MayDay

• pentaxuser

• May 7, 2023

Ah the famous James Connolly of the Easter Uprising. I had no idea of his full history or indeed what he looked like . In a word he was "committed"

It's a " dark" town with its stone buildings in the kind of weather that I associate Edinburgh with. I once walked from the old Meadowbank speedway stadium to Colinton Mains in the dark in "stair rods" all the way

pentaxuser

 

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  mfohl

• May 7, 2023

At least Edinburgh had their parade. The one in Havana was cancelled for lack of fuel.

 

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  SJC1952

• May 8, 2023

It would have been a fair old hike between the Meadowbank Speedway and Colinton Mains. And yes James Connolly was "committed" I read somewhere he supported a Scottish Socialist Republic. We're still waiting a century later.

 

• pentaxuser

• May 8, 2023

SJC1952 said:

It would have been a fair old hike between the Meadowbank Speedway and Colinton Mains. And yes James Connolly was "committed" I read somewhere he supported a Scottish Socialist Republic. We're still waiting a century later.

Click to expand...

Yes it was a fair old hike from Hibee territory to deep into Jambo land

 

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  Tel

• May 9, 2023

Said it before and I'll say it again: if you want to know about Connolly read Nelson Ritschel and Pádraig Yeates. A great and mis-characterised man. It's good that the denizens of Edinburgh see fit to celebrate him.

Beautiful photograph too--you've captured a sense of the dynamism of the event and yet everything is pin-sharp in focus. A good trick if you can pull it off!

 

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  SJC1952

• May 11, 2023

Thanks Tel. There was a huge Irish influx into Scotland throughout the 19th century. There is an annual celebration of Connelly's life in the Cowgate in Edinburgh. Republican songs are sung and flags are waved.

 

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  Tel

• May 11, 2023

The point both Ritschel and Yeates make is that Connolly wasn't really a republican: he and Larkin orchestrated a strike among the tram workers that shut down Dublin after the 1913 lockout. Only latterly did the IRB take over the unrest caused by the lockout and use it to fuel the '16 rising. Connolly was an advocate for fair treatment and the right to organise across the UK. Hence his place of honor in Edinburgh....

 

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  Tel

• May 11, 2023

Further to your point above, I was attending a Screen Studies conference at the U. of Glasgow a bunch of years ago (possibly even the last century) and we were invited to a dinner hosted by the lord mayor. He opened the conference by welcoming us all to the People's Republic of Scotland.

 

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  SJC1952

• May 11, 2023

The Cowgate is still known locally as "Little Ireland". The James Connolly plaque under George 1V Bridge in the Cowgate is the meeting place for the annual event to celebrate his life. As for the People's Republic of Scotland one can only hope.