Labour in Irish History

by James Connolly, Kieran Allen

The Irish worker was beaten down nationally, emotionally, and intellectually when England took over. No longer able to control his tribeland he was subordinate to eviction and reproach at the hands of a proprietor. At this time workers had no legal rights and were subject to a stealthy movement down into poverty and abasement. This history compiled by James Connolly describes the humiliation and outrage of Irish peasants. He details their descent into horrific social difficulty and offers a solution to this downward spiral. Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.

Genres: History, Ireland, Nonfiction, Politics, Irish Literature, Theory, International

Paperback

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

James Connolly (Irish: Séamas Ó Conghaile) was an Irish socialist leader. He was born in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to Irish immigrant parents. He left school for working life at the age of 11, but became one of the leading Marxist theorists of his day. Though proud of his Irish background, he also took a role in Scottish and American politics. He was executed by a British firing squad because of his leadership role in the Easter Rising of 1916.

Reviews

[Sean Lundergan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great standalone work of history for anyone interested in Ireland, and a prescient political argument against an alliance with the upper classes in pursuit of Irish independence.
They should’ve listened to our man James. Essentially every warning of his about a cross-class coalition came to bear.
As he said in “Socialism and Nationalism” in 1897:
“If you remove the English army to-morrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain.
England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.
England would still rule you to your ruin, even while your lips offered hypocritical homage at the shrine of that Freedom whose cause you had betrayed.”

[Ewan McGrane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Connolly's masterpiece is a must-read for any revolutionary with a serious interest in learning the lessons of Irish history.

Connolly applies the method of Marxism to the Irish struggle for freedom and the various nationalist tendencies that arose and fell in Ireland since the Williamite wars. The key lesson found in this history is the central role of the working class in leading the struggle for national liberation, which by the impostion of English capitalist rule, necessarily became also a social struggle. I couldn't put it better than the man himself:
"As we have again and again pointed out, the Irish question is a social question, the whole age-long fight of the Irish people against their oppressors resolves itself, in the last analysis into a fight for the mastery of the means of life, the sources of production, in Ireland. Who would own and control the land? The people or the invaders; and if the invaders, which set of them – the most recent swarm of land-thieves, or the sons of the thieves of a former generation? These were the bottom questions of Irish politics, and all other questions were valued or deprecated in the proportion to which they contributed to serve the interests of some of the factions who had already taken their stand in this fight around property interests. Without this key to the meaning of events, this clue to unravel the actions of ‘great men’, Irish history is but a welter of unrelated facts, a hopeless chaos of sporadic outbreaks, treacheries, intrigues, massacres, murders, and purposeless warfare. With this key all things become understandable and traceable to their primary origin; without this key the lost opportunities of Ireland seem such as to bring a blush to the cheek of the Irish worker; with this key Irish history is a lamp to his feet in the stormy paths of to-day."

The short book is rich in lessons on the national question and the role played by the various strata in oppressed and backwards nations in the revolutionary movement. While Ireland has since been developed into an advanced economy with a large and well-educated working class, that by no means diminishes this works importance. On the contrary, it only places all the more importance on the role of the workers who Connolly never for a moment underestimated the revolutionary potential of:
"We desire to place before our readers the two propositions upon which this book is founded – propositions which we believe embody alike the fruits of the experience of the past, and the matured thought of the present, upon the points under consideration.

"First, that in the evolution of civilisation the progress of the fight for national liberty of any subject nation must, perforce, keep pace with the progress of the struggle for liberty of the most subject class in that nation, and that the shifting of economic and political forces which accompanies the development of the system of capitalist society leads inevitably to the increasing conservatism of the non-working-class element, and to the revolutionary vigour and power of the working class.

"Second, that the result of the long drawn out struggle of Ireland has been, so far, that the old chieftainry has disappeared, or, through its degenerate descendants, has made terms with iniquity, and become part and parcel of the supporters of the established order; the middle class, growing up in the midst of the national struggle, and at one time, as in 1798, through the stress of the economic rivalry of England almost forced into the position of revolutionary leaders against the political despotism of their industrial competitors, have now also bowed the knee to Baal, and have a thousand economic strings in the shape of investments binding them to English capitalism as against every sentimental or historic attachment drawing them toward Irish patriotism; only the Irish working class remain as the incorruptible inheritors of the fight for freedom in Ireland."

