Mike Connolly has been interested in Irish history and culture since he was a kid growing up in Portland. Now a history professor at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, in Standish, he will lead a lecture Friday, April 22, at the Maine Irish Heritage Center as part of an event honoring the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rebellion. The Easter Rebellion was a critical moment in Ireland’s independence movement.
Connolly is the writer and editor of three books, all with “a very strong Irish theme,” he said. His latest book, “Seated by the Sea: The Maritime History of Portland, Maine, and Its Irish Longshoreman,” includes the story of his grandfather, a native of Ireland, and a charter member of the Portland Longshoreman’s Benevolent Society in 1880.
Q: How did you become interested in Irish history?
A: Both my paternal grandparents emigrated from Ireland to Portland. They were Gaelic speakers, and had to learn new customs, language, and new styles. They did quite well in Portland. They had 13 children, one of whom was my dad. When I was growing up, I never met my paternal grandfather, and my grandmother died when I was one. But my dad told me stories about Ireland and its folklore. I studied abroad in Ireland during my senior year of college, and that’s when it all started.
Q: Can you provide some historical background on the Easter uprising?
A: Ireland was first colonized by England in the 12th century and since 1801 had its Parliament in London as part of the British Parliament. Two years before the start of the first World War, in 1912, the British Parliament passed a Home Rule bill for Ireland, to allow Ireland a degree of independence. When the bill was adopted, it was to be implemented after a two-year delay, in 1914. When World War I broke out in 1914, Britain decided to further postpone granting independence to Ireland until the war was over. The war was anticipated to last only weeks, but as we now know, it lasted for over four years.
By 1916, the Irish Nationalists had lost trust in the British rulers, and they boldly acted for independence.
They led what was called the Easter Rebellion, which, due to a complication, actually took place on Easter Monday rather than Easter Sunday. Initially, the rebellion was a failure, and after a few days the British military in Ireland arrested a number of rebellion leaders and executed 16. As more and more Irish people learned about what the leaders stood for, however, their opinions changed from opposition for the movement to support.
As World War I ended in 1918, the British Parliament, including Ireland, held a general election. The political party Sinn Féin – a name that in Gaelic means “ourselves, alone” – was calling for full independence for Ireland, and received the overall majority of the Irish vote.
Q: What were some of the important lessons from the Easter Uprising?
A. The year 1916 represents one of the first successful attempts by a colonized country to gain independence from a colonizing power. Following Ireland’s independence, a lot of countries looked to independence for themselves, and in doing so they studied the Easter Rebellion.
Q: In your talk, you’ll be focusing on James Connolly and Jim Larkin. Why did you chose to study these two figures?
A. The Maine Irish Heritage Center will be celebrating the Easter Rebellion on three days with different emphases. I chose to focus on the Irish Labour Movement partly because that is what I studied in Ireland for my master’s degree in the 1970s, but also because it is a thrilling story of people fighting against all odds for the common working people of Ireland. These two men are nearly universally revered in the Republic of Ireland today.
Q: The issue of minimum wage is being discussed at a state and national level. When we talk about labor movements in Ireland, do they bear any relevance to our own conversations around labor?
A: Yes, absolutely. The issues that Larkin and Connolly were fighting for prior to Easter 1916 were all about working conditions for the dock workers, the transport workers and all the general unskilled laborers of Ireland. Also, they both opposed participation in the first world war.
Q: Do you think America needs a new labor movement?
A: Some favor a separate labor party but many others favor having a strong labor component within the Democratic Party as the most likely way to bring about needed change for workers.
Q: Do you visit Ireland regularly? Do you ever think about moving there?
A: I lived in Ireland for three years and have visited often, but I always find myself being attracted back to Maine and my family here. Once I found family in Ireland, in the Connemara region of county Galway, it all became very real and emotional for me. I love to visit family there and to entertain them when they come over to Maine.
Q: Where is your favorite place in Ireland and why?
A. I tell my students that Connemara is the hub of the universe, with apologies to Boston. It’s a moonscape (a barren landscape covered with rocks) unlike any other place I’ve ever seen and I love its people.
Mike Connolly, a history professor at Saint Joseph’s College, is a Portland native and expert in Irish history. Connolly will lecture on Ireland’s Easter Rebellion this Friday at the Maine Irish Heritage Center.
A closer look
Mike Connolly, author and professor at Saint Joseph’s College, will speak at the Maine Irish Heritage Center in Portland Friday, April 22, at 7 p.m.
For a full calendar of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the rebellion of Easter 2016, visit the Maine Irish Heritage at www.maineirish.com.
Connolly’s book, “Seated By the Sea: The Maritime History of Portland, Maine, and Its Irish Longshoreman,” was published in 2011 and includes the story of his paternal grandfather, a native of Ireland.
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