher = Wolfhound Press | year = 1985 | location = Dublin | page = 200 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Q7BnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22dublin+socialist+club%22+job+that+pound+week | isbn = 978-0-391-03311-5}}</ref>  Connolly and his family moved to Dublin,<ref>{{Cite book | last = Sheehan | first = Sean | title = Famous Irish Men and Women | publisher = Evans Brothers | year = 2008 | location = London | page = 12 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMI7pODIPGUC&pg=PA12 | isbn = 978-0-237-53432-5}}</ref> where he took up the position. 

===Irish Socialist Republican Party===
At Connolly's instigation, the Dublin Socialist Club quickly evolved into the [[Irish Socialist Republican Party]] (ISRP).<ref>{{Cite news | last = Hadden | first = Peter | title = The real ideas of James Connolly | magazine = Socialism Today | location = London | issue = 100 | publisher = Socialist Party (England and Wales) | date = Apr–May 2006 | url = http://www.socialismtoday.org/100/connolly.html | access-date =28 April 2011}}</ref> James Connolly articulated its credo in "Socialism and Nationalism" published in January 1896 in the first edition of [[Alice Milligan]]'s Belfast monthly, ''[[The Shan Van Vocht]]''. Without a creed capable of challenging the rule of the capitalist, landlord and financier, the nationalism of "Irish Language movements, Literary Societies or [1798] Commemoration Committees" (in which Milligan was heavily engaged) would achieve little.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Connolly|first1=James|date=January 1897|title=Socialism and Nationalism|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1897/01/socnat.htm|journal=Shan van Vocht|volume=1|issue=1|access-date=26 January 2021}}</ref>  

Sidestepping the link Connolly proposed between national independence and socialism (the "workers' republic"), Milligan responded by taking issue with the party's early suggestion that it participate in Westminster elections. If successful, he ISRP would be drawn, she believed, into "an alliance with the English labour" no less debilitating than the courtship of English [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberals]] had proved for the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]].<ref name="Steele 1">{{cite book|last1=Steele|first1=Karen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bAG_MyaeT14C|title=Women, Press, and Politics During the Irish Revival|date=2007|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=9780815631170|location=Syracuse, New York|pages=39-40, 44-45|access-date=31 January 2021}}</ref>   

Ireland's first socialist party never reached beyond 80 active members.<ref>[http://www.davidlynchwriter.com/portfolio.html Radical Politics in Modern Ireland- A History of the Irish Socialist Republican Party 1896-1904 (Irish Academic Press)], David Lynch,</ref> Connolly clashed with the ISRP's other leading light, [[E. W. Stewart|E. W. Stewart,]] and with whom he was a party candidate for Dublin City Council. In [[1902 Dublin Corporation election|March1902 municipal elections]] Connolly won 432 votes in the Wood Quay Ward, against 1,434 for the incumbent, the independent nationalist and well-known songwriter, [[Patrick Joseph McCall]].<ref name="Dublin 78">{{cite book|last=O'Brien|first=Joseph V.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5DYJEavqNAC&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=1902+dublin+election#q=1902%20dublin%20election|title=Dear, Dirty Dublin: A City in Distress, 1899-1916|year=1982|isbn=9780520039650|page=93}}</ref>   

==="Irish socialist agitator" in the United States===
In 1902 Connolly embarked on a lecture tour of the United States hosted by [[Daniel De Leon]]'s [[Socialist Labor Party of America|Socialist Labour Party]].  Connolly toured the East Coast and into the Midwest all the while, sending the income from his lectures to the ISRP back in Dublin. 

His return to Dublin in the summer of 1903 was not a happy one as his remittances had used more regularly to settle bar bills than the publishing costs for the party's paper, the ''Worker's Republic'', and that the party was fracturing. At the same time, in spite of newfound political work with Scottish socialists, Connolly was struggling to feed his family. In September choose to return with his family to the United States.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Greaves|first1=C. Desmond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9GfAAAAMAAJ|title=The Life and Times of James Connolly|date=1972|publisher=Lawrence and Wishart|isbn=978-0853152347|edition=2nd|location=London|pages=166–7|access-date=11 August 2014}}</ref>

When he arrived back in the United States late in 1903, he found De Leon cool and unhelpful. Because he was not a card-carrying AFL member, he could not get work with the ''Weekly People,'' as he had hoped. Work as an insurance collector kept his head above water, however.

