RAY COLLINS
'Under Which Flag' by James Connolly

 

Ray played the role of Irish revolutionary leader  James Connolly in the Irish Arts Center's production of Connolly's play,  Under Which Flag which was originally staged by the Workers Dramatic Company in Liberty Hall Dublin, just eight days before the Easter Rising in 1916. 
 Ray wrote a narrative and extra dialogue to include Connolly as a character directing his own play. Ray also arranged music and songs for the production which was directed by Irish Director, Jim Sheridan.

Ray felt especially honoured to play the role of Connolly as he is a former member of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union of which Connolly was the Belfast organizer in 1910. As a young lad Ray worked for a time in the same Mills where Connolly had agitated for Workers rights. In later years Ray became an acquaintance of Connolly's daughter  Nora Connolly O'Brien,and had the privilege of chairing one of the last public meetings at which she was a guest speaker, organized by the 
Irish Republican Socialist Party before her death in 1981, aged 88.

Audience members included Gerald O'Reilly, a co-founder of the Transit Workers Union and an IRA veteran, and Nye Heron, James Connolly's Grand-Nephew.

 A special mention must go to Ann Reeve who discovered an original copy of 'Under Which Flag' in the attic of her home in New Jersey, and with her late husband, Carl, authored the biography, James Connolly and the United States.

Under Which Flag

Director Jim Sheridan, center, with Ccast members of 'Under Which Flag'.

Director Jim Sheridan, center, with Ccast members of 'Under Which Flag'.

"If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organization of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country......"

"If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organization of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country......"

"the Citizen Army is out today come Workers Rise Again"

"the Citizen Army is out today come Workers Rise Again"
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© Ray Collins