Irishman Jim Connell (27 March, 1852 - February 1929) was a political activist of the late 19th century and early 20th century, best known as the writer of the anthem The Red Flag in December 1889.

Connell was born in Kilskyre , near Kells, County Meath and as a teenager became involved in land agitation and joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Aged 18 and a signatory to the Fenian Oath, he moved to Dublin where he worked as a docker until he became blacklisted for attempting to unionise the workers. In 1875 he came to live and work in London. He held a variety of jobs, including time as a staff journalist on Kier Hardie's newspaper The Labour Leader, and was secretary of the Workingmen's Legal Aid Society during the last 20 years of his life.

For 10 years he was a member of the Social Democratic Federation led by Henry Hyndman, which supported the cause of Irish land reform and self-determination; both Connell and Hyndman were on the executive of the National Land League of Great Britain, which aimed to promote the need for land reform in Ireland amongst the workers in England. In the late 1890s, however, Connell left the SDF and joined the Independent Labour Party.

The Red Flag

Connell was inspired to write a socialist anthem after attending a lecture at a meeting of the Social Democratic Federation during the 1889 London docks strike. He set down the words while on a train journey from Charing Cross station to his home in New Cross, south London. It is normally sung to the tune of the German carol Tannenbaum (also used for the state song of Maryland) though Connell had wanted it sung to a tune he called The White Cockade.

In 1920 in How I wrote The Red Flag he wrote:

"Did I think that the song would live? Yes, the last line shows I did: "This song shall be our parting hymn". I hesitated a considerable time over this last line. I asked myself whether I was not assuming too much. I reflected, however, that in writing the song I gave expression to not only my own best thoughts and feelings, but the best thoughts and feelings of every genuine socialist I knew . . . I decided that the last line should stand."

Memorials

He died in February 1929 in south London, though his funeral was held in Golders Green. He is commemorated by a plaque at 22a Stondon Park, SE23 in the Forest Hill area.

On 26 April 1998 a monument to Jim Connell was unveiled in Crossakiel , Co Meath on the spot where he addressed a crowd of 600 in 1918.

Sources

• brief biography
• Review of pamphlet The Irish Socialist Who Gave the World The Red Flag