James Connolly - 16 Lives by Lorcan Collins

James Connolly believed in a day when socialism and nationalism would rise together and Ireland would be free of capitalism and imperialism.

Born in Edinburgh in 1868, the son of poor Irish immigrants, James Connolly moved to Dublin in 1896 and founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party and the Workers’ Republic newspaper. For seven years he lectured and campaigned for socialism in the US, where he also organised for the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies). In 1913 he stood side by side with Jim Larkin in the fight for workers’ rights during the Lockout in Dublin.

A founder of the Irish Citizen Army and sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood, he conspired to overthrow British rule in Ireland. He was appointed commandant-general of the army of the Irish Republic and fought in the GPO during the Easter Rising 1916. Despite being severely wounded, Connolly was executed in Kilmainham Gaol on 12 May 1916.

James Connolly’s legacy lies in his wealth of socialist writings and his elevation to icon status with his ultimate sacrifice for ‘a new society, a new civilisation’ for Ireland and her workers.