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Irish Marxism mf!! What a wild, wonderful lil ride.

“The spirit of the ruling class against poor slaves in revolt may be judged by two incidents exemplifying how Catholic and protestant proprietors united to fortify injustice, and preserve their privileges, even at times, when we have been led to believe that the penal laws formed an insufferable barrier against such union”

“As the Irish septs of the past were accounted Irish or English, according as they rejected, or accepted the native or foreign social order, as they measured their oppression or freedom by their loss or recovery of the collective ownership of their lands, so the Irish toilers henceforward will base their fight for freedom, not upon the winning, or losing the right to talk in an Irish parliament, but upon their progress toward the mastery of those factories, workshops and farms, upon which peoples bread and liberties depend.”

“ when questions of class interests are eliminated from public controversy of victory is thereby gained for the possessing, conservative class, who’s only hope of security lies in such elimination.”
Stellar stuff

[Aoife · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely mindblowing, this should be required reading for all Irish people but will surely not be, for the fact that it demonstrates how so much of the way the history of Irish colonialism has been taught to us has been intentionally skewed to obscure the role of both capitalism and class politics in the destruction of the Irish people, language and culture over hundreds of years. It's devastating and infuriating to realize that this wisdom has been here all along and has been intentionally hidden from us by capitalist Irish politics, in a move that echoes some of the many betrayals by Irish middle class people throughout the centuries described in the book.

So much enlightening information on Ireland's first socialist projects in the early 19th century, Daniel O' Connell being a general badman and particularly weighty was a chapter on the Famine, and how capitalist free trade politics impacted on the availability of food.

Really urge all Irish people to read this if they can at some point, essential.

[Colin Helpio · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Connolly wrote a thorough and well detailed history of revolutionary movements and moments within Ireland's history. He focuses on working class organizations, revolutionary leaders, and political thinkers of Ireland's past.

It is worth the read. Sure, it won't make for the most exciting reading, but it is eye-opening to read about the forms of resistance and organization that the Irish peasantry and working class formed over the decades.

It is a brief read. Add it to your shelf if you want to read some theory but don't feel up to reading Marx.

[Damilola Ojikutu · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a history of the Labour movement in Ireland the book is a bit lackluster. It does denote interesting things about the Irish Labour movement and gives the necessary background for understanding of 18 and 19th century Irish revolts and at the same times warps it with a Marxist lenses that tries to be “post-sectarian” and puts too much generosity to the beliefs of the early Chartists and Protestants. I think that workerist logic spoils the perspective of the book, but it is a decent read to get familiarity on the politics of this era.

[Nathan Chamberlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough breakdown of Irish history and the social conditions over time. Some chapters don’t hold a lot of relevance today because they involve very specific Irish historical figures but overall still held relevance.

[Croisley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Connolly's fury and wit would be hard to match, though I have to assume that some later scholars have expanded these themes into a work of greater detail. This is still a strong overview and introduction to Irish history on its own.

[Rob Keenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hon JC

[Ryan McGonagle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic read and highly informative.

[Diarmuid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty sweet and essential

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phenomenal work. Made me reconsider much about Irish history and the way it’s presented.

[Luxembourg · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can be said about this book other than it's an excellent read and everyone should do so.

[Snemolyshilling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important reading, still applicable today, lots of history I was unaware of

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fuck England

[Reese Gaw]

First half is really good and very interesting but the second half is a bit of a slog icl.

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of James Connolly's best books, pointing out the predecessors of Marxism in Irish history.

[Alexa]

Unrateable / essential

[hajduk · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE OG

[Rhubarb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult to write a tour of grim oppression and defeated/betrayed rebellions and make it enjoyable, but James Connolly’s enraged sarcasm pulls it off.

[Olin Moseley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cause of labour is the cause of Ireland
The cause of Ireland is the cause of labour