The Life and Times of James Connolly

by Charles Desmond Greaves

C. Desmond Greaves's The Life and Times of James Connolly, first published in 1961, is a major contribution to the history of Ireland's fight for freedom and is widely recognized as a standard biography of the greatest of all Irish Labour leaders. Connolly's work and ideas left their mark not only in Ireland but on the American and British labor movements. In his early manhood, he was one of the pioneers of the modern labor movement in Edinburgh, the city of his birth. The scene then shifted to Dublin, where Connolly founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party, whose program "The national and economic freedom of the Irish people must be sought in... the establishment of an Irish Socialist Republic." Then came a period of seven years in the U.S.A. where he worked with Daniel De Leon's Socialist Labor Party. A strong critic of De Leon's "sectish" tendencies, he became on of the founders of the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World). In 1910, Connolly returned to Ireland and played a leading part in the working-class struggles in Belfast, and in the great Dublin lock-out—the highest point reached by the class struggle in Europe in the period leading up to World War I. On the outbreak of war with Germany, Connolly "We have no foreign enemy except the Government of England...We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland." Thus he set out on the path which led to the Easter Rising of 1916.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Ireland, Politics, Irish Literature, Biography Memoir

314 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This life of the Irish socialist and martyr of the 1916 Dublin Rising is written from a Marxist point of view and concentrates on the political rather than the personal. As a consequence, the narrative is often rather dry. Although some of the detailed controversies are interesting and important, such as Rosa Luxembourg versus the Millerandists, other Marxist minutiae--parochial Scottish socialist squabbles, for example--are given altogether too much attention.

I skimmed a good deal of this, but I learned a lot from it too, and it further convinced me that Connolly was a profound political thinker as well as a brave man. In an age when most socialists were atheistic internationalists who believed in free love, free thought and freedom from national boundaries, Connolly stood up for the freedom to be a monogamous Catholic Irish nationalist--and a good socialist too. In so doing, he was ahead of his time, being one of the first socialist thinkers to see value in national struggles for liberation.

[Aaron Watling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Understanding Connolly’s political thought (and the development of it) along with the man himself is crucial for socialists either side of the Irish Sea, and Greaves’ Life and Times is perhaps the key text in this task.

I am aware since this book’s publication, new information has emerged and I’m told is going to appear in McCabe’s “The Early and Lost Writings of James Connolly 1891-1898” which challenges some of Greaves’ work. It’s my opinion, however, that this probably wouldn’t change the outcome of what Greaves demonstrates; that being the development of James Connolly’s thought and the significance thereof. Connolly developed from the social democracy of the ISRP, his De-Leonist syndicalism, into what we today may identify as a scientific socialist - basically crystallising recognisable Marxist political thought. What’s clear in demonstrating the socialist element of Connolly’s republicanism rather than the more traditional Catholic sectarian Irish republicanism is Connolly’s commitment to uniting workers, both Catholic and Protestant against both the British ruling class and their Irish collaborationists. Perhaps I’m mistaken but it seemed to me that Connolly is effectively reaching the same conclusions as Lenin, one through praxis, the other through theory, with a continent and a few seas separating them.

As someone with little previous knowledge of Connolly and only slightly more knowledge of Irish republicanism in general I found this book enlightening and deeply valuable. I would recommend (and have recommended!) it to anyone and everyone with a vague interest.

[Patrick Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even with some knowledge of James Connolly’s later life and labour history, this was a tough read. Highly based on Connolly’s thought, this is almost a history of the Irish labour movement and it’s ideological fluctuations. It is a whirlwind of ideological disputes, from the Wobblies to the home rule league to Gladstone to the second international.

The book is confusing, relying on a massive cast of characters and an array of acronyms (SDF, ILP, IWW, ILP(I), SLP, SRP). It is not for a novice of labour history.

In spite of that, this book places Connolly in the context of 2 wider histories; Irish nationalism from O’Connell to the IRA, but also elevates him to the level of DeLeon, Lenin and Luxembourg and honors his role in the great questions and struggles of the world before 1917.

A tough read, but an important and worthy one.

[Rhi Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Life and Times of James Connolly" by C Desmond Greaves is an extensive biography of one of Ireland's greatest socialists, trade unionists, and freedom fighters. Most known for his role in the ill-fated but pivotal 1916 Easter Rising, Connolly had a long and storied life of organising across Ireland, Scotland, and the USA.

Born to a working class family in Edinburgh, after a brief stint in the military Connolly got involved in the early Marxist socialist movements. In Ireland he helped build the early Irish Socialist Republican Party, and then in the USA participated in the creation of the IWW (among other things). Back in Ireland, Connolly worked with the growing trade union movement and was a major player in the 1913 Dublin Lock-Out. After its inconclusive result, the impending partition of Ireland, and the outset of WW1 he and his Citizen Army he put together during the strikes joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in planning an armed rebellion against British rule. For this, he is considered a martyr of Irish independence.

Connolly is an interesting character as one of the first true anti-colonial socialists, paving the way for Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, and others after. He made his way through the social democratic and syndicalist movements to a mature thought that would be wielded more successfully by Lenin a year later. Given Ireland's later struggles between the concepts of socialism and nationalism, one is left with a great disappointment he didn't live longer than he did to build a guiding party through the hard times. But to paraphrase Greaves, "Failed revolutions are sad for those who live through them but necessary for those who follow".

This book is dense, sometimes hard to follow, and contains a lot of archaic leftist infighting. But Greaves spares no expense in painting the life of a great man, and has an acute analysis of his own that interprets Connolly's sometimes idiosyncratic politics and actions well for the reader. It's probably the best book for the interested reader, but a bit of a chore if you're not invested.

[R]

Quite good

[Ryan O'Malley · Rating 4 out of 5]

ready to listen to some more Kneecap