Cornelius ‘Con’ Lehane (1877–1919) was born in County Cork, Ireland and was a founding member of the Irish Socialist Republican Party. Also known as O’Lyhane, he was the ISRP’s Cork branch, called the Fintan Lalor Club, leading figure and a major figure in the IRSP nationally. Lehane clashed with Connolly over differences towards the IRSP’s posture towards religion and the Catholic Church. While in Cork, Lehane led protests against Queen Victoria’s Jubilee and a militant gas workers’ strike. His atheism lost him his job as a clerk, and he resettled in England where he joined the Social Democratic Federation. He soon left the SDF to become a founding member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain in 1904, and its first General Secretary. Expelled from the SPGB in 1906 along with his branch over their support of industrial unionism, he moved to the United States by 1913. He settled in Connecticut and was active with James Larkin in the left wing of the Socialist Party and the IWW.

A paid SP organizer and speaker, he toured the country with a focus on organizing Irish workers, including for Debs 1916 congressional campaign in Indiana. Immediately after James Connolly’s May 12, 1916 execution, his comrade Cornelius Lehane sought to grasp the opportunity to bring Connolly’s socialism to the Irish working class in the U.S. He produced a book, see below, and began an exhaustive tour of the country in support. Speaking to well over 150 audiences, he sought to create James Connolly Reading Clubs in Irish working class communities. While engaged in this project he was jailed in 1917, along with so many other foreign-born radicals, for opposing US entry into World War One. While there, his health declined and he died in New York City on December 31, 1919 shortly after being released from prison. Below is an article where Lehane lays out his vision for the work, and a number of notices of his extensive tour, all from The American Socialist, then the official organ of the Socialist Party. Finally, there is a link to the book about the Easter Rising written by Lehane which was the basis of this traveling lecture.

‘A Great Opportunity’ by Cornelius Lehane from The American Socialist. Vol. 3 No. 22. December 9, 1916.

Only once in a generation is an opportunity like the present afforded to reach the Irish element in America with the message of socialism. That opportunity has been provided by the Irish revolution and the Battle of Dublin.

This was the culmination of the labor revolt in Ireland which had been in process of development in that country for some years, and the Citizen Army of Ireland which fought in that battle was the military expression of the Irish labor and socialist movement. Every man in the citizen army was a union man and the rank and file elected all officers.

First Labor Army.

Many misapprehensions have arisen in America as to the real meaning of the Battle of Dublin, but the fact that the revolutionary army was headed by James Connolly, the veteran Marxian socialist and internationalist should cause the socialist comrades thruout the world to start thinking that the Irish revolution had an element of unionism and socialism in it worthy of closest attention. Connolly who prior to the revolution in Ireland was Commandant of the Irish Citizen Army, the first labor army in the world, became on the eve of battle Commandant General of the entire rebel army, which included the forces of the Citizen Army.

This army of the Irish democracy, captained by Connolly, the international socialist, went into action because conscription was drawing near, and its members decided to die at home facing, in arms the master class than die in a foreign land fighting their brothers of other nations. Connolly and his comrades who died in the Battle of Dublin were the first martyrs of the cause of international socialism.

They did not die in vain.

The immediate cause for which they fought was won. They stopped conscription in Ireland, which today is the only country in the European war zone officially at war but in reality at peace. The workingmen of Ireland are as a result at home alive in Ireland minding their own business.

Alone amongst the workers in the European war zone they have successfully defied the government of the masters, thanks to our dead comrade James Connolly and his gallant comrades in arms.

The message of the dead Connolly, brutally murdered by the masters in cold blood after the Battle of Dublin, propped up in a chair to face the firing squad because he was already dying from wounds received in action and could not stand, should be placed before the Irish people of the United States. There is no organization interested in bringing Connolly’s message to the American Irish except the socialist movement of which he was while alive a bright ornament. It remains therefore for the socialist movement in America to create ways and means of bringing to the knowledge of the Irish in America the facts of the labor and socialist revolt in Ireland, in order that they too might become imbued with the spirit of the men of their own race at home in Ireland.

Not Afraid Of Socialism.

Socialism has long since ceased to frighten the Irish workers at home in Ireland. Here in America the message of socialism has yet to be brought to the Irish, and in no better way can they be reached than by putting into their hands the literature left by James Connolly. His writings will now be read by every Irish workingman of every shade of politics, as his heroic fight and his martyr’s death in Ireland have appealed to the Irish with extraordinary force. His writings will therefore now be read by even those that before his death would cry “Connolly, is a Socialist, don’t read his literature.”

