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Between Comrades: Letters and Correspondence, 1889-1916
Between Comrades Letters and Correspondence 1889-1916 Author:James Connolly James Connolly was born at 107 Cowgate, Edinburgh in 1868. At fourteen he joined the King's Liverpool Regiment and served seven years in Ireland. Returning to Scotland in 1889, he was active in the Socialist League and the Social Democratic Federation and later, Keir Hardie's Independent Labour Party In 1896, after seven years as socialist agita... more »tor and organiser in Edinburgh, he was invited to Dublin where he founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party and edited The Workers' Republic for five years. Emigrating to America in 1903, Connolly was active in the Socialist Labor Party but soon clashed with its leader Daniel De Leon. He joined the IWW ('Wobblies'), becoming New York organiser in 1907.A year later, he was appointed a national organiser for the Socialist Party of America. Returning to Ireland in 1910 as organiser for the Socialist Party of Ireland, he was appointed Ulster Organiser of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union by its general secretary, Jim Larkin, in 1911. He was active in socialist politics in Belfast for three years before moving to Dublin when he was appointed acting general secretary of the ITGWU in October 1914 following Larkin's departure for America. As Commander of the Irish Citizen Army, Connolly joined with leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the Easter Rising in Dublin in April 1916. He was Commandant-General of the Dublin Division of the Army of the Republic and Vice-President of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic proclaimed on 23 April 1916. James Connolly was executed by firing squad at Kilmainham Jail Dublin on 12 May 1916.« less