In early 1904, De Leon and Connolly had a prolonged public quarrel in the pages of the paper over wage-increase campaigns. De Leon argued that wage increases would always be offset by price increases. Connolly saw that this position would drain workers’ campaigning energy and he fought back aggressively.

He also criticized what he saw as the generally anti-religious aspects of the SLP posture. Certainly, reflex atheism was not going to win much support for the SLP among Irish-American workers. But arguing with De Leon put Connolly at variance with the SLP’s rigid Second International view of history, which saw the collapse of capitalism as inevitable.

Where the SLP and the International envisaged capitalism’s demise as entailed by “scientific” laws of history and, hence, fore-ordained, Connolly feared that this attitude would lead to passivity and an unwillingness in supposedly revolutionary socialist parties to support proletarian workplace struggles. For Connolly, who saw the traces of the class war in even the smallest conflict with employers, this was anathema.

Yet it’s notable that, while he was in the US, Connolly wrote his most important book, ''Labour in Irish History'', which, anticipating Lenin by some years, tackles the issue of socialist development in a backward agrarian society head-on.

Connolly eventually brought his family to the United States and settled in New Jersey. Agitating in his free time, he continued to work and speak for the SLP in spite of the tension with De Leon.

The birth of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1905 gave Connolly a new organizational and ideological focus. He quickly became involved. As early as 1898, he’d revealed his proto-syndicalist views when he advocated for the revolutionary function of socialist trade unions: “the trade unionist wishes to limit the power of the master but wishes still to have ‘masters,’ the socialist wishes to have done with masters.”

After George Stennenberg’s death in 1906, Connolly joined the Haywood-Moyer defense committee of Newark and became a significant campaigner for the Wobblies on the East Coast. The IWW was impatient with the established US labor organizations because of their craft orientation, their occasional ethnic exclusivity (which sometimes dismissed Irish workers as inherently reactionary), and their neglect of the most impoverished or marginalized workers. The Wobblies were also openly critical of the AFL’s corruption.

Under pressure from the IWW, the SLP was becoming more sympathetic to union activism — a transition Connolly supported. Eventually, the tension between Connolly’s Leninist support of vanguardist parties — the ISRP in Ireland, the SLP (though it advocated industrial unionism) in America — and his Wobbly syndicalism became too great to bear.

Connolly remained a member of the SLP until 1908, but he continued to clash with De Leon at party conventions. In 1907, he became a Wobbly organizer, which allowed him finally to break with De Leon and the SLP. In 1908, he founded the Irish Socialist Federation, an organization designed to appeal to and to recruit Irish-American workers, and started publishing and editing their newspaper, the ''Harp.''

All the time he was in the United States, Connolly strove to keep in touch with Irish comrades and to stay abreast of developments back home. News of the creation of an Irish syndicalist union, the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, in 1909 encouraged him to return to Ireland in 1910.

His American experience was crucial to his ideological and revolutionary development. When he left Ireland, he was the leader of a tiny socialist party that bravely but mostly unsuccessfully contested local elections; he returned with a new organizational and strategic vision based on the mass mobilization of workers — “One Big Union” — and the general strike as a political and revolutionary weapon.

This both strengthened and weakened him. On the one hand, the IWW’s lessons on the importance of mass mobilization and the strike were essential. Syndicalism taught him about the power-in-depth that could be exerted in the realm of civil society. This would rapidly lead to the tremendous struggle of the Dublin Lockout in 1913, when the city’s employers sought to break the ITGWU.

But Connolly’s syndicalist confidence that the revolutionary frontline was largely located in the workplace led him to somewhat sideline the idea of the revolutionary party as such, to argue for the necessity of working with a broad range of socialist, labor, and reformist opinion, and to think that revolutionary activity and even insurrection could succeed without grasping and defeating the machinery of the state.

This left him vulnerable when the ITGWU lost the lockout and when Irish workers responded in overwhelming numbers to John Redmond’s call to serve in the British Army in 1914. It fundamentally shaped his relationship with Irish republican revolutionaries during the rising.

His death deprived the Irish left of its greatest and most fertile leader. The tumultuous labor struggles from 1917 to 1923, when Irish workers declared over one hundred soviets and used the general strike powerfully as a political weapon, suffered from his absence.

