Tomás Ó Flatharta

A James Connolly Documentary will be broadcast on the Irish State’s main TV broadcast station, Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ 1) on

Wednesday August 26 2026, RTÉ 1, 21.30

Yellow Asylum Films Announcement :

WE ONLY WANT THE EARTH
The Life & Ideas of James Connolly

We are delighted to announce the upcoming screening on RTÉ of the feature documentary on James
Connolly, created to inspire and enlighten a contemporary audience about Connolly, his life and his
ideas. It will screen on RTÉ 1 on Wednesday August 26th at 21.30.
An iconic presence on the landscape of Irish socialism and republicanism, the name of James Connolly looms
large in the trade union movement and wherever radical left-wing politics are espoused. The film tries to place
Connolly’s radical ideas and many political achievements against the landscape of the contemporary world as
well as documenting his more prominent role in the 1916 Easter Rising.
As well as many distinguished commentators, union activists and historians, the film also features many songs
and poems – spoken and sung by contemporary artists such as Christy Moore, Stephen Rea, piper David
Power, singers Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin and Esosa Ighodaro as well as Connolly’s great great grand-daughter
Tamsin Iona Connolly Heron. Acclaimed actor Terry O’Neill performs the words of Connolly.
The film aims to reclaim Connolly’s story as well as invoking his important social vision – with a clear eye on
how it resonates in our contemporary time – an era when even democracy itself appears under threat.
The film was independently produced and financed with the support of the Irish Trade Union
movement.

Director & Writer: Alan Gilsenan
Producer & Archive Researcher: Martin Mahon
Executive Producers: Des Geraghty & Noírín Greene

A Yellow Asylum Films Production for the James Connolly Foundation for Educational Equality

The documentary is recommended to all readers interested in the life and times of James Connolly, a revolutionary marxist activist who became a leader of the growing Irish trade union movement in the early 20th century, and who promoted a distinct socialist and anti-imperialist vision. Connolly was one of the seven signatories of the Easter 1916 Rising in Dublin’s General Post Office (GPO). The British state executed this hero of the Irish working class on May 12 1916.

Ever since, James Connolly has captured a place in the Irish public imagination more than any other figure in the workers’ and socialist movement. No Irish socialist is really taken seriously unless s/he claims to be following in his tradition.

This was the position in 1972, as desbribed in the pages of a weekly political publication, Hibernia :

No fewer than 23…..communist, socialist and left-wing groups exist in Ireland, according to a list appearing in the 23 June 1972 issue of Hibernia. These organisations represent various trends in national and international politics but all, without exception, laid claim to James Connolly as their model and inspiration.

This position is essentially unchanged in 2026.

Yet at the time of his execution Connolly was isolated in the leadership of the Irish workers’ movement and internationally. He is reported as saying in his death-cell “The socialists will not understand why I am here. They forget I am an Irishman”.

Louise Bryant – A contemporary revolutionary socialist and feminist who understood why James Connolly was in Dublin’s GPO at Easter 1916

There were significant exceptions. We begin with a contemporary assessment written by Louise Bryant :