James Connolly

Irish republican, trade unionist and socialist revolutionary

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Activists rank#72
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Lived 1868–1916, aged 48United Kingdom

United Kingdom ActivistsActivist

Wikipedia
46 languages
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Era
1868–1916
Aged 48

Summary

Updated 2026-06-10

A socialist organizer who believed Irish independence meant breaking free not just from British rule but from British capital, he led armed insurrection from Dublin's General Post Office in 1916 and was executed for it.

Biography

About

Born in Scotland in 1868 to Irish parents, Connolly became an active socialist before moving to Ireland in 1896 and founding the country's first socialist party, the Irish Socialist Republican Party. He spent 1905 to 1910 in the United States as an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, choosing syndicalism over rigid Marxism. Back in Ireland, he worked for the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, first in Belfast — where he failed to unite Protestant workers into an all-Ireland labour movement — then in Dublin. The industrial unrest of 1913 gave him a new instrument: the uni…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from James Connolly

James Connolly

said8 Apr 1916

The cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour.

— Workers' Republic 8 April, 1916. Reprinted in P. Beresford Ellis (ed.), James Connolly - Selected Writings, p. 145.

James Connolly

said4 Dec 1915

We believe in constitutional action in normal times; we believe in revolutionary action in exceptional times. These are exceptional times.

— Workers Republic (socialist newspaper) 4 December, 1915 in “Trust Your Leaders!”

James Connolly

said29 Aug 1915

Governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class.

— The Irish Worker, 29 August, 1915. Reprinted in P. Beresford Ellis (ed.), James Connolly - Selected Writings, p. 248

James Connolly

said7 Aug 1915

The fight in Ireland has been one for the soul of a race – that Irish race which with seven centuries of defeat behind it still battled for the sanctity of its dwelling place.

— 'Ireland’s Travail and Ireland’s Resurrection,' Workers’ Republic, 7 August 1915.

James Connolly

said1910