Ll Rise

“WE SH WE SHALL RISE AGAIN NORA CONNOLLY O’Brien’s forceful life, her political consistency and determination stand out as thoroughly remarkable and courageous against the background of the last sixty five years of Irish history. She records her earliest experience of public speaking as being to the women mill workers in Belfast during their strike in 1911, when she attended the meetings with her father. ‘At the age of 88, she spent the final year of her life travelling, working and speaking publicly in support of the hunger strike in the H Blocks and the women in Armagh Jail. In the intervening years, she experienced through intense personal involvement, not only the hopes and dreams of mass uprising, but also the catalogue of betrayals, disappointments and lost opportunities which have stymied the struggle to end Partition and British imperialist involvement in Ireland. Her contribution to the struggle in the the H Blocks and Armagh is sufficient evidence in itself of her outstanding political optimism and confidence in the Irish working class and the process of revolution. The real power of this book lies in the fact that it is a written statement of that confidence and that her final words to our generation echo exactly those which James Connolly spoke to her before he was carried to execution.

The vook was written from a collection of tapes made by her during the hunger strike in 1980, edited and approved ‘by her before she died. As such, it creates the atmosphere of a conversation, She does not attempt to provide elaborate detail or explanation, she speaks with simplicity and honesty of her experiences and memories. There is a distinct sense of historic continuity and disregard for personal recognition in what she says. Her account gives personal insight and depth to the events of the Easter Rising, to her experiences in the United States in the years following, and her life as a prisoner during the Civil War. When she speaks of Connolly, it is mainly of her personal knowledge of the man, his encouragement and advice to her. She destroys the mysticism which hangs over the events of those years, and replaces it with an intimate account of her feelings, reactions and thoughts. The book is filled with stories, conversations and frank interpretations of events.

It is a peculiar strength of the book that rather than providing all the answers her chapter on ‘ Socialism in Ireland’ opens up some of the most fundamental questions facing republican socialists at this time. She provokes further reading and discussion, particularly about the emergence and collapse of the Republican Congress of 1934, and the role which was played by the Communist Party in its destruction. It is advisable also to read as background information George Gilmore’s account of the debate which is published by the Cork Workers Club. Her comments throw considerable light on the distrust of “communism” which developed and solidified in the republican movemeht, and the counterpositioning of republicanism and socialism which has remained a feature of the struggle. Clarification of the questions of “united front” and alternative leadership of the working Class are as urgently necessary today as then, and our ability as socialists to confront these questions will to a great extent determine the course of the struggle. She sets out a short chapter of the book for the question of women in Ireland’s fight. Of Connolly she writes,