While in America he was a member of the [[Socialist Labor Party of America]] (1906), the [[Socialist Party of America]] (1909) and the [[Industrial Workers of the World]], and founded the [[Irish Socialist Federation]] in New York, 1907. He became the editor of the Free Press, a socialist weekly newspaper that was published in New Castle, Lawrence county, Pennsylvania from 25 July 1908 and discontinued in 1913. He famously had a chapter of his 1910 book ''Labour in Irish History'' entitled "A chapter of horrors: [[Daniel O’Connell]] and the working class." critical of the achiever of [[Catholic Emancipation]] 60 years earlier.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1910/lih/chap12.htm |title=James Connolly: Labour in Irish History - Chapter 12 |website=Marxists.org |date=2003-12-08 |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref>

===Return to Ireland: radical trade unionist===
On Connolly's return to Ireland in 1910 he was right-hand man to [[James Larkin]] in the [[Irish Transport and General Workers Union]]. He stood twice for the Wood Quay ward of [[Dublin Corporation]] but was unsuccessful. His name, and those of his family, appears in the 1911 Census of Ireland - his occupation is listed as "National Organiser Socialist Party".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000119513/ |title=Census of Ireland 1911 |website=Census.nationalarchives.ie |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref> In 1913, in response to the [[Lockout of 1913|Lockout]], he, along with [[James Larkin]] and an ex-British officer, [[Jack White (labour unionist)|Jack White]], founded the [[Irish Citizen Army]] (ICA), an armed and well-trained body of labour men whose aim was to defend workers and strikers, particularly from the frequent brutality of the [[Dublin Metropolitan Police]]. Though they only numbered about 250 at most, their goal soon became the establishment of an independent and socialist Irish nation. He also founded the [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Irish Labour Party]] as the political wing of the [[Irish Trades Union Congress]] in 1912 and was a member of its National Executive. Around this time he met [[Winifred Carney]] in [[Belfast]], who became his secretary and would later accompany him during the [[Easter Rising]]. Like [[Vladimir Lenin]], Connolly opposed the [[First World War]] explicitly from a socialist perspective. Rejecting the [[Redmondite]] position, he declared "I know of no foreign enemy of this country except the British Government."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/james-connolly-what-should-irish-people-do-during-the-war|website=RTÉ|title=James Connolly: What should Irish people do during the war?|date=6 November 2016}}</ref>

==Easter Rising==
{{More citations needed section|date=December 2020}}
Connolly and the ICA made plans for an armed uprising during the war, independently of the [[Irish Volunteers]]. In early 1916, believing the Volunteers were dithering, he attempted to goad them into action by threatening to send the ICA against the [[British Empire]] alone, if necessary. This alarmed the members of the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]], who had already infiltrated the Volunteers and had plans for an insurrection that very year. In order to talk Connolly out of any such rash action, the IRB leaders, including [[Tom Clarke (Irish republican)|Tom Clarke]] and [[Patrick Pearse]], met with Connolly to see if an agreement could be reached. During the meeting, the IRB and the ICA agreed to act together at [[Easter]] of that year.

During the [[Easter Rising]], beginning on 24 April 1916, Connolly was Commandant of the Dublin Brigade. As the Dublin Brigade had the most substantial role in the rising, he was ''[[de facto]]'' [[commander-in-chief]]. Connolly's leadership in the Easter rising was considered formidable. [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]] said of Connolly that he "would have followed him through hell."<ref>Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland: Tim Pat Coogan {{ISBN|9780312295110}} / 0312295111</ref>

Following the surrender, he said to other prisoners: "Don't worry. Those of us that signed the proclamation will be shot. But the rest of you will be set free."

