Remember our heroes
Posted by Jim on May 12, 2026
Seán Heuston 1916 Society, Dublin.
110 years ago today, James Connolly faced the firing squad of the British Empire with the same defiance and courage that had marked every step of his revolutionary life. Brutally wounded after the Easter Rising and unable to stand, Connolly was carried into the yard of Kilmainham Gaol and tied to a chair before British soldiers opened fire. Yet even in those final moments his spirit remained unbroken. Speaking to his wife Lillie before his execution, Connolly uttered words that have echoed through generations of Irish republicans ever since: “Wasn’t it a full life, Lillie, and isn’t this a good end?”
Connolly’s was a life wholly dedicated to the liberation of Ireland and the emancipation of the working class. He was no narrow nationalist. He understood that true freedom meant more than removing the Union Jack and the raising of the Tricolour. Connolly fought for a Workers’ Republic, an Ireland owned and controlled by the Irish people themselves, free from empire, capitalism and exploitation. As he famously declared, “The cause of Labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour. They cannot be dissevered.”
The British executed Connolly believing they could crush the revolutionary spirit of Ireland through terror and bloodshed. Instead, they created one of the greatest martyrs in Irish history. His execution, carried out while he was strapped to a chair because his wounds were so severe, exposed the cruelty of British rule before the world and lit a fire in the hearts of countless Irish men and women determined to continue the struggle for national freedom.
Connolly warned that freedom without social justice would be no freedom at all,
“If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain.”
More than a century later, his words remain a challenge to all who claim the republican tradition.
James Connolly died proudly for the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916, but neither British bullets nor the passage of time could silence his ideals. His name, his courage and his revolutionary vision live on wherever Irish patriots continue the fight for a united, free and socialist Ireland.
