Sir, - Please allow me space once again to correct Kevin Myers in his repeated assertion (October 1st) that as a "central truth the leaders of the 1916 Rising had never bothered to stand for election."
Let me repeat: This is untrue. James Connolly was a member of and founder of various political organisations throughout his life in Scotland, the United States and Ireland. He stood in elections in Scotland on behalf of the Socialist Federation and, in 1894 on a manifesto which he himself drew up for the Independent Labour Party, gained 14 per cent of the poll.
In 1902 he was a candidate in the municipal elections in Dublin for the Irish Socialist Republican Party but was not successful. In 1912 he stood as a candidate for Dock Ward in the Belfast Municipal Elections, backed by the Belfast Trades Council. That same year he founded the Labour Party in Clonmel.
Could you please draw Mr Myers's attention to these facts as I would prefer not to have to correct him in his "central truth" a third time. - Yours, etc.,
James Connolly Heron,
Oxford Road,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.