==Death==
[[File:2017-06-20_4904x7356_dublin_kilmainham_gaol_james_connolly_execution.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Location of Connolly's execution at [[Kilmainham Gaol]] in Dublin]]
Connolly was not actually held in gaol, but in a room (now called the "Connolly Room") at the State Apartments in [[Dublin Castle]], which had been converted to a first-aid station for troops recovering from the [[First World War|war]].<ref name= costello>{{cite book|last= Costello|first= Peter|year= 1999|page= [https://archive.org/details/dublincastleinli00cost/page/145 145]|title= Dublin Castle, in the life of the Irish nation|publisher= Wolfhound Press|location= Dublin|isbn= 978-0-86327-610-1|url= https://archive.org/details/dublincastleinli00cost/page/145}}</ref>

Connolly was sentenced to death by firing squad for his part in the rising. On 12 May 1916 he was taken by military ambulance to [[Royal Hospital Kilmainham]], across the road from [[Kilmainham Gaol]], and from there taken to the gaol, where he was to be executed. While Connolly was still in hospital in Dublin Castle, during a visit from his wife and daughter, he said: "The Socialists will not understand why I am here; they forget I am an Irishman."<ref name= emmons>{{cite book|last= Emmons|first= David M. |year= 2012|page= 480|title= Beyond the American Pale: The Irish in the West|publisher= University of Oklahoma Press|location= U.S.A}}</ref><ref name= seumas>{{cite book|last= MacManus|first= Seumas |year= 2005|page= 696|title= The Story of the Irish Race|publisher= Cosimo, Inc|location= Ireland}}</ref>

Connolly had been so badly injured from the fighting (a doctor had already said he had no more than a day or two to live, but the execution order was still given) that he was unable to stand before the firing squad; he was carried to a prison courtyard on a stretcher. His absolution and last rites were administered by a [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]], Father Aloysius Travers. Asked to pray for the soldiers about to shoot him, he said: "I will say a prayer for all men who do their duty according to their lights."<ref>{{cite book|first=Terry|last=Golway|title=For the Cause of Liberty: A Thousand Years of Ireland's Heroes|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2012}}</ref> Instead of being marched to the same spot where the others had been executed, at the far end of the execution yard, he was tied to a chair and then shot.<ref name="Death Registration">{{cite web |url=https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1916/05245/4453541.pdf |title=Registered Deaths in South Dublin, 1916 |website=irishgenealogy.ie |at=04453541, 477, Entry Numbers 1–10 |access-date=22 September 2018}}</ref>

His body (along with those of the other leaders) was put in a mass grave without a coffin. The executions of the rebel leaders deeply angered the majority of the Irish population, most of whom had shown no support during the rebellion. It was Connolly's execution that caused the most controversy.<ref>{{cite news|last1=McGreevy|first1=Ronan|title=Is this the only picture of James Connolly from the Easter Rising?|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/is-this-the-only-picture-of-james-connolly-from-the-easter-rising-1.1891256|access-date=7 June 2017|work=[[The Irish Times]]|date=August 8, 2014}}</ref> Historians have pointed to the manner of execution of Connolly and similar rebels, along with their actions, as being factors that caused public awareness of their desires and goals and gathered support for the movements that they had died fighting for.

The executions were not well received, even throughout Britain, and drew unwanted attention from the United States, which the British Government was seeking to bring into the war in Europe. [[H. H. Asquith]], the Prime Minister, ordered that no more executions were to take place; an exception being that of [[Roger Casement]], who was charged with [[High treason in the United Kingdom|high treason]] and had not yet been tried.

Although he abandoned religious practice in the 1890s, he turned back to [[Roman Catholicism]] in the days before his execution.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=D’Arcy|first=Fergus A.|title=James Connolly|url=http://centenaries.ucd.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Connolly-James.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Lost memoir tells how James Connolly returned to his faith before execution|url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/lost-memoir-tells-how-james-connolly-returned-to-his-faith-before-execution-29297110.html|access-date=2020-12-19|website=independent|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-05-26|title=Atheist James Connolly turned to God hours before his death according to British Army chaplain|url=http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/atheist-james-connolly-turned-to-god-hours-before-his-death-according-to-british-army-chaplain-208986571-237592121.html|access-date=2020-12-19|website=IrishCentral.com|language=en}}</ref>

==Family==
James Connolly and his wife Lillie had seven children.<ref>{{cite web | title = Life in 1916 Ireland: Stories from statistics | url = https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-1916/1916irl/cpr/cmp/jc/ | publisher = [[Central Statistics Office (Ireland)|Central Statistics Office]] | access-date =24 July 2020}}</ref> [[Nora Connolly O'Brien|Nora]] became an influential writer and campaigner within the Irish-republican movement as an adult. [[Roddy Connolly|Roddy]] continued his father's politics. In later years, both became members of the [[Oireachtas]] (Irish parliament). Moira became a doctor and married [[Richard Beech]].<ref>[https://www.myheritage.com/names/moira_connolly Moira Connolly], Myheritage.com</ref> One of Connolly's daughters Mona died in 1904 aged 13, when she burned herself while she did the washing for an aunt.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/tragedy-in-the-connolly-family/|title=Tragedy in the Connolly family|website=History Ireland|access-date=2 December 2016}}</ref>

