Connolly Association

The Connolly Association is an organisation based among Irish emigrants in Britain which supports the aims of Irish republicanism. It takes its name from James Connolly, an socialist republican, born in Edinburgh, Scotland and executed by the British Army in 1916 for his part in the Easter Rising of the same year. It was formed in London in 1938 by members of various Irish organisations, such as Republican Congress and the Irish Self-Determination League. It was originally named the Connolly Club, and its aims were: to work for a united and independent Ireland and complete freedom for the Irish people and to provide a social and cultural centre for those promoting the teachings of James Connolly and to show solidarity with oppressed nations and peoples throughout the world - sentiments continued in the present CA constitution. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the CA through the pages on the Irish Democrat, influenced those trade unionists in Belfast who first proposed the idea of establishing a civil rights movement to expose unionism in the six counties. The Association continued to organise meetings throughout Britain and a number of new branches were established.^[1]

The Connolly Association produced a newspaper from 1939, known first as Irish Freedom and then from 1945 as the Irish Democrat. It supports the Good Friday Agreement (1998) but continues to press for an end to the partition of Ireland, and for the unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.

Notable members of the Connolly Association included C. Desmond Greaves, ^[2] Anthony Coughlan ^[3] Roy Johnston,^[4] and Derry Kelleher.^[4]

Notes

1. ^ See The Left In Britain, 1956-1968 by David Widgery, Penguin, 1976.
2. ^ See the Introduction to The Politics of James Connolly by Kieran Allen (1990)
3. ^ Northern Ireland's '68: Civil Rights, Global Revolt and the origins of the Troubles by Simon Prince (2007)
4. ^ ^{a b} Century of Endeavour by Roy H. W. Johnston (2003) (pp. 5, 214).

External links

• Irish Democrat