What did Connolly die for?

cork | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Saturday March 08, 2008 20:07 by Joe Moore - Socialist Workers Party mapuche at eircom dot net 087-2994796

Public Meeting and Film Show

A public meeting entitled "What did Connolly die for?" will be be held on Easter Saturday 22nd March at 2.30pm in the Victoria Hotel Patrick St. Cork. The meeting, organised by the Cork SWP will be addressed by Dr. Kieran Allen, author of "The Politics of James Connolly". The meeting will be preceded by the showing of George Morrisson's classic documentary "Mise Eire"

At dawn on May 12th 1916, the wounded James Connolly was brought by stretcher to the stone breakers yard, in Kilmainhan Jail and executed by a British Army firing squad. His body was then taken to Arbour Hill where he was buried in a quick lime grave.
Thus ended the life of Ireland's greatest socialist revolutionary. He had been sentenced to death by a British court marshal for his part in the Easter Rising.
However the British military and political authorities were not the only people to want Connolly dead.
The Irish capitalist class also wished to see the back of him. James Connolly had been a thorn in their side since he first arrived in Ireland and founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party. Upon his return from America, he became a full time organiser for the newly established Irish Transport and General Workers Union.
He was, together with James Larkin, the leader of the Dublin working class, during the 1913 Lockout. His class enemies would not forget this and so only days before his murder the Irish Independent called on the British government not to show him any leniency .
92 years after Connolly's death, we have a power sharing executive running the six counties in the interest of the British state. Sectarianism is institutionalised with a divided working class voting against their class interests. Meanwhile the Executive is fully signed up to the neo liberal agenda.
In the South the majority of TDs in Leinster House are also fully supportive of neo liberalism. Public utility companies and government services are being privatised, while the public are being urged to support the Lisbon Treaty.
Is this the Ireland James Connolly died for? This question will be debated by Dr. Kieran Allen, author of "The Politics of James Connolly" at a public forum on Easter Saturday, 22nd March at 2.30pm in the Victoria Hotel. The meeting is organised by the Cork Branch, Socialist Workers Party and is open to the public.
To set the scene, the meeting will be preceded by a showing of George Morrisson's classic documentary "Mise Eire". This film chronicles the history of Ireland during the crucial years 1896-1918, and includes footage made during the 1916 Rising.
The musical score of the film was composed by Sean O'Riada, and is now considered a classic composition.