
James Connolly (1868–1916)
Socialist and revolutionary leader
Extract from RIA Dictonary of Irish Biography by Fergus A. D'Arcy
The growing militancy of Ulster unionist opposition to home rule, the British government's postponement of plans for home rule in the face of unionist opposition, the growing prospect of the partition of Ireland, the outbreak of world war, and the consequent collapse of international socialism, all contributed to his adopting an extreme nationalist stance. As he wrote in Forward in March 1914: ‘the proposal of the Government to consent to the partition of Ireland . . . should be resisted with armed force if necessary’. Added to this, the ‘carnival of slaughter’ that was the world war drove him to incite ‘war against war’, and to make tentative overtures to the revolutionary IRB. By late 1915 his increasing militancy at a time when the IRB had decided on insurrection caused them in turn to approach him; by late January they and he had agreed on a joint uprising. The Transport Union headquarters at Liberty Hall became the headquarters of the Irish Citizen Army as he prepared it for revolt. It was ironic that Connolly, who had in the distant past denounced ‘Blanquism’ or ‘insurrectionism’ and who had ever argued that political freedom without socialism was useless, now joined forces with militant nationalists in an insurrection that had nothing to do directly with socialism. It appears that he had become convinced that national freedom for Ireland in the prevailing circumstances was a necessity before socialism could advance.
In the event he led his small band of about two hundred Citizen Army comrades into the Easter rising of 1916. His Citizen Army joined forces with the Volunteers, as the only army he acknowledged in 1916 was that of ‘the Irish Republic’. As commandant general of the republic's forces in Dublin he fought side by side with Patrick Pearse (qv) in the General Post Office, until surrendering on 29 April. Badly injured in the foot, he was court-martialled along with 170 others, was one of ninety to be sentenced to death, and was the last one of the fifteen to be executed by firing squad. He was shot dead, seated on a wooden box, in Kilmainham jail on 12 May 1916. He was buried in the cemetery within Arbour Hill military barracks. His wife and six of his children survived him.