Éirígí For A New Republic Marks The 108th Anniversary Of The Execution Of James Connolly
On Sunday the 12th May, Éirígí activists from Dublin and beyond gathered in Arbour Hill Cemetery to mark the 108th anniversary of the execution of the great James Connolly by the British.
An Éirígí activist lays a wreath at the grave of James Connolly.
Born in Edinburgh in 1868 to Irish parents, Connolly was a key figure in workers and radical movements in Scotland and the United States, but it was Connolly’s contribution to Irish republicanism, in both word and deed, that secured his deserved place in the annals history. Connolly was no ivory-tower academic or armchair general - he was a man of action!
Éirígí activist Jennifer de Faoite reads the 1916 Proclamation aloud.
Connolly was a key figure in the Irish republican movement - authoring several groundbreaking texts, founding Ireland’s first republican party, and being one of the key leaders in the 1916 Rising; commanding all republican forces in Dublin City. By the time of his execution in 1916, Connolly had written volumes of newspaper articles, pamphlets, and manifestos, making him the key socialist republican theorist of his time.
A wreath laying at James Connolly’s final resting place.
In the aftermath of the 1916 Rising, the British saw an opportunity to eliminate Connolly once and for all, and they did not let it pass. And so, in Kilmainham Gaol on the 12th of May 1916, with Connolly strapped to a chair because his injuries made him unable to stand, the British shot the great James Connolly to death.
Cathaoirleach Éirígí Brian Leeson speaks by James Connolly’s graveside.
Today, Éirígí continues Connolly’s struggle - to build a revolutionary republican party of theory and of action - to challenge discrimination, injustice and exploitation - to stand with the oppressed against the oppressor - to build popular support for and momentum towards A New Republic.
Make James Connolly’s dream a reality - join the fight For A New Republic, join Éirígí!