JAMES CONNOLLY FESTIVAL EVENTS 2025
Tuesday May 6th - Saturday, May 10th, 12pm-6pm, Connolly Books (Upstairs)
James Connolly ART Exhibition
A number of artists have been commissioned to create prints based on James Connolly. Portraits of the man himself, creative displays of his words and writings, reflections on the Irish citizen Army & ITGWU. All work will be available to view and purchase over the course of the week between 12pm - 6pm. Upstairs in Connolly Book (access through the shop)
Tuesday May 6th - Saturday, May 10th, 12pm-6pm, Connolly Books (Upstairs)
VIDEO GAME
Grand Canal Demolition Derby is a PS1-style edutainment game set between the arena of Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock and Saol Eile, a spectral otherworld. Players learn about the historic basis to Ireland’s over-reliance on US: From centuries of colonial limitations imposed by Britain, to the substitution of indigenous industry with US investment from the 1950s onwards. The game’s ‘missions’ - to thrash the Teslas, smash the servers and maim the mainframes of American tech companies - serve as a metaphor for the shift from US tech dominance to a socialist economy, where industries are publicly owned and the beneficiaries are workers, not capitalists.
GCDD was created by NAMACO, headed by Donal Fullam and Han Hogan, in collaboration with 3D artist Peter Jessiman. It brings together pirated audio from Joe Duffy’s Liveline with the music of Rising Damp, the Deadlians, One Leg One Eye and Rats Blood. The game features the voices of Elaina Murphy Cerrone, Ro Barret and James Wilson.
The game will be playable throughout the week upstairs in Connolly Books (entry through the shop)
Tuesday May 6th - Saturday, May 10th, 12pm-6pm, Connolly Books (Upstairs)
neutrality
Neutrality has become central to the struggle between those forces who want a united, sovereign, socialist Republic and the political heirs to Redmondism, north and south, who want greater integration with US, British and EU imperialism.
Join us for a conversation on Neutrality, Partition and the Fight Against Imperialism in Ireland.
Wednesday May 7th, 7pm at The New Theatre
CHINA
When the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on 1 October 1949, China was one of the poorest and most wretched societies on earth. Illiteracy was as high as life expectancy was low.
Today’s China is at the forefront of the world economy, has eliminated absolute poverty and is leading the world in tackling climate change, and the development of new, high quality productive forces, essentially conforming to the fifth industrial revolution.
Does China provide an example of what can be achieved with a socialist system? Is China committed to Marxism? Carlos Martinez is author of ‘The East Is Still Red’ and ‘Peoples China at 75: The Flag Stays Red’ and will provide information followed by discussion
Thursday May 8th, 7pm at The New Theatre
WOMEN
Unregulated capitalism is bad for women. Socialism leads to economic independence, better labour conditions, better work/family balance and, yes, even better sex.
Dr Kirsten Ghodsee, author of ‘Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism’, Red Valkyries’ and ‘Everyday Utopia’. Dr Ghodsee is Professor and Chair of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania will take part in a conversation with Laura Duggan of the Communist Party of Ireland. Followed by a Q&A.
Friday, May 9th, 7.30pm, The New Theatre, Dublin
FILM SCREENING
The film examines how a new generation of American Jews, raised to "unconditionally love" Israel, are confronting the reality of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, leading to a reevaluation of their relationship with both Israel and their Jewish identity.
When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns.
They join a movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel, revealing a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity.
Saturday, May 10th, 11am, Liberty Hall
walking tour
Dr Conor McCabe hosts the ‘James Connolly Walking Tour’. The 2.5km stroll will take in some of the lesser-known or ‘hidden’ places associated with Connolly’s life. Meeting at the Connolly statue, Liberty Hall at 11am.
Saturday, May 10th, 1pm, Connolly Books Courtyard
RADICAL Poetry
We will open our courtyard for the first time with a poetry session.
Anna D is a spoken word poet from Dublin. Throughout her short poetry career, she has won multiple slams and poetry competitions, including the All-Ireland Poetry Slam. She recently represented Ireland at the European Poetry Slam 2025.
Anna has an interest in the interplay between emotions and patterns of behaviour, family and collective trauma and the impact of oppressive systems on how we relate to each other and the world today. Her poems are raw, honest and relatable portrayals of her experience of the human condition in all its grime and glory.
Mikey Cullen is a poet and songwriter with a great mind and a love for history and social justice. He has been published in many anthologies such as Dlúthpháirtíocht, Peace, Land and Bread, Outlaw Poetry and Void magazine. He has performed poetry all over Dublin and Ireland at events and festivals including Electric Picnic, All Together Now and Collins Barracks Saint Patrick Festival.
Clíodhna Bhreatnach is from Waterford. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, and The Forward Book of Poetry 2023. She is the contributing poetry editor of Mirror Lamp Press and the former poetry editor of Frustrated Writers Group. Her pamphlet about working time, “Pink Roses, Green”, is forthcoming with Green Bottle Press in June and has been highly commended for the Patrick Kavanagh Award. As an assistant archivist, she curated an exhibition on Irish women workers and the marriage bar
Saturday, May 10th, 4pm, The New Theatre
JAMES CONNOLLY MEMORIAL LECTURE
The annual James Connolly Memorial Lecture returns to the New Theatre at 4pm. ‘No Green without the Red: on Sovereignty, Environment, and Class’ will be delivered by Dr Harun Siljak.
In this year's Connolly Memorial lecture, Harun Šiljak reflects on the revolutionary 1848 before looking at the present moment through the example of two major struggles the Irish working class has been alienated from: environment and sovereignty. It is the imperialist ideal of the worker, land, and society broken apart and stripped of context and relation. To achieve this ideal, the lens of capital needs to distort reality: make distant and imaginary threats seem close and real, and the imminent ones non-existent. The lens, however powerful it might be, still has cracks.
Saturday, May 10th, 9.30pm, Connolly Books
MUSIC
A night time session in Connolly Books with Fools Sorrow, Rarewitch and Yoke Folk. Free & BYOB.
Fools Sorrow are a folk group based in Dublin playing with elemental aspects of trad, americana, eastern european and original compositions. Songs about bodily autnomony, grief and resistance.
Rarewitch is a visual artist, animator, film maker and musician currently based in Belfast. His live performances entail a chaotic fusion of surrealist humour and frenetic overhand banjo playing.
Yoke Folk is an Irish music project blending Traditional Irish melodies with modern electronic production. Rooted in cultural heritage, Yoke Folk creates immersive soundscapes where sean-nós meet synths and reels intertwine with rhythm.Their debut self-titled EP, released on Paddy’s Day via Outstraight Records, reimagines tradition for a new era, bridging the past and future through bold, genre-crossing music.
Sunday, May 11th, 3pm, Arbour Hill
The annual James Connolly Commemoration at Arbour Hill, organised by the Communist Party of Ireland