The members of the Socialist Party of America have now an unbreakable weapon in their hands to reach the Irish element in this great continent. There are some twenty million Irish people in this country. Only a slight fringe of them have been so far reached by the message of socialism. A certain footing has been already gained amongst the Irish, and that footing must be made the basis of a serious advance amongst the bulk of the members of that race. It is conceded on all sides that the Irish element cannot be ignored in the work of preparation for the socialist revolution in America, and one of the most important problems is how to reach and educate the mass of the Irish workingmen in this country.

The solution is now at hand, as Connolly left behind him some of the greatest masterpieces of the literature of the socialist movement of the world. His “Labor in Irish History” is a marvelous Application of the Marxian key to the history of Connolly’s native land in the relatively simple style in which it is written stamps Connolly not only as a philosopher of the first rank but as a literary light of the first order. Other works of Connolly’s are also in existence in pamphlet form as well as scattered thru the pages of the “Irish Worker” and in the “Workers Republic” which succeeded it.

Reach Irish In America.

These writings by a man who will be described in future days as the greatest Irishman since James Fintan Lalor, the rebel of 1848, must be brought to the doors of every Irish family in America and the best way to do it is to form in every centre where there is a considerable Irish element in the population a James Connolly Reading Circle. These circles could afterwards be linked up into a national organization that would stretch from New York to San Francisco. There are enough Irish comrades in the socialist movement to start these Connolly Reading Circles everywhere. The circles would exist for the sole purpose of circulating Connolly’s writings and of promoting the study of the message contained in them.

One or two comrades in every large city could start at once a Connolly Reading Circle there. Such circles could be formed immediately in New York City, Providence, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Minneapolis, Butte, Spokane, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and in many other places large and small wherever there are a few Irish comrades to start the work. There would be no subscription arid no rules for these Reading Circles, which could meet from time to time for discussion

Later on a correspondent from each circle would be invited to get into touch with a central correspondent and thus the embryo of a national organization for circulating and studying Connolly’s writings would be brought into existence.

Shortly the American editions of Connolly’s writings will be ready for distribution, and when they are ready the Connolly Reading Circles should take them up at once and enroll as readers every Irishman of the working class they come in contact with.

Every wage earner of Irish blood that reads Connolly’s writings ..will be brought to recognize the cause of his economic slavery and to know the remedy. Thus will be found the solution of reaching the Irish with the message of socialism.

Irish Organizers Wanted.

This proposal for the formation of the Connolly Reading Circles should be read out and fully discussed by every socialist local in the United States, and one of the Irish comrades should immediately take it upon himself to become the organizer in his district of the circle. He should at once prepare a list of Irish workers in the unions and in the Irish fraternal orders, so as to have his material for the circle in readiness when the notices are issued that Connolly’s writings have been reprinted in America. A more important proposal than this was never before put before the socialist movement in America as far as the method of reaching the Irish wage earners is concerned. I would ask every socialist newspaper in the United States to publish this suggestion.

Any comrades willing to take an active part in starting up the Connolly Reading Circles or in any other way assisting in the movement to spread the propaganda amongst the American Irish can as a preliminary step communicate with Comrade Lehane whose address is 553 Main Street, Ansonia, Conn.’

July 8 1916. ‘Comrade Cornelius Lehane of Ireland is now in the eastern states delivering a series of Memorial Addresses for James Connolly, the socialist pioneer of Ireland. Some of Lehane’s dates are as follows: Connecticut: South Manchester, July 1; Hartford, July 2; Rockville, July 3: Derby, July 6; Ansonia, July 7; Waterbury, July 8; Massachusetts—Lynn, July 9, 3 p. m; Boston, July 9, 8 p.m. Lehane’s permanent address for mail is 553 Main St., Ansonia, Conn.

August 12, 1916. Cornelius Lehane of Ireland, co-founder with James Connolly of the Socialist Party of Ireland, has completed his Connolly Memorial lecture in the states of New York and Connecticut, and is now on his way to Ohio, where his dates are: Cleveland Aug. 3, 4 and 5; Youngstown, Sunday, Aug. 6; Warren, Aug. 7; Hubbard, Aug. 8; Akron, Aug. 9, 10 and 11; Sandusky, Aug. 12; Fostoria, Sunday, Aug. 13; Hamilton, Aug. 19; Cincinnati, Sunday, Aug. 20, to Sat., Aug. 26. After leaving Ohio, Comrade Lehane is to campaign for Debs for congress. Everywhere Lehane is enthusiastically received by the Emmett societies, the Gaelic league, the Friends of Irish Freedom, with record collections at the meetings and an enormous number of applications for membership in the party from Irish Catholics and labor union men. This is the greatest opportunity in history for reaching the Irish. They are excited about the Dublin revolution, led by the Irish Socialists and Lehane Is availing of the opportunity.

