James Connolly

Ray played the part of Irish revolutionary leader James Connolly in the Irish Arts Center's 1986 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. Collins wrote a narrative and extra dialogue to include Connolly as a character directing his own play. He also arranged music and songs for the production which was directed by Jim Sheridan.

Ray felt especially honoured to be asked by Sheridan to play Connolly as he himself is a former member of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union of which Connolly was the Belfast Organizer. As a young lad Ray worked for a time in the same Belfast mills where Connolly had agitated for workers’s 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 the guest speaker shortly before her death in 1981 aged 88.

A special mention must go to Ann Reeve who discovered the script for 'Under Which Flag' and with her late husband,Carl, authored the biography James Connolly and the United States.

Director Jim Sheridan (centre) with the cast of Under Which Flag

Scenes from Under Which Flag