“Did that play of mine …?”: James Connolly, Cathleen Ni Houlihan and staging revolution

Abstract

Despite the crucial position he occupies in Irish history as one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, and the political – and emotional – impact of his subsequent execution, while wounded, by the British Army on 12 May 1916, the writings of Edinburgh-born James Connolly have often been overlooked in both Irish and Scottish studies, and not just in accounts of the Rising but also in the wider context of cultural connections, including cultures of commemoration. In particular, Connolly’s surviving literary work, including Under Which Flag?, the drama staged on the eve of Easter 1916, as well as poems and songs, has had limited attention. This article reconsiders Under Which Flag? in comparison with Yeats and Gregory’s Cathleen ni Houlihan in order to demonstrate the central place the drama holds as a continuation – and complication – of Connolly’s political and journalistic writings. If Connolly is a neglected figure as a writer – as opposed to a political leader and martyr – then the play he left behind (once thought to have been lost, like another of his dramas, The Agitator’s Wife) affords us an opportunity to reassess his contribution to the struggle for independence as part of its literary wing.

Keywords:

• James Connolly
• Under Which Flag?
• W.B. Yeats
• Cathleen ni Houlihan
• Irish theatre
• Easter Rising
• 1916
• commemoration
• Irish–Scottish studies

Notes

1. Skinnider, Doing My Bit For Ireland, 65.

2. Yeats, “Man and Echo,” 179.

3. Moran, “Epilogue,” 276.

4. Backus, “More Useful Washed and Dead”, 69; Doyle, Roddy Doyle, 355.

5. Githens-Mazer, “Ancient Erin, Modern Socialism,” 90.

6. Bell, “Connolly and Scottish Independence”, 40.

7. Ritschel, “James Connolly’s Under Which Flag, 1916”, 64.

8. Connolly, Under Which Flag? 113.

9. Ibid., 114.

10. Ibid., 115.

11. Ibid.

12. Connolly, “The Irish Flag”.

13. Moran, “Introduction”, 18.

14. Connolly, Under Which Flag? 112.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid., 115.

17. Ibid., 118.

18. Ibid., 122.

19. Doyle, A Star Called Henry, 103, 114.

20. Skinnider, Doing My Bit For Ireland, 65.

21. Connolly, Under Which Flag? 115.

22. O’Connor, Syndicalism in Ireland, 88.

23. Lloyd, “Rethinking National Marxism,” 353.

24. Yeats, Cathleen ni Houlihan, 217.

25. Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland) was formed in 1900 as a women’s organisation committed to the re-establishment of Irish independence and the Irish cultural revival. Its president was Maud Gonne. In 1914, it went on to merge with Cumann na mBan, the women’s paramilitary organisation, which replaced it.

26. Nic Shiubhlaigh, “Kathleen ni Houlihan,” 25.

27. Ibid., 26

28. Harris, “Blow the Witches Out,” 477.

29. Yeats, Cathleen ni Houlihan, 219.

30. Keats, “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad,” 899.

31. Yeats, Cathleen ni Houlihan, 218.

32. Harris, “Blow the Witches Out,” 476.

33. Ibid., 479.

34. Yeats, Cathleen ni Houlihan, 212.

35. Ibid., 220.

36. Harris, “Blow the Witches Out”, 476.

37. Gonne, The Yeats-Gonne Letters, 1893–1938, 150.

38. Moran, Staging the Easter Rising, 26.

39. Connolly, Under Which Flag? 125.

40. Ibid., 124.

41. Ibid., 127.

42. Ibid., 128, 129.

43. Yeats, “Man and Echo”, 179.

44. Moran, “Introduction,” 25.

45. Wills, Dublin 1916, 39–41.

46. Kiberd, Inventing Ireland, 217. Kiberd draws this conclusion from his analysis of “Easter 1916”.

47. Kiberd, Inventing Ireland, 196.

48. Moran, Staging the Easter Rising, 18.

49. Ibid., 19.

50. Connolly, “The Legacy,” 329.

51. Ibid.

52. O’Casey, The Story of the Irish Citizen Army, 52.

53. Ritschel, “James Connolly’s Under Which Flag? 1916”, 66.

54. Moran, “Introduction,” 23.

55. Connolly, “The Irish Flag”.

56. Ransom, Connolly’s Marxism, 2.

57. Connolly, “Socialism and Nationalism”. 307.

58. Ibid., 307, 308.

59. Ibid., 304.

60. Connolly, Labour in Irish History, 29.

61. Connolly, Under Which Flag? 116.