From Carol Murphy, Library SIPTU College, Dublin,
Globalised cinema presents very few opportunities to working men and women to see films that portray the lives and struggles of those individuals who take on the rich and powerful so as to lift ordinary people out of poverty and oppression. Too often, cinema presents a fantasy world in which glamour and celebrity are elevated and in which the interests of the elite are served against the best interest of workers and the marginalised.
But the stories that come out of those heroic struggles by ordinary people often contain all of the elements necessary for compelling drama on screen, and in the life of James Connolly those elements are there in abundance.
Connolly's life is so full and complex that writing the film script for 'Connolly' has taken Tom Stokes and Frank Allen six years to complete. They were determined that it would be true to the facts, but that it would also be able to engage and enthral an international audience, and so the story will be based on the fact that when Connolly went out to do his work he left behind a beloved family, and came home to them. The story of his struggle is interwoven with the family story. His wife Lillie and their children staunchly supported him in his work which was so poorly paid that, ironically, they often suffered deprivation so that he could do that work.
Connolly's mission took him from Scotland, where he was born to migrant Irish parents, to Ireland where he spent seven years working as a socialist agitator, journalist, editor and publisher of workers' newspapers before being forced to bring his family to the USA in order to improve their economic condition. In the United States he undertook often dangerous work as an organiser for the Industrial Workers of the World, and helped to establish that union as a force to be reckoned with. He played a central role in developing socialist thought in the USA while also contributing to debates in Europe through his articles and essays.
In 1910 Connolly returned to Ireland to help establish the Irish Transport and General Worders Union, and in doing so he took on a powerful employers association. The Great Dublin Lockout of 1913 resulted, and when the employers ruthlessly starved the working class of Dublin, Connolly helped create the Irish Citizen Army which he would later lead into a revolutionary war against the British Imperial forces in Ireland in 1916. The revolutionaries, hopelessly outnumbered, were forced to surrender. Connolly, who had been severely wounded in the fighting was executed by firing squad on May 12th 1916.
Connoly was not just a great socialist agitator and leader, but was an advanced feminist well ahead of prevailing thought. He was sometimes a playright, a poet and songwriter. He was a journalist and newspaperman. He was the founder of the Irish Labour Party. The body of written work he left behind confirms him as one of the leading socialist philosophers of the 20th century whose analysis and vision stand up to scrutiny in the 21st century. His admirers included Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, 'Big' Bill Haywood, Kier Hardie, John McLean and John Leslie. But for all of the serious nature of his work, Connolly was a family man with agreat love of life and a healthy sense of humour.
'Connolly' will be the first film to tell the story of his great struggle to lift the working class everywhere from the grinding poverty in which they were kept. It will also be the first feature film to deal with the context and background of the Irish revolution of 1916, and to challenge the establishment version of that great event as being a bourgeois rebellion.
Tom Stokes and Frank Allen are determined that this should be 'the people's film'. They intend to prove James Connolly's belief that the community, the commonwealth of ordinary people, can be as enterprising as any multi-national capitalist corporation. Separate from their production company, Rascal films, they have created a registered Charitable Trust in Ireland, administered by leading, trustworthy, union men and women - The James Connolly Foundation for Educational Equality. The Foundation is open for subscriptions from ordinary working people, individually or in groups such as union branches or other associations or clubs. Its funds will be administered under the rules laid down for Charitable Trusts in Ireland. The Foundation's aims are firstly to assist in making the Connolly film and secondly to apply its share of the profits from the film to programmes to alleviate inequality in educational opportunity caused in the main by poverty. It is intended that the Foundation should have an international aspect to its work to reflect Connolly's commitment to the poor of the world.
'Connolly' has received the full backing of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and of the affiliated unions, and support has been pledged from within the British and Scottish trade union movements.
'Connolly' will be directed by the highly aclaimed stage director and film actor Adrian Dunbar, and the title role of Connolly will be played by the award winning Scottish actor Peter Mullan ('My Names is Joe', 'Trainspotting', 'Shallow Grave', 'The Claim', 'The Magdalene Sisters', etc.). Pat Duffner (Michael Collins, The Nephew, The Field, My Left Foot, Eat the Peach, Broken Harvest, Night Train) will edit the film.
Rascal Films intend that 'Connolly' will be brought to the screen in 2006 for the 90th anniversary of Connolly's execution by firing squad, and that it will become a highly successful film for a world audience. Tom and Frank are appealing for support from unions and all union men and women to make this inspirational film. Their linked websites are:
www.rascal-films.com
www.connolly-thefilm.com