SÓP, Baile Átha Cliath This speech was originally given at the annual Dublin branch commemoration of James Connolly’s execution on 14 May. Dia daoibh a chairde. Thank you for being here this morning to honour the life, and remember the execution of our organisation’s namesake: James Connolly. Why Connolly? Of all the Irish republican revolutionaries why … Read more
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, suffragette movements across the world followed in behind empires that had beaten them for decades but not Irish Suffragettes.
107 years ago the Irish Citizen Army made their first public appearance, as we remember them and their commitment to the cause of labour, what lessons can we learn from their example?
The crisis of 2020 can be a rupture in the status-quo of capitalism as much as the First World War and the 1916 Rising was. We must look at his contributions to applying Marxism to the Irish context, and his unique ability to recognise the political moment he was living in. For Connolly, Marxism was not an abstract theoretical position to be talked about in universities, nor a dogma to be appealed to as an authority. Marxism was simply a key to be used to unlock Irish History.
Nobody’s voice was above any other. Our mandate comes from ourselves, open debate and discussion drawing us to unity. I challenge the reader to find a political organisation on our island that operates in so democratic a manner.
The recent results of the local and European elections were a brief insight into how each political party is performing, what is the level of engagement of the working class with the electoral process and which messages are resonating from which political parties. The main conclusions to draw before dissecting the rest are as follows: … Read more