Cornelius Lehane deserves to be far better known and studied as a pioneer of revolutionary Socialism in Ireland, Britain, and the United States. Jailed for his anti-conscription work in the World War One crackdown, Lehane’s health suffered in prison and he died on December 31, 1919 shortly after his release.

‘In Memoriam: Cornelius Lehane’ from Truth (Duluth). Vol. 3 No. 5. January 31, 1919.

The sad news of the death of Comrade Cornelius Lehane came as a shock to all his Socialist Comrades in America, but nowhere was his loss felt move keenly than among the members of the Connolly Club of Boston. Shortly before his arrest last June he addressed a meeting in the Dudley Opera House, and we little expected then that it would be his last appearance on the platform in this city. His incarceration for 139 days in jail before bonds were secured for him no doubt undermined his health and he succumbed to the deadly pneumonia on New Year’s eve. The Socialist movement has lost a fearless fighter, an eloquent orator and a charming personality. The best way we can honor his memory Is to fight for the cause he served so faithfully and loved so well. In this life he never feared a mortal foe; may he rest peacefully in the bosom of nature; ho whose restless spirit could not bear inaction in this life.

The Connolly Club passed the following resolution on hearing of his death:

Whereas death has taken away in the prime of his life our well-beloved and faithful Comrade, Cornelius Lehane. who gave his great ability without stint to the work of emancipating mankind from the curse of wage-slavery, and was always ready to raise his voice in behalf of the oppressed. A fearless and typical Celt, he feared nothing and loved the movement to which he belonged more than anything else on this earth, and he died while the capitalist class were preparing to punish him still more for his loyalty to the workers.

And whereas we believe that the Connolly Club of Boston could do nothing belter calculated to honor his memory than to help to carry on the work in which he played such an important part; therefore, be it Resolved, That we hold at an early date a memorial meeting to publicly express our esteem for our departed comrade and our sorrow at his early death; and be It further Resolved, That copies of this resolution be sent to the Irish and Socialist press and to his sisters in this country.

Signed, Thomas J. O’Flaherty, John J. Lucey Michael T. Berry.

Truth emerged from the The Duluth Labor Leader, a weekly English language publication of the Scandinavian local of the Socialist Party in Duluth, Minnesota and began on May Day, 1917 as a Left Wing alternative to the Duluth Labor World. The paper was aligned to both the SP and the I.W.W. leading to the paper being closed down in the first big anti-I.W.W. raids in September, 1917. The paper was reborn as Truth, with the Duluth Scandinavian Socialists joining the Communist Labor Party of America in 1919. Shortly after the editor, Jack Carney, was arrested and convicted of espionage in 1920. Truth continued to publish with a new editor J.O. Bentall until 1923 as an unofficial paper of the C.P.

Access to full paper: https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn89081142/1919-01-31/ed-1/seq-1