Come Here To Me!

On the fifth of June 1919, a concert was due to take place at the Mansion House to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of James Connolly. It had been organised by his comrades in the labour movement, including members of his beloved Irish Citizen Army. Under the Defence Of the Realm Act (DORA) the concert was deemed illegal days in advance, and as one would expect things turned ugly. A small crowd arrived on the night, and while the crowd were being moved in the direction of Grafton Street by the Dublin Metropolitan Police, the Irish Times of the following day noted that “Without a seconds warning, three or four young men faced the police with revolvers in their hands”. Shots were fired, officers injured, and the concert was held at the Trades Hall on Capel Street that night.

How fitting this documentary should first air in the Mansion House then.

Firstly, one must state before beginning any review of this documentary that the fingerprints of Liberty Hall today are clear to be seen on this work. It is introduced to the audience gathered in the Mansion House by not alone Jack O’ Connor of Siptu, but also Liz McManus of the Labour Party. She features in the documentary, as do her party colleagues Dick Spring and Eamon Gilmore. The Labour Party are the only party from the left in Ireland to feature with the exception of a brief appearance from Eugene McCartan of the Communist Party of Ireland, and as the documentary comes to an end to the sound of Paul Cleary of The Blades singing about the fighting spirit of the capital, it is an image of contemporary Liberty Hall which appears on-screen.

With a title like ‘James Connolly-Working Class Hero’, this work was always going to be one of admiration, with many of its contributors from left-wing traditions. Still, it is an important work, and one which almost lives up to my (rather high) expectations. It attempts to not only explore James Connolly, the giant we know from history, but also another James Connolly. The Connolly raised in what became ‘Little Ireland’, a slum of Edinburgh. The Connolly who first visits Ireland not as a socialist revolutionary, but a member of the British Army. The Connolly who noted that his life was forever darkened by the loss of his eldest daughter to an untimely death.

It is a testament to those behind this documentary that they succeeded in attracting such a diverse group of individuals to the project. Colm Meaney in particular deserves great praise for his readings of the work and letters of Connolly. Meaney delivers the correspondences and writings in an almost perfect Edinburgh accent, and captures perfectly the passion in the written words of Connolly.

Connolly himself remarked in 1907 that “Until the movement is marked by the joyous, defiant, singing of revolutionary songs, it lacks one of the distinctive marks of a popular revolutionary movement; it is a dogma of a few, and not the faith of the multitude”.

It is fitting, as Connolly wrote many poems and songs in his time of course, that music and poetry should feature so centrally in this documentary. Christy Moore delivers the first musical performance of the documentary, singing ‘Connolly Was There’, a number he learned from Dominic Behan. Andy Irvine delivers a rendition of ‘James Connolly’, that excellent song by Patrick Galvin that asks “Who will carry high the burning flag?” Jimmy Kelly, Adrian Dunbar and Paul Cleary also lend their voices to proceedings, occasionally with the assitance of a a number of excellent musicians.

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