The Workers’ Republic. A Selection from the Writings of James Connolly Edited by Desmond Ryan. With an introduction by William McMullen. Dublin: At the Sign of the Three Candles, 1951. First Edition. Pp, 264. Brown cloth boards, lettered in black, in publisher’s pictorial dust jacket. A near fine copy.

The third and final volume of Connolly’s writings in Irish, British and American journals covering varied subjects as the 1913 Lock-Out, Labour conditions in the North, the Land question, Socialism & Religion, industrial unionism, Labour representation, political and economic policy.

James Connolly was executed by a British firing squad in Kilmainham jail because of his leadership role in the Easter Rising of 1916. James Connolly’s achievements were as a labour leader. In Belfast he led a successful docker’s strike. In Dublin he worked with Jim Larkin in the Irish Transport and General Worker’s Union, organising a series of strikes which culminated in the unsuccessful 1913 Dublin Lock-out. He set up the Irish Citizen Army to defend the workers. He is best remembered for his part in the 1916 Rising and his execution by firing squad, although injured and unable to stand, in Kilmainham Jail.