From The Plough To The Stars
Written By: Frederick Miller
Dublin 1916, and the Marxist Irish Citizens Army (ICA) poses for a photo outside the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. A banner reading “We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland” flies above them. Within 3 years of its formation by Socialists James Connolly, Jack White and James Larkin, the ICA became one of the most influential paramilitary forces in the struggle for Irish freedom.
“On the 24th of April 1916, the ICA participated in one of the most important moments in Irish history the “Éirí Amach na Cásca” or better known in English as the Easter Rising”
Formed on the 23rd of November 1913, the ICA was originally set up to defend workers during the 1913 Dublin lockout, a huge labour struggle between 20,000 workers and 300 employers. The workers’ demands were simple: improved working conditions and a granting of the right to unionise. The bourgeoisie responded in the same way it has against workers across the globe – with violence and intimidation. In August 1913, the Dublin Metropolitan Police baton charged strikers resulting in the deaths of two people and injured over three hundred more. Furious at what happened Connolly, White and Larkin set up the ICA to defend workers from further police brutality. White (an Ex British army captain who served in the Boer War) organised and trained the ICA to become, while small, an effective and organised paramilitary force.
“The Provisional Government of the Irish Republic proclaimed Ireland’s independence from the United Kingdom and “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland”
On the 24th of April 1916, the ICA participated in one of the most important moments in Irish history the “Éirí Amach na Cásca” or better known in English as the Easter Rising. The ICA along with language activist Patrick Pearse, Irish Volunteer Army and 200 women from Cummann na mBan (The Irish Women’s Council) seized government and strategic buildings and announced the “Forógra na Poblachta” the Proclamation of the Republic. The newly formed “Provisional Government of the Irish Republic“, proclaimed Ireland’s independence from the United Kingdom and “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland”. The rebellion was squashed after 6 days, when 16,000 British troops launched a huge bombing campaign that destroyed Dublin and killed over 2,000 civilians. To prevent a further loss of life the ICA and IVA surrendered on the 29th of April. After a huge crackdown and arrests by the British, 16 leaders of the Easter Rising were executed by firing squad – including James Connolly. His last statement given to his daughter on the eve of his execution on May 12th read:
“During the Irish War of Independence in 1919 the ICA formed a strong connection with the newly formed Irish Republican Army”
“ …The cause of Irish freedom is safe. Believing that the British Government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland, the presence, in any one generation of Irishmen, of even a respectable minority, ready to die to affirm that truth, makes that Government for ever a usurpation and a crime against human progress. I personally thank God that I have lived to see the day when thousands of Irish men and boys, and hundreds of Irish women and girls, were ready to affirm that truth, and to attest it with their lives if need be.”
After the Easter Rising James Larkin took control of the ICA. During the Irish War of Independence in 1919 the ICA formed a strong connection with the newly formed Irish Republican Army. As well as fighting alongside the IRA, the ICA helped to produce and distribute IRA propaganda, conducted “detective work” on their behalf, provided medical support for the Republican forces and supplied them with weapons due to its contacts within the British Army.
The Irish Citizens Army officially disbanded in 1947; it never gave up its struggle for a free Socialist Ireland. As James Connolly put it “A free Ireland would control its own destiny from the plough to the stars.”