James Connolly: Irish Republican Leader and International Socialist

Submitted by dalcassian on 31 March, 2013 - 3:31

In this brief sketch of James Connolly I avoided the present-day [1922]de-
velopments in Ireland. If I must refer to them at all it will be in this
foreword. In the early days of the war Arthur Griffith was for passive neu-
trality while Connolly was actively opposed to any participation in the
war. MacNeill was opposed to the 1916 rebellion* as were Griffith and
others now prominent in the Irish Free State* but Connolly said* "We
must fight or be disgraced for all time. " When the final decision to revolt
was made it was Connollys influence and vote that forced it. He was se-
verely wounded and taken prisoner on the fourth or fifth day of the fight-
ing and* contrary to the solemn promise made in the House of Commons
by the then Prime Minister* Herbert Asquith* that Connolly would not be
shot* on May 12* 1916* he was propped up on a stretcher and murdered
by a British firing squad in violation of the civilized rules of warfare and
the humanitarian codes that have done much to soften the harshness and
savagery of the world.
Of all the men who played, a prominent part in the Socialist
movement and who contributed something vital to its literature and
something permanent to its structure, few are as little known as James
Connolly. It is true because of his dramatic and tragic end the nameof
Connolly became universally known, and to a certain extent almost
equally universally misunderstood-
Misled by the press and their own lack of industry, many people
think Connolly was a man of narrow views, with no cosmopolitan
grasp of life, and a leader of a forlorn hope in a fight to establish an
old brand of petty parochialism with a new and strange name.
It was the contrary. His vision was large and. bounded by no paro-
chial horizons. If he saw the world and its all-embracing class strug-
gle, he did not shut his eyes to the elemental facts that are the warp
and woof of the universe. There are people who view the forest, but
cannot distinguish the trees. But James Connolly was not of that race.
His vision embraced and perceived the little as well as the great
things.
He was a nationalist in the best and highest sense of that much-
abused and very much misunderstood word. As he once happily
wrote it in The Worker and in The Harp: "We can love ourselves with-
out hating our neighbors.'1 His sympathy for the Irish nationalist
movement, while the sum of many noble mens ambitions and ideals
was to Connolly the manes, if not the beginning of a great end, the
turning point of the road that leads through oppressed nations to the
liberation of all peoples — the human race.
Starting as a pioneer, as a new evangel in the greatest movement
the world ever experienced, Connolly, it can be said, watched it in its
infancy, in the cradle. In Great Britain he labored with Hardie, John
Burns, [Henry] Hyndman, and others of the old guard- for years he
followed the rough and thorny path of the volunteer agitator. And
there are few, very few, today in the labor movement who know of the
awful struggles and terrible sufferings that the early apostles of social
freedom endured. The bearer of the fiery cross, the man who upheld
the international banner in those far-off days, practically selected a
life of endless toil and heartless persecution and which sometimes led
to Calvary.
But Connolly was not the kind of man who starts things and
leaves them in a crisis. If he watched the [Second] International in its
infancy it might be said he followed it to the grave. Had he not been
killed he would probably, like Kier Hardie, have died of a broken
heart. For none could look on and see the temple they built defiled
by traitors in the name of liberty, or wrecked in the hypocritical cry of
small nations and sacred treaties. As a Marxian Socialist he knew that,
though the International was betrayed, the fight for freedom must go
on and on until it ends in victory. For the labor movement does not
buttress itself with victories; unlike all historic movements it marches
from defeat to defeat, accumulating experience as it pushes itself on-
ward, until it finally mounts the peak of victory from which there is
no recession nor reaction.
Except for a handful of idealists and alleged cranks and conscien-
tious objectors, England and Scotland went war mad. Belgium must
be saved and treaties respected. The Boer War, the Sudan, Egypt, In-
dia, China, and Ireland were forgotten. Hyndman turned chauvinist
and Will Thorne, the politically adopted child of Eleanor Marx, be-
came a colonel in the army.
Not so in Ireland. Redmond's oratory nor all the specious please
regarding the shrines of Belgium, the altars of France,, could make
the mass of the country budge from their neutral stand- They and all
the gilded hirelings of the capitalist and governmental class of Eng-
land next turned to and concentrated all their efforts to force or cajole
the proletariat of the cities and towns into the cannon fodder brigade,
but they met with a new and more relentless opposition from Con-
nolly and his colleagues. With a logic based not on sentiment, but on
historical science, and with argumentation that was characteristic of
Connolly — terse, bitter, and forcible — he ruthlessly tore down the
shams of the government and routed its forces everywhere. Connolly
nailed to the mast his colors in the shape of the following declaration
hung on the front of Liberty Hall: "We fight for neither king nor kai-
ser; we fight for the working class.'1
The government seeing its defeat everywhere in the forum and
the rostrum began the diabolical scheme to destroy the manhood of
Ireland, in one fell swoop. A pogrom of the leaders of the people was
planned and with its success wholesale conscription of all men under
