James Connolly

James Connolly (5 June 1868 to 12 May 1916) was a Scottish-born Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader who was executed for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland. Born in Scotland to Irish parents, he became an active socialist there, and after moving to Ireland in 1896 he founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party, which sought an Ireland independent of the British Crown and of British capitalists, landlords and financiers. Between 1905 and 1910 he organised in the United States for the Industrial Workers of the World, then returned to deputise for James Larkin in the Irish Transport and General Workers Union in Belfast and Dublin. In 1916 he committed the union militia, the Irish Citizen Army, to the insurrection and commanded it alongside Patrick Pearse from the General Post Office in Dublin. He is an important figure for both the Irish labour movement and Irish republicanism.