Connolly and his biographers

Abstract

James Connolly has been the subject of numerous biographical studies. Until recently these have all accepted that his political ideas, especially with regard to the relationship between socialism and nationalism, remained substantially the same from the time of his arrival in Ireland until his execution by the British after the Easter Rising. He was, it was argued, putting the ideas he held in 1896 into practice in 1916. This interpretation has recently been questioned in a number of studies that have argued that Connolly's politics underwent considerable change in the period from 1914 until the Rising, although they disagree as to whether this involved compromising his socialist politics or abandoning them. This revisionist interpretation has effectively changed the nature of the debate with regard to Connolly.