James Connolly
James Connolly was a Marxist theorist, labour organiser and revolutionary who brought a socialist dimension to the Irish independence movement. Born in Edinburgh to Irish immigrant parents, he grew up in poverty and was largely self-educated. He moved to Ireland in 1896 and founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party, articulating a vision of an Irish republic inseparable from workers' emancipation. After years organising in Ireland and the United States, Connolly returned to Ireland in 1910 and became Ulster organiser for the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union. During the great Dublin Lockout of 1913 he stood alongside James Larkin in defence of the workers. In response to the threat of armed strike-breakers and the Ulster Volunteer Force, Connolly co-founded the Irish Citizen Army in 1913 — the first workers' militia in European history — to defend workers by force of arms. Connolly aligned the Citizen Army with the Irish Volunteers for the Easter Rising of 1916, serving as commandant of the Dublin Brigade and effectively the military commander of the rebellion in the capital. He was wounded several times during the fighting at the GPO. Captured after the surrender, and too badly injured to stand, he was strapped to a chair and shot by firing squad on 12 May 1916. His execution caused widespread outrage, and he remains an icon of both Irish republican and international socialist movements.
- Lived: 1868 CE – 1916 CE
- Nationality: irish
- Roles: revolutionary, military_leader