Three months after James Connolly's execution his wife was received into the Catholic Church, at Church St. on 15 August.<ref>[http://www.gonebutnotforgotten.ie/1916/fiona-connolly.htm Gone But Not Forgotten - Fiona Connolly<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070716122218/http://www.gonebutnotforgotten.ie/1916/fiona-connolly.htm |date=16 July 2007 }}</ref>

==Legacy==
{{More citations needed|section|date=May 2017}}
[[Image:James Connolly - Dublin statue.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Statue of James Connolly in Dublin]]
Connolly's legacy in Ireland is mainly due to his contribution to the [[Irish republicanism|republican]] cause; his legacy as a socialist has been claimed by a variety of left-wing and left-republican groups, and he is also associated with the Labour Party which he founded. Connolly was among the few European members of the [[Second International (politics)|Second International]] who opposed, outright, [[World War I]]. This put him at odds with most of the socialist leaders of Europe.

He was influenced by and heavily involved with the radical [[Industrial Workers of the World]] labour union, and envisaged socialism as Industrial Union control of production. Also he envisioned the IWW forming their own political party that would bring together the feuding socialist groups such as the [[Socialist Labor Party|Socialist Labor Party of America]] and the [[Socialist Party|Socialist Party of America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1908/01/party.htm |title=James Connolly: Political Party of the Workers (1908) |website=Marxists.org |date=2003-11-08 |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref> Likewise, he envisaged independent Ireland as a socialist republic. His connection and views on Revolutionary Unionism and [[Syndicalism]] have raised debate on if his image for a workers republic would be one of State or Grassroots socialism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zabalazabooks.net/2014/03/11/james-connolly-syndicalism-and-the-struggle-for-irish-independence-national-liberation-through-class-struggle/ |title=James Connolly: Syndicalism and the Struggle for Irish Independence – National Liberation through Class Struggle! « Zabalaza Books |website=Zabalazabooks.net |date=2014-03-11 |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0vT4AwAAQBAJ&q=james+connolly+syndicalism&pg=PT758 |title=James Connolly, A Full Life: A Biography of Ireland's Renowned Trade ... |author=Donal Nevin |date= 2005-08-30|access-date=2017-05-28|isbn=9780717162772 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://struggle.ws/wsm/rbr/rbr8/connolly.html |title=An Irish anarchist look at the ideas of James Connolly |website=Struggle.ws |date=1919-01-21 |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1908/sme/inconsoc.htm |title=James Connolly: Industrial Unionism and Constructive Socialism (1908) |website=Marxists.org |date=2003-08-08 |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1910/02/intrunin.htm |title=James Connolly: Industrialism and the Trade Unions (1910) |website=Marxists.org |date=2007-08-19 |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1915/rcoi/chap08.htm |title=James Connolly: The Re-Conquest of Ireland - Chap. 8 |website=Marxists.org |date=2003-08-15 |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref> For a time he was involved with [[De Leonism]] and the [[Second International]] until he later broke with both.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/james-connolly-s-vision-never-realised-1.2556902|title=James Connolly's vision never realised|work=The Irish Times|access-date=2018-04-25|language=en-US}}</ref>

In Scotland, Connolly's thinking influenced socialists such as [[John Maclean (Scottish socialist)|John Maclean]], who would, like him, combine his leftist thinking with nationalist ideas when he formed the [[Scottish Workers Republican Party]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/maclean/works/1922-swr.htm |title=All Hail, the Scottish Workers Republic! |website=Marxists.org |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref>

[[Image:James Connolly statue, Belfast.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Statue of James Connolly in Belfast]]
The [[Connolly Association]], a British organisation campaigning for Irish unity and independence, is named after Connolly.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.connollyassociation.org.uk/about/history/ |title=Brief History |publisher=Connolly Association |date=2014-06-20 |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref>