August 19, 1916. Comrade Cornelius Lehane of Ireland is dated to speak at the following places in Texas: El Paso, Dec. 26; San Antonio, Dec. 28; Austin, Dec. 29; Houston, Dec. 30; Galveston, Dec. 31. Afterwards he’ speaks at some points in Louisiana on his way to New Orleans. Our Irish comrade is receiving an enthusiastic reception everywhere in the south, as many of the local comrades knew Connolly personally, and Lehane’s story of the Irish Citizen Army, the first labor army in the world, is drawing enormous audiences.

December 9, 1916. Comrade Cornelius Lehane of Ireland, now resting up in California after addressing 125 scheduled meetings from New York to San Francisco during the campaign, will on Dec. 11^th start out via the southern states for New Orleans where he expects to arrive by Christmas. Enroute he will speak for various Socialist locals in Arizona, N. Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. Early in the new year he will make for Chicago, speaking on the way at various places in Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois. His memorial address for his old Comrade James Connolly who headed the insurrection in Ireland and killed conscription in that country, has created a profound sensation wherever he has spoken.

December 30, 1916. Comrade Cornelius Lehane of Ireland is dated to speak at the following places in Texas: El Paso, Dec. 26; San Antonio, Dec. 28; Austin, Dec. 29; Houston, Dec. 30; Galveston, Dec. 31. Afterwards he’ speaks at some points in Louisiana on his way to New Orleans. Our Irish comrade is receiving an enthusiastic reception everywhere in the south, as many of the local comrades knew Connolly personally, and Lehane’s story of the Irish Citizen Army, the first labor army in the world, is drawing enormous audiences.

January 6, 1917. Comrade Cornelius Lehane of Ireland has accepted invitations to lecture from locals in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas as follows: Texas: Dallas, Jan. 8th; Fort Worth, Jan. 9th. Louisiana—Lake Charles, Jan. 11; Jennings, Jan. 12; Lafayette, Jan. 13; New Iberia, Jan. 14; Morgan City, Jan. 15; New Orleans, Jan. 16 to 18; Baton Rouge, Jan. 19; Alexandria, Jan. 20; Georgetown,, Jan. 21; Columbia, Jan. 22; Monroe, Jan. 28; Arkansas—Pine Bluff, Jan. 25; Little Rock, Jan. 26 and 27. Our Irish comrade is doing good work in the Southern states, some of the locals in New Mexico for which he has spoken not having had a speaker in their towns for over four years. His audiences are always very large, and he is not afraid of going into the states where the socialist movement is relatively weak.

February 10, 1917. Local Allegheny County of the Socialist party has engaged Cornelius Lehane to speak at the Lyceum Theater, Pittsburgh, Sunday, Feb. 18th. Our Irish comrade will speak for the Baltimore Open Forum, Sunday, March 11, and for the Rand School, New York, Sunday, March 25. The orator from the Emerald Isle is now in Arkansas, where he has spoken at Little Rock and at Pine Bluff. Enroute to Chicago, he will deliver lectures at Memphis and Nashville, Tenn., St. Louis, Mo., and Peoria and Joliet, Ill.

March 10, 1917. Comrade Cornelius Lehane of Ireland is dated to speak as follows: Washington, D. C, four lectures, March 7th to 10th; Baltimore, Open Forum, Sunday, March 11th; Jersey City, Sunday, March 18th; Rand School, New York, Sunday, March 25th; Bridgeport, Conn., Sunday, April 1st; Woonsocket and Providence, R. I., afternoon and night of Sunday, April 8th; Boston Irish Society, Sunday, April 15th. Socialist locals in Connecticut and Massachusetts desiring Lehane dates should write at once to Cornelius Lehane, Ansonia, Conn.

March 17, 1917. Comrade Cornelius Lehane, who sustained injuries including several broken ribs in Ohio, states that all his speaking dates in the District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, will be kept in the ordinary way. His surgical attendant has put him in a sort of straight jacket to keep the fractured bones in position while healing, but this does not inconvenience the Irishman who says he feels as fit as a fiddle. His meetings in Pennsylvania have been great successes, the attendances large, collections and literature sales in most cases being of record size. A few broken ribs do not interfere with the speaking powers of the Irish propagandist.

The Irish Republic by Cornelius Lehane. Self-Published, Ansonia, Connecticut. June, 1916.

A unique and wonderful self-published pamphlet by Irish-born revolutionary Con Lehane on the Easter Rising and the execution of his former comrade, James Connolly. It includes a fine, now lost, recounting of the Rising with a focus on its class element and words of praise for his old nemesis in the ISRP, James Connolly written within days of it happening. The essay is deserving of being more widely read. The pamphlet also includes a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic as well as an article about a ‘Citizen’s Army’ organized by militant trade unionists in Minneapolis, Minnesota as well as photos of Connolly, Sheehy Skeffington, and Constance Markievicz. 16 pages.

PDF of original Lehane pamphlet: http://cfss.indstate.edu/debspams/l522i7_1916.pdf