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ND Home > ND Libraries > Spec. Coll. > Collections > Wolf Irish Stamps > Part I > Set 9L |
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L30 James Connolly [MID] [LAR] |
Design: Portrait of James Connolly, framed by shamrock. Inscriptions "ERIE PUIST" (top-bottom), "I. R." (left-right). This is one of eight designs making up the full set. 35 x 44 mm.
Printing: The full set of eight different designs or vignettes was printed se-tenant in sheets 4 x 2; thus, each sheet includes one example of every design. The Connolly label is located third from left in the top row of the sheet. Many commentators have speculated that the labels were printed in America, but there is no documentation to support this.
Separation: Rough perforated
Watermark: None.
Date of Issue: 1916.
Numbers Issued: Unknown.
Notes: One of the important socialist thinkers in Edwardian Ireland and a key trade union organizer, James Connolly (1868-1916) was
likewise an ardent nationalist, viewing nationalism as a necessary vehicle for progress and for the implementation of a socialist society.
He is best remembered not as labor leader or political theorist, however, but for his role in the Easter rising of 1916. In January of that
year, as commandant of the Irish Citizen Army of trade union workers, Connolly reached agreement with the military council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood to
stage a joint armed insurrection. Connolly himself was wounded in the resultant fighting (24-29 April), and was one of fifteen leaders of
the rising to be executed by firing squad.
The sheet from which the Connolly label derives contains similar portraits of six other leaders of the Easter rising (from top left,
Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonough, [Connolly], The O'Rahilly, Eamonn da Valera, Cornelius Colbert, and Eamonn Ceannt); the label in the
bottom right-hand corner of the sheet depicts a harp. The photographic portraits used on the labels are the same as those used on many other
pieces of printed matter that circulated among sympathizers after the rising. It is not known who printed the sheets, nor is there evidence that
they were ever sold. Some commentators have interpreted the misspelling of the Irish Gaelic Éire ("Éire Puist" is "Ireland Post")
as an indication that the labels were printed in America, by Republican sympathizers. Dulin also argues for an American origin, but suggests
that "ERIE" may not be a misspelling but rather a reference to Fort Erie, captured by the Irish-American Fenians fifty years before in their
attempted invasion of Canada. The initials "I. R." presumably stand for "Irish Republic."
Provenance: Dr. Charles Wolf.
Bibliography: EPA 1966, "Irish Stamps: A Retrospect," 622; Feldman 1968, 18; Dulin 1996, 34.
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