In 1928, Follonsby miners' lodge in the Durham coalfield unfurled a newly designed banner that included a portrait of Connolly on it. The banner was burned in 1938, replaced but then painted over in 1940. A reproduction of the 1938 Connolly banner was commissioned in 2011 by the Follonsby Miners’ Lodge Banner Association and it is regularly paraded at various events in County Durham ('Old King Coal' at Beamish Open Air museum, 'The Seven men of Jarrow' commemoration every June, the [[Durham Miners' Gala]] every second Saturday in July, the Tommy Hepburn annual memorial every October), in the wider UK and Ireland.<ref>Douglass, D., George Harvey: Pitman Bolshevik (Pelaw, Gateshead: Follonsby Miners’ Lodge Banner Association, 2011.</ref><ref>Douglass, D., Red Banner - Green Rosette: Tyneside and the Northern Coalfield (Gateshead: Follonsby Miners’ Lodge Banner Association, 2017.</ref>

There is a statue of James Connolly in Dublin, outside [[Liberty Hall]], the offices of the [[SIPTU]] [[trade union]].  Another statue of Connolly stands in Union Park, Chicago near the offices of the [[United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America|UE]] union. There is a bust of  Connolly in [[Troy, New York]], in the park behind the statue of Uncle Sam.

In March 2016 a statue of Connolly was unveiled by [[Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (Northern Ireland)|Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure]] minister [[Carál Ní Chuilín]], and Connolly's great grandson, James Connolly Heron, on [[Falls Road, Belfast|Falls Road in Belfast]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/news/james-connolly-statue-unveiled-in-honour-of-1916-easter-rising-leader-34572978.html |title=James Connolly statue unveiled in honour of 1916 Easter Rising leader |website=M.independent.ie |access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref>

In a 1972 interview on ''[[The Dick Cavett Show]]'', [[John Lennon]] stated that James Connolly was an inspiration for his song, "[[Woman Is the Nigger of the World]]". Lennon quoted Connolly's 'the female is the slave of the slave' in explaining the feminist inspiration for the song.<ref>Television interview, 11 May 1972. ''The Dick Cavett Show'': John and Yoko collection [videorecording] DVD 2005, {{ISBN|0-7389-3357-0}}</ref>

[[Dublin Connolly railway station|Connolly Station]], one of the two main railway stations in Dublin, and [[Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown]], are named in his honour.

In a 2002, [[BBC]] television production, ''[[100 Greatest Britons]]'' where the British public were asked to register their vote, Connolly was voted in 64th place.

In 1968, Irish group [[The Wolfe Tones]] released a single named "James Connolly", which reached number 15 in the Irish charts.<ref>{{cite web|title=Search the Charts|url=http://www.irishcharts.ie/search/placement|website=The Irish Charts: All There Is to Know|publisher=Irish Recorded Music Association|access-date=26 February 2015}}</ref> The band [[Black 47]] wrote and performed a song about Connolly that appears on their album ''Fire of Freedom''. Irish singer-songwriter Niall Connolly has a song [https://niallconnolly.bandcamp.com/ "May 12th, 1916 - A Song for James Connolly"] on his album ''Dream Your Way Out of This One'' (2017).

[[Dúnedin Connolly GAC]], a Scottish GAA club takes its name from his.{{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

Connolly and the events of his death are mentioned in the fourth verse of "[[The Patriot Game]]" by Irish songwriter [[Dominic Behan]] (this verse is sometimes omitted from renditions of the song).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lyricstranslate.com/en/dominic-behan-patriot-game-lyrics.html|title=Dominic Behan - The Patriot Game lyrics|website=lyricstranslate.com|language=en|access-date=2019-10-14}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[James Connolly bibliography]]

== Notes ==
<references group="note" />

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
===Writings===
*Connolly, James. 1987. ''Collected Works'' (Two volumes). Dublin: New Books.
*Connolly, James. ''The Lost Writings'' (ed. Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh), London: Pluto Press {{ISBN|0-7453-1296-9}}
*Connolly, James. 1973. ''Selected Political Writings'' (eds. Owen Dudley Edwards & Bernard Ransom), London: Jonathan Cape
*Connolly, James. 1948. ''Socialism and Nationalism: A Selection from the Writings of James Connolly'' (ed. Desmond Ryan), Dublin: Sign of the Three Candles.

