The Night Before • James Connolly

He has devoted his life to the wage slaves: working stiffs, dirt dogs, navvies – all those without power serving the ones who hold it. It is not enough for him to force the Empire to leave; after they are gone he intends to bring down the indigenous ruling class and the economic system through which they have helped control the island before the Rising. He is as much a patriot as Pearse, but he is animated not nearly as much by God as by the inevitable triumph of socialism. He has lived in the United States, worked as an organiser there and knows how passionately many of its citizens have wished for a free Ireland. He hopes this will translate into material support, but he counts on nothing other than knowing there will be no more genteel arrangements with the Empire; the time to fight has come – the most dangerous battle in a life filled with them.