The Easter 1916 Rising leader James Connolly's membership card for the Scottish Labour Party has come to light and is to be auctioned in Dublin today – in Whyte's History auction, which begins at 1pm in the Freemasons' Hall in Molesworth Street.
Connolly, one of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, was court-martialled by the British authorities and executed by firing squad at Kilmainham Gaol on May 12th 99 years ago for his role in the Rising.
Although a leading figure in the struggle for Irish Independence, Connolly was, in fact, a Scot – born in Edinburgh, in 1868, to immigrant parents from Co Monaghan.
He joined the British Army at the age of 14 and served in Ireland with the Royal Scots Regiment but subsequently deserted and returned to Scotland where he held a series of poorly-paid jobs and became active in socialist politics. He joined the Scottish Labour Party on November 8th, 1892.
His membership card is signed by him beneath the pledge: “I hereby oblige myself to conform to the principles and programme of the Scottish Labour Party whereof I have this day been admitted a member”.
Connolly, an avowed Marxist and lifelong socialist, might turn in his grave at the prospect of such a document going “on the market”. Whyte’s auctioneers has assigned it a pre-auction estimate of between €800 and €1,200.
The card, described as “in need of restoration” by a paper conservator will, ironically go under the hammer on Saturday in a conservative bastion, the Freemasons’ Hall on Dublin’s Molesworth Street.
Whyte’s said the provenance of the card is “impeccable”. It was given, as a gift, by Connolly’s daughter Nora Connolly O’Brien to a family friend, Aileen O’Sullivan, and one of her descendants has consigned it to auction.
The card is adorned with the Scottish Labour Party's twin mottos: Nemo me impune lacessit [No one attacks me with impunity] and "No noble task was ever easy", and is engraved with the images of the party's founders, J Keir Hardie and R B Cunninghame Graham MP. The party was later dissolved and replaced in Scotland by the British national Labour Party of today.
James Connolly moved to Ireland in 1896 and became involved in the trade union movement and the struggle for Irish independence.
After being wounded during the Easter Rising, he was taken on a stretcher to be executed and had to be propped up in a chair to face the firing squad. He was aged 47.