===Bibliography===
* Allen, Kieran. 1990. ''The Politics of James Connolly'', London: Pluto Press {{ISBN|0-7453-0473-7}}
* Anderson, W.K. 1994. ''James Connolly and the Irish Left''. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. {{ISBN|0-7165-2522-4}}.
* Collins, Lorcan. 2012. ''James Connolly''. Dublin: O'Brien Press. {{ISBN|1-8471-7160-5}}.
* Fox, R.M. 1943. ''The History of the Irish Citizen Army''. Dublin: James Duffy & Co.
* Fox, R.M. 1946. ''James Connolly: the forerunner''. Tralee: The Kerryman.
* Kostick, Conor & Collins, Lorcan. 2000. ''The Easter Rising''. Dublin: O'Brien Press {{ISBN|0-86278-638-X}}
* Lloyd, David. [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369801032000135611#.U_nMwiV0wdU Rethinking national Marxism. James Connolly and ‘Celtic Communism’] ''Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies'', 5:3, 345-370.
* Lynch, David. 2006. ''Radical Politics in Modern Ireland: A History of the Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP) 1896- 1904''. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. {{ISBN|0-7165-3356-1}}.
* Nevin, Donal. 2005. ''James Connolly: A Full Life''. Dublin: Gill & MacMillan. {{ISBN|0-7171-3911-5}}.
* O'Callaghan, Sean. 2015. ''James Connolly: My search for the Man, the Myth and his Legacy''. {{ISBN|9781780894348}}
* Ransom, Bernard. 1980. ''Connolly's Marxism'', London: Pluto Press. {{ISBN|0-86104-308-1}}.
* Strauss, Eric. 1973. ''Irish Nationalism and British Democracy'', Westport CT: Greenwood. {{ISBN|0-8371-8046-5}}
* Thompson, Spurgeon. "[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369801032000135620#.U_nKlyV0wdU Gramsci and James Connolly: Anticolonial intersections]", ''Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies'', 5:3, 371-381
*{{cite book | last = Townshend | first = Charles | title = Easter 1916: the Irish rebellion | year = 2005 | publisher = [[Penguin Books|Allen Lane]] | location = London | isbn = 978-0-7139-9690-6 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/easter1916irishr0000town/page/49 49, 81, 122, 134–6, 155–8, 161, 171, 214, 246, 254–7, 261–3, 309] | no-pp = true | url = https://archive.org/details/easter1916irishr0000town/page/49 }}

==External links==
{{sisterlinks|d=Q213374|c=Category:James Connolly|q=James Connolly|s=Author:James Connolly|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no|species=no}}
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/index.htm James Connolly archive] at [[Marxists.org]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070326010049/http://www.socialistparty.net/pub/pages/viewspring06/9.htm The Real Ideas of James Connolly]
* [http://www.irishgraves.com/_private/c/new_page_68.htm James Connolly's grave, Arbour Hill], Irish Graves website
* [http://www.iww.org/en/node/900 IWW's Memorial Page for James Connolly]
* [http://www.1916rising.com/ 1916 Walking Tour Site]
* [http://www.wageslave.org/jcs/analysis/relevance_of_connolly.html "The Relevance Of James Connolly in Ireland Today"] by George Gilmore
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061128135639/http://irsm.org/history/jc%26irishfreedom.html "James Connolly & Irish Freedom: A Marxist Analysis"] by G. Schuller
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028083328/http://geocities.com/socialistparty/Documents/Connolly.htm |date=28 October 2009 |title="BBC online poll: James Connolly voted onto 100 'Greatest' people" }} by Niall Mulholland (CWI), 31 August 2002
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070311042835/http://www.rascal-films.com/projects.html Film biopic of Connolly underway]
* [http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wh/195/connolly.html "James Connolly — A Marxist appreciation"] (Spartacist League Dayschool)
* [http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/connolly-is-set-for-a-heroic-makeover-on-silver-screen-1227190.html "Connolly is set for a heroic makeover on silver screen"] by Kevin Myers
*[http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000119513/ Connolly family from the 1911 Irish Census]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090807174437/http://multitext.ucc.ie/viewgallery/356 Connolly images] collated on the online Multitext pages of [[University College Cork]]
*[http://www.socialistdemocracy.org/Debate/DebateInDefenceOfConnolly.html In Defence of Connolly]

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