JAMES CONNOLLY FESTIVAL 2026

This year’s festival runs from Wednesday, May 6th to Sunday 10th with almost all events taking place at Connolly House and The New Theatre. 

The festival kicks off on Wednesday the 6th with an evening of theatre, readings, songs and stories based around James Connolly and his daughter Nora. There will be a reading of ‘The Agitator’s Wife’. This title is referred to by James Connolly’s daughter, Nora, in her 1935 memoir, as a ‘play’ written by her father and in other biographies of the 1916 leader as his ‘lost play’. In 2018, researchers in Warwick University discovered a short story entitled ‘The Agitators Wife’ in an edition of an English journal, Labour Prophet, which was published in 1894. It tells the story of the wife of a trade union official who takes over the leadership of a strike by dockers when her husband falls ill. There was speculation that this story was written by Connolly as it echoed his views on the importance of women in the struggle for worker’s rights and freedom. However, the identity of the author has not been established.

There will be a reading of ‘An Agitator’s Wife’. In 1895, a short play by James Connolly entitled ‘An Agitators Wife’ was published in the Labour Leader newspaper under a pseudonym which he was known to have used. This play portrays the personal frustration and anger of a woman living in poverty with small children and married to a trade union activist. It was reproduced in ‘The Lost and Early Writings of James Connolly 1889 -1898’ by Conor McCabe in 2024.

‘Portrait of a Rebel Father’ A reading from Nora Connollys 1935 memoir of her father ‘Portrait of a Rebel Father’.  This excerpt vividly describes the last days of Connollys life and his farewell to his family as he lay in Dublin Castle hospital awaiting execution. The short story, the play and the extract will be read with songs about James Connolly.

Produced by Frank Connolly

Adapted and directed by Jessica Freed

Actors: Leanne Bickerdike, Daniel Costello, Finbarr Doyle, Jessica Freed and Rory Mullen

Singer: Gearoid Lanigan

On Thursday the Connolly Books Film Club will screen ‘I Am Cuba’ (Soy Cuba). The film was both a landmark of radical political cinema and one of the most visually ravishing films ever made. A legendary hymn to revolution shimmers across the screen like a fever dream of rebellion. It will be followed by a Q&A.

Friday sees us mark twenty years since the passing of a legendary Irish Communist. ‘Mick O’Riordan: The Man We Knew’ will see the New Theatre host an evening of memories and discussion on Mick’s life with long time stalwart members of the Communist Party of Ireland and author of ‘The Making of an Irish Communist Leader - life and times of Michael O’Riordan 1938-1947’

Saturday will see three events take place across The New Theatre and Connolly House. The day will open with a poetry and spoken word session featuring Anna D, Rachel Lally, Nithy Kasa and Clíodhna Bhreatnach outside in the Connolly Books Courtyard. In the afternoon we will launch Eoghan O’Neills new book 'Breaking Dependency: Ireland's Struggle for Class Power and Sovereignty' in the O’Riordan-Redmond room at Connolly House. Later that evening, the annual ‘James Connolly Memorial Lecture’ will be delivered by Dr Patrick Bresnihan. The title of this year;s lecture is ‘Imperialism, Sovereignty and the spectre of Neutrality

On Sunday the festival closes with the James Connolly Commemoration at Arbour Hill from 3pm. For this year's commemoration we are honoured to welcome Dr Saeb Sha’ath to give the oration. The Gaza-born activist is a well known public speaker and expert on West Asia. He is also well versed on Irish history and affairs. He will address our commemoration on the historic struggle of the Irish and Palestinian people for national freedom and independence. We will also hear from Fionn Wallace of the Communist Party of Ireland.

WHAT IS JAMES CONNOLLY FESTIVAL?

The James Connolly Festival is an annual, week-long series of events in radical arts, culture and politics. It is a community-centred celebration of music, film, discussion and debate that brings together the ideas and thoughts of progressive and radical thinkers and organisations from across Ireland and beyond.

Since the festival’s inception we have sought to promote progressive arts, culture and politics, providing a platform of discussion and debate for those seeking alternatives in a world where the lives of the many are dominated by the few. We challenge societal inequality and the class barriers fraught within the arts, encouraging an inclusive and collective approach to artistic expression. Our annual festival serves as a celebration of the rich working class culture that exists in Ireland and provides a space for the people of our ever-evolving island to express the wealth of their culture and articulate their experience of life.

James Connolly remains Ireland’s foremost working class hero and founder of the Irish trade union movement. In his humble introduction to the 1907 songbook ‘Songs Of Freedom’ he famously remarked that “no revolutionary movement is complete without its poetical expression”. He noted that if a movement caught hold of the imagination of the masses that they would “seek a vent in song for the aspirations, fears and the hopes, the loves and the hatreds engendered by struggle” and that until the movement was “marked by the joyous, defiant, singing of revolutionary songs, it lacks one of the most distinctive marks of a popular revolutionary movement, it is the dogma of a few, and not the faith of the multitude.” It is in this revolutionary spirit, and recognition of the importance of culture to transcend society, that the festival centres its ethos.

For more information on the festival you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter using /ConnollyFest or the hashtag #JCF2026

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