45, and a deportation to Flanders. Connolly and his associates saw
discussion had ended and force was begun. He, too, resorted to force
and bravely he battled against overwhelming odds and superior
equipment for a a week, and was defeated- But the government,
though wining the battle, lost the victory. They failed to achieve that
which they had set out to accomplish. And, of course, the end was
everything. A few thousand were killed in the street fighting and in
the executions that followed it. And what no other country in the
world could boast of, the intellectuals of Ireland — the light of the
world, the salt of the earth, Pearse, Skeffington, McDonough, etc. —
were slaughtered while grasping the brand from the burning. They
saved their country. A few thousand were killed, but a half mllion are
alive today to carry on the historic struggle.
"Had the war party succeeded and had we not fought,'1 Connolly
said, "we would have been disgraced for all time.11 Having the advan-
tage of hindsight, we can now see that whatever there may be to
shame or disgrace in a national sense (diplomats say there is no such
thing, except in losing the spoils), Connolly and his sturdy band of
fighters built better than they knew when they planned the rising of
April-May 1916. In keeping their young men off the field of carnage
they saved the race and preserved Ireland as an entity in the family of
nations; for, except as a geographical expression, Ireland would be no
more.
The historian would have been justified in writing "Finis'1 when
he had recorded the events of 1915 and the spring of 1916. Instead of
a ruined land, populated with old men and women, and harmless for
all time, as the imperialists of London planned, the nation was re-
born. Physically it was saved and spiritually it was given a new birth.
The vision of Connolly was not buried in his quick-lime grave on
May 12, 1916. No, the divine fire that burned within him passed on
to and was grasped by his young countrymen, and through it a land
of slaves was converted into a nation of revolutionists.
If Connolly did a lasting service to his country he rendered an
equally great service to the Socialist movement. Besides his work as an
agitator and organizer in the pioneer days and later in our own time
Connolly, by his writings and historical research, contributed his
share to the arch of industrial democracy and a column to the great
international temple that will yet cover the earth and have established
for all time the trinity of bread, beauty, and brotherhood which the
human race in its darkest hours never lost sight of.
His pamphlets, even today, are well worth reading, especially
those entitled The New Evangel and Socialism Made Easy. His larger
and more ambitious work, Labor in Irish History should be in the
library of every Socialist. This last is his literary monument. Nor
should his Labor Poems be forgotten. "The Dying Socialist's Legacy'1
is not alone a great poem; it is a great sermon. Those who talk of
world revolution so glibly nowadays, when they have not an organiza-
tion large enough to hold a barricade, could read that great poem
with profit to themselves and their friends.
The American phase of Connolly's life deserves more notice, but
as this article is getting dangerously near the limitation of space I
cannot but barely recite a few facts in this sketch.
He first visited the United States as a lecturer under Socialist La-
bor Party auspices. I believe it was in 1903. His trip, though begun
under a most tragic atmosphere (his oldest child having been burned
to death) was on the whole, and considering the circumstances that
obtained, very successful. He was then representing the Irish Socialist
Republican Party and was editor of its organ, The Workers Republic.
Connolly visited the United States a second time, not as a lecturer,
but as an emigrant. He brought his family along with him, and so
desperate was the struggle to keep the wolf from the door that he was
scarcely able to tell which was the most acute brand of poverty — the
Irish or the American. Many a time when nearly on his feet and
about to turn the corner his prospects darkened, or were beclouded
by some unforeseen and unpreventable circumstance.
While in the Socialist Labor Party he engaged in a controversy
with Daniel DeLeon over "Wages and Prices.'1 Though treated rather
high-handedly, Connolly was scarcely the worse for the bitter duel,
and I believe he had the better of the argument.
For a short period he was an organizer for the IWW in the New
York district, when William E. Trautman was its General Secretary.
The year before he returned to Ireland he had the most successful
tour of the country under the auspices of the National Office of the
Socialist Party. This was his best and happiest time while in the
United States.
In ability and character Connolly was above the average run of
men. George Birmingham, the writer, says Connolly was the greatest
Irishman of his time. Though handicapped from birth by the most
extreme poverty and. suffering impaired health he managed to equip
himself in a manner equal to those who had the advantages of com-
fort and education. Besides Gaelic and English he had a good work-
ing knowledge of the French and Italian languages. In his speeches he
displayed both learning and wit. The manner in which he delivered
his addresses showed that he was not alone possessed of resources, but
had a capable and we 11-organized mind.
It will not be hard to find Connollys place in history. In the So-
cialist column he will stand with Jaures, Hardie, and Debs, and in
Irish pages he will join the great succession of Tone, Emmet, Mitchel,
Lalor, and Davitt. He was one of Ireland's great men. He will have
successors in the fight. He will hardly have any equals in endurance.

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.