James Connolly

Is the voice of James Connolly, silenced by a British bullet in 1916, coming back? This book offers a measured consideration of Connolly, alive to his continuing political relevance. It seeks to explain Connolly's political development in dialogue with the socialist debates and controversies of his day. It considers his experience in Britain, the USA, and Ireland, and influences from further afield. It integrates elements of political biography, blending context with a transnational account of the international socialist movement, its pamphlets, newspapers and personalities. It concludes with a review of Connolly's dramatic final years: the First World War, the Easter Rising, Connolly's 'incorrigible revolutionism' and the vexed issue of the tensions between socialism and Irish nationalism.