James Connolly

Talks about James Connolly's who was executed on May 12, 1916 in Kilmainham Jail. During seven years in America between 1903 and 1910, Connolly was in turn active with the Socialist Labor Party and a national organiser for the Socialist Party of America. He was also appointed Ulster Organiser of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union.

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'Hasn't it been a full life, Lillie, and isn't this a good end?', were James Connolly's last words to his wife in Dublin Castle in the early hours of May 12, 1916 shortly before his execution in Kilmainham Jail. The first fourteen years of Connolly's life were spent in Edinburgh and the next seven years in the King's Liverpool Regiment in Ireland. In 1889, he returned to Edinburgh where he was a socialist activist and organiser for seven years. In 1896, at the age of 28, he was invited to Dublin as socialist organiser, founding the Irish Republican Socialist Party and editing The Workers' Republic. During seven years in America between 1903 and 1910, Connolly was in turn active with the Socialist Labor Party, organiser for the IWW ('Wobblies') and a national organiser for the Socialist Party of America. Returning to Ireland in 1910 as organiser of the Socialist Party of Ireland, Connolly was appointed Ulster Organiser of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union by James Larkin, succeeding him as acting general secretary in October 1914.
As Commander of the Irish Citizen Army, Connolly joined with leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the Easter Rising in 1916, becoming Commandant-General of the Dublin Division of the Army of the Republic and Vice-President of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic.