James Connolly, born on this day in 1868, was an Irish socialist revolutionary, founder of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), and leader of the Easter Rising rebellion, for which he was executed by the British government.

Connolly was born in a poor Edinburgh neighborhood and spoke with a Scottish accent. He joined the British Army at age 14 to escape poverty and developed a hatred for the institution from firsthand experience. He deserted when his regiment was set to deploy to India.

He was also member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and founder of the Irish Socialist Republican Party. With labor radical James Larkin, he was centrally involved in the Dublin lock-out of 1913, after which the two men formed the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) the same year.

Connolly was opposed to British rule in Ireland and played a leading role in the Easter Rising of 1916, signing the "Proclamation of the Irish Republic" and serving as Commandant of the Dublin Brigade, the regiment that played the most substantial role in the Rising. Connolly was executed by firing squad following the Rising's defeat.

"If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organization 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."

James Connolly

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  • Moss [they/them]
    ·
    3 months ago

    Also I got so many tiny cuts on my hands. Who knew bartending was such a dangerous jobs

    • Black_Mald_Futures [any]
      ·
      3 months ago

      if they have you do any knife work make sure you're learning to do it properly and keep your fingers out of the way

      my mind was oscillating between trying to figure out and remember a million things, and then having nothing to do when it was quiet.

      hopefully you're not like me because it gives me this ptsd like anxious feeling of "what next what next what next what am I forgetting" when there's nothing to do

      • Moss [they/them]
        ·
        3 months ago

        Oh it wasn't knife work, I just kept slitting my fingers on like opening salt shakers and sticking my hands into pointy things. I was just being silly.

        hopefully you're not like me because it gives me this ptsd like anxious feeling of "what next what next what next what am I forgetting" when there's nothing to do

        yeah very-normal