It was a good clean fight. The cause cannot die now. -James Connolly
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JAMES CONNOLLY
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During the Easter Rising, James Connolly served as Vice-President of the Irish Republic and Commandant-General of the Dublin Division of the Army of the Irish Republic. He was severely wounded during the fighting at the General Post Office and was carried from there on a stretcher. He was taken from his hospital bed on May 12, 1916, placed in chair because he could not stand, and executed by firing squad.
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Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Recalls James Connolly
That fall [1910] James Connolly came to say goodbye to our family. He had been called back to Ireland and was glad to go. He said he was not sorry he had come to America and not sorry to leave. Movements were on foot to organize industrial unions in Ireland. We sat and talked quite a while. The baby was very fretful that day. Connolly, who was well experienced with babies, having had seven, took the baby from me, laid him face down across his knees and patted his back until he burped soundly and then went to sleep. We all felt very sorry to see Connolly go. His family left shortly afterward-the older children not too willingly. This was the last time I saw this good friend.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 2, 1910
Dublin, Ireland – New Home of James Connolly’s Harp
From the International Socialist Review of March 1910:
THE HARP IN IRELAND—We are informed that the Harp, the journal edited by Comrade James Connolly, has been transferred to Dublin, Ireland, and will be published from there commencing January, 1910. It is hoped and believed that this change of location will be beneficial to the movement in both countries. American comrades will learn at first hand of the revolutionary movement in Europe, and Irish comrades will be kept in touch with Socialist development in America. The subscription price will remain at 50 cents per year.
The January issue among other things will contain a statement of the position of the great Irish agitator, Daniel O’Connell, towards the Labor movement in Ireland—a statement of facts suppressed for 70 years by the middle class historians of Ireland. Every one should read it.
Comrade Connolly has undertaken the entire responsibility for the production of the paper and asks us to appeal to all friends and comrades for help in bearing the financial end of the burden. Letters should be addressed and money orders made payable to Nora Connolly, 436 East 155th street, New York. All Socialist papers please copy.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 30, 1919
From Appeal Book Department: “The Unbroken Tradition” by Nora Connolly
In the April 26th edition of the Appeal to Reason, we find Miss Nora Connolly’s book, “The Irish Rebellion of 1916 or The Unbroken Tradition,” on sale for $1.25 (see below). In the April 12th edition of the Appeal we find a review of Miss Connolly’s book along with a short history of the Easter Uprising of 1916.
From the Appeal to Reason of April 12, 1919:
Daughter of Rebel Leader Tells Story of Irish Revolt
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Thus goes one of the fighting songs of the Irish patriots who rose in armes against British authority in Ireland, the week of Easter, 1916. The physical failure of the brief, spirited upflare of independence is now a part of Ireland’s tragic history; yet today no one who sees clearly can doubt that the cause of a free Ireland is stronger than ever.
Nora Connolly-a young girl possessed of the fortitude and vision that is the unending marvel of character displayed by all true revolutionists-was an intimate participant in the rebellion of 1916. Her father, James Connolly, was the leader of the rebel forces and was executed for his “treason” to what most Irishmen have always regarded as an alien and hostile government. Nora Connolly escaped after the rebellion and made her way, through caution and subterfuge, to America. Here she set down the story of this ill-fated uprising with a direct candid simplicity that reveals events in their bold, epic outlines. This story, whose unaffected realism is so intense that the reader vividly visualizes and emotionally seems to move in the very midst of the scenes described is called “The Unbroken Tradition,” because, says Nora Connolly:
In Ireland we have the unbroken tradition of struggle for our freedom. Every generation has seen blood spilt, and sacrifice cheerfully made that the tradition might live. Our songs call us to battle or mourn the lost struggle; our stories are of glorious victory and glorious defeat. And it is through them the tradition has been handed down till an Irish man or woman has no greater dream of gory than of dying “A soldier’s death so Ireland’s free.”
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 22, 1919
Poetry and Philosophy from the New York Rebel Worker
From The Rebel Worker of April 15, 1919:
I FEEL SO GOOD.
I have to sing
I feel so good.
Because some grand
Duke’s sawing wood.
And pretty soon
A big bunch more,
Will have to work
Until they’re sore.
And then we stiffs.
Will run this earth.
And all their pains
Will cause us mirth.
And if some guy
Tells us that’s wrong,
We’ve got a story
Good and long.
Of things they’ve done
While we were slaves;
Grand Dukes and such
Are common Knaves.
-A. SIGISMUND.
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[From Jean-Jacques Rousseau]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778
The first man who, having inclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying “This is mine,” and found people simple enough to believe he was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not anyone have saved mankind by pulling up the stakes or filling up the ditch and crying to his fellows:
Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all of us, and the earth itself to nobody.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 16, 1919
“The Unbroken Tradition” by Miss Nora Connolly
From the Appeal to Reason of March 15, 1919:
The Appeal Has the Literature of the
World’s New Revolutions
The Appeal Book Dept., the greatest mail order book house in the world, distributes the kind of books radicals want. For example, we are now placing particular emphasis on literature about the Irish Rebellion, the German Revolution and the Russian Revolution.
[The article goes on to describe “The German Revolution”-documents compiled by the Appeal Book Dept., and “Ten Days That Shook the World” by John Reed, offered with “The Constitution of the Russian Soviet.”]
Finally, we have the story of the Irish Rebellion by Nora Connolly. Her book is entitled “The Unbroken Tradition.” Of all the episodes that belong to the war the episode of the Irish Insurrection of 1916 is the most dramatic and the most picturesque. Here is that episode as lived through by the daughter of the Commandant of the Irish Republican Army, James Connolly. Miss Connolly’s story related with the utmost simplicity, is most moving in its human and dramatic appeal. And apart from its extraordinary interest as a narrative it gives a memorable glimpse of the Irish spirit, of the steadfast adherence of the Irish people to their ideals-what Miss Connolly called “The Unbroken Tradition.” A thrilling story thrillingly told. The Appeal Book Dept. has a large edition of this large, clothbound book, illustrated with maps and reproductions of street scenes during the revolution, and orders can be promptly filled at $1.50 per copy, postage prepaid by the Appeal.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 30, 1908
Trenton, New Jersey – Irish Socialist, James Connolly Speaks
From the Trenton Evening Times of December 28, 1908:
IRISH SOCIALIST MAKES ADDRESS
J. C. Connelly [Connolly], an Irish Socialist, and editor of the Harp, of New York, addressed a meeting of the Trenton Socialists last night in Arcade Hall. Mr. Connelly spoke of the conditions in Ireland as regards the two great classes, the capitalist and the laborer.
He stated that the capitalist there, and in all other countries, disregarded the question of race and religion. He said that the Irish people were beginning to realize the folly of attempting to liberate the Irish race and on the very next day to find it necessary to [beg?] the capitalist for means of sustenance; that, although Cardinal Logue and other eminent men of the Catholic Church have scouted the idea of Socialism in Ireland, nevertheless there are many Socialist clubs in Ireland.
He said that the revolutionist of Ireland is taking the same stand as the Socialist, that religion is a private matter; that clerical leaders will not necessarily be safe guides in politics whatever they might be in theology.
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