CONNOLLY, JAMES (187o-1916), Irish Socialist, was born in Clones, Co. Monaghan, Ulster, on June 5, 1870. He was the first effective propagandist of Socialism in Ireland, but did not come into prominence until 1913 when, in collaboration with James Larkin, he directed the six-months' strike of 20,000 Dublin transport and other workers against the combination of em ployers headed by William Murphy. Though the strike failed, it left behind an immensely increased semi-revolutionary Labour movement and the drilled but not armed Citizen Army. During the World War, Connolly decided Socialism could come in Ireland only of ter the Nationalist question was settled and the war stopped: for these reasons he joined with Sinn Fein and was commander-in-chief in the Easter week rebellion. He was executed by the British on May 12, 1916.
See Connolly's Labour in Ireland (1917), and D. Ryan, James Connolly (1924)•