Remembering James Connolly

By Joe Davison

May the 12th each year marks the anniversary of the death of James Connolly. Executed in Dublin by the British, after taking up arms in the 1916 Easter Rising to liberate Ireland and end 800 years of uninterrupted occupation, he died a martyr in the cause of self determination and social and economic justice.

The story of that rising -- of the Irishmen and women who so bravely took on the forces of British Imperialism and held out for four days; of the leaders who were rounded up afterwards and executed, each of them defiant to the end; of the aftermath and the birth of the Irish Republican Army -- is well known. The story of James Connolly, however, is less well known.

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