James Connolly Quotes

The great appear great to us.

The Irish people will only be free, when they own everything from the plough to the stars

Yes, friends, governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class.

If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!

Don't be 'practical' in politics. To be practical in that sense means that you have schooled yourself to think along the lines, and in the grooves that those who rob you would desire you to think.

The British Government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland.

We believe in constitutional action in normal times; we believe in revolutionary action in exceptional times.

Apostles of Freedom are ever idolised when dead, but crucified when alive.

Yes, ruling by fooling, is a great British art with great Irish fools to practice on.

No revolutionary movement is complete without its poetical expression.

The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave.

The cause of Labour is the cause of Ireland, and the cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour

Whenever the clergy succeeded in conquering political power in any country, the result has been disastrous to the interests of religion and inimical to the progress of humanity.

There can be no perfect Europe in which Ireland is denied even the least of its national rights.

Though I have usually posed as a Catholic, I have not done my duty for 15 years, and have not the slightest tincture of faith left.

Only the Irish working class remains as the incorruptible inheritors of the fight for freedom in Ireland.

Irish tory employers hid[e] their sweatshops behind orange flags, and Irish home rule landlords us[e] the green sunburst of Erin to cloak their rack-renting in the festering slums of our Irish towns.

Without the power of the Industrial Union behind it, Democracy can only enter the State as the victim enters the gullet of the Serpent.

The Irishman in English literature may be said to have been born with an apology in his mouth.

I can always guarantee that the Irish Citizen Army will fight but I cannot guarantee that it will be on time

If you remove the English army to-morrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain.