Celebrating the life and legacy of James Connolly

JAMES Connolly's life and legacy was celebrated in both Edinburgh and Glasgow recently via a special commemorative event and a brand new play.

On Friday June 5—Connolly’s birthday—a great crowd gathered at his birthplace in Edinburgh’s Cowgate to celebrate his life (above). This year was a special one for the James Connolly Society as it was the 40th annual commemoration. Since 1986 Connolly has been celebrated on the streets of his birth. Throughout the decades much has changed but Connolly’s legacy and relevance remains constant.

This year, there were speakers addressing issues of international solidarity and workers’ struggles at home. This blend reflects Connolly’s life and work. James Connolly Society Chair, Jim Slaven, chaired proceedings and thanked all of those, from various organisations and none, who have contributed to the Connolly Commemoration over the last 40 years. Jim also set out the strategic plan of the JCS going forward. This includes a commitment to working in partnership with others to make sure Connolly and the Irish community in Edinburgh are properly recognised and respected in Scotland’s capital city. He also explained the society’s continuing pursuit of a realignment of political forces committed to James Connolly and the politics of emancipation.

Various musical performers provided live music and a respectful wreath laying ceremony provided the centrepiece of the commemoration. The event was a huge success and the James Connolly Society is already planning for the 41st annual commemoration.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow, playwright Ann Liebeck saw her new play James Connolly and The Angel performed at the Citizens Theatre.

The play was presented by The Irish History Group at the Govanhill Baths Community Trust Archives & Heritage project, which is supported by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme.

In 1933, Liam MacGhabann wrote a poem from the perspective of the young Welsh soldier who was part of the firing squad that killed the noted Revolutionary Socialist and Irish Republican. Tormented by guilt, the young man later tracked down Connolly’s widow to seek forgiveness. The poem caught the imagination of Anne and acted as the catalyst for the play.

While Connolly’s role in the fight for Irish Independence and the Easter Rising has been documented in various forms, what is striking about Liebeck’s play is its focus on the women in Connolly’s life and their own political activities. The result is a piece that merges the sweep of the Irish Republican movement with the intricacies of family relationships making it an especially moving and engaging event. A key dramaturgical tool in achieving this is the employment of Mona, Connolly’s daughter who died in a tragic accident at 13, as a ghostly figure who traverses the play—its titular ‘Angel’—as a visual reminder of the grief that haunted the family following her death.

“By the end of the play you felt that you had been on a desperate, sad journey with a real family, not just one single male hero, and I certainly felt the complex pulse of love and pain that the Connolly’s must have experienced,” Audience member, Martin Stepek, said. “It’s a far cry from the usual simplistic depiction of great historical heroes as invincible martyrs, as was so much the better as a result.”

Within the intimate setting of the Citizens Theatre Participate Studio, the harrowing events of the play, including Connolly’s execution, were rendered all the more visceral.

“I felt I had been allowed into a usually secret space,” Martin added. “What was missing—a stage, props, costumes, more distance from the audience—in a sense was irrelevant, it was a wonderful artistic experience to witness and be absorbed into.”

The reading was performed by an impressive 11-strong cast led by Tam Dean Burn as James Connolly and Libby McArthur as Lillie Connolly (above). The text was beautifully complemented by live music by Eileen Murray, Noreen Downes and Margaret Tarbert. Ann Liebeck and Bruce Downie joined forces to cast and direct the reading, with both of them also performing in it.

Born in Glasgow to an Irish mother and a Gorbals school-teacher, Ann Liebeck enjoyed a long career as an international opera, concert and cabaret singer, and more recently producer and promoter for Latin Rediscovery, before writing the play. She is also a published poet and her previous writing for theatre includes the musical cabaret Locked Down with Brecht in W3. After completing the play, Liebeck got in touch with the Irish History Group at Govanhill Baths who decided to produce the rehearsed reading as part of their Irish heritage activities.

The reading sold out weeks in advance and was enormously well received by the lucky audience members who managed to secure a ticket. After the curtain call, cast and audience retired to Sharkey’s Bar around the corner to celebrate the play’s success and honour James Connolly’s 110-year legacy.