The Non-Stop Connolly Show

Margaretta D'Arcy and John Arden

Dublin 1975

Historical Drama in 6 Parts (15 Acts) prose & verse, mainly rhymed

(1) Boyhood 1868-1889. James Connolly, born among the Irish in Edinburgh, can find no work, so joins the army and is sent to Ireland. He discovers Irish nationalism and international socialism.

(2) Apprenticeship 1889-1896. Connolly, in Edinburgh once more, and married, seeks political office as a socialist and fails to find it; he seeks to earn a living and fails likewise.

(3) Professional 1896-1903. In Dublin Connolly founds the Irish Socialist Republican Party. He disrupts the Royal Jubilee and leads his party in militant opposition to the Boer War. He clashes with the British Labour Party, members of the Socialist International, and with his own party.

(4) The New World 1903-19I0. Connolly emigrates to the USA, joins the Socialist Labor Party led by Daniel De Leon, but is frustrated by its doctrinaire sectarianism. He forms the Irish Socialist Federation among immigrants to the USA and becomes Organizer of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). Struggling against the odds in New York, he returns to Ireland.

(5) The Great Lockout 1910-1914. There he meets James Larkin, who sends him to Belfast to organize the new Irish Transport Workers' Union. When Dublin employers impose the 'Great Lockout', Larkin, aided by Connolly, responds with a general strike. Without support from the British trade-union leadership, the strike collapses. The Irish Citizen Army and the Irish National Volunteers are formed.

(6) World War and the Rising 1914-1916. Connolly sees international socialism collapse in the face of the outbreak of the First World War. He brings the Irish Citizen Army into the Easter Rising of 1916, is forced to surrender, and is executed.