It was a ‘homecoming’ like no other, which reached deep into the well of Ireland’s long history of struggle for independence and socialism, and stirred emotions among the Irish diaspora in the US; in the office of Ireland’s president and among the people of Belfast, who played a leading role in that long history.
The ‘homecoming’ started as an idea, three years ago, at the unveiling of the statue to James Connolly, outside the Falls Community Centre, in west Belfast.
The idea was carried across the Atlantic to the offices of one of the biggest trade unions in the United States, came back home again to the chamber of Belfast’s City Hall and the offices of Failte Feirste Thiar and the MP for West Belfast, Paul Maskey.
All contributed, time, energy and finance to turn the idea into a reality.
And that reality brought one hundred trade unionists from the US and Canada, led by the president of ‘Labourers International Union of America’, Terry O’Sullivan, and Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins to Belfast’s Falls Road to join supporters who turned out, last Friday to open Áras Uí Chonghaile, James Connolly Visitor Centre.
And what a landmark and tribute the centre is to the people who worked tirelessly to establish it and to the memory of James Connolly, socialist, republican and martyr to the cause of Irish freedom.
The centre is a few hundred yards from the house where James Connolly and his family lived in 1910 when he was a trade union organiser in Belfast with James Larkin.
It was his west Belfast roots that gave former Sinn Fein councillor and SIPTU organiser, Jim McVeigh, the notion of bringing Connolly ‘home’ to the west, by opening a centre dedicated to him and his legacy as a socialist republican and trade unionist.
His pioneer work, in the last decade of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth, in the formation of labour parties, trade unions and socialist movements, in Ireland, Scotland and the US and the devastating clarity and precision with which he wrote, criticising capitalism and advocating socialism, set him apart as a national and international revolutionary thinker and activist with an enduring appeal and interest.
It was this enduring appeal, which motivated all involved in Áras Ui Chongaile – one of the most exciting projects, among many others, which are now housed in west Belfast.
It is safe to say without the support of the trade unions in the US and Canada, not a brick would have been laid.
Áras Ui Chongaile is another very good example of the powerful and positive influence Irish America and the diaspora have had on the struggle for a united Ireland since the Famine coffin ships arrived in the US from Ireland in the 1840s, carrying hapless immigrants, whose loyalty to Ireland saw their influential descendants send US presidents to Ireland, and delegations like last week’s from the Congress with Nancy Polosi and Richard Neal – all with a message supporting a future and prosperous Ireland.
Harry Connolly, of Failte Feirste Thiar, an irrepressible ‘can and must do’ person will be particularly pleased that the scholarly Michael D was at his very best when speaking at the opening of the centre; with leading trade union figures from Ireland and Britain and Belfast’s mayor Deirdre Hargey.
And with good advice to the first manager of the centre, Seanna Walsh, the president said: “I am confident that Aras Ui Chonghaile can become a valuable resource to bring us on that journey through the complex and multi-dimensional legacy of James Connolly, his life and work as international socialist and as trade unionist together with his role as an Irish republican. Most instructive, perhaps, is his understanding of the connection between the integrated dimensions of true freedom that gave such a unique character to his life and work.”
As teenagers in the Ballymacarrett/Short Strand area we wore Connolly badges proudly on our Wrangler jacket lapels. In prison, when political prisoners, we read his writings.
When free we visited Kilmainham Jail where James Connolly and all the other leaders of the 1916 Rising were executed.
And on this the 103rd anniversary of the 1916 Rising we have a top class, interactive visitors centre to educate a new generation of socialist republicans to fulfil Connolly’s vision.
