Jim Connell.The author of the Socialist anthem "The Red Flag"

Jim Connell 

The author of the Socialist anthem - The Red Flag -

 

 Born in Rathniska, Kilskyre, County Meath, Ireland in 1852
 Died in Lewisham, London,UK  in 1929

 

 

 

Cited From

Jim Connell - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Jim_Connell

 

 

Jim Connell (27 March 1852 – February 1929) was an Irish political activist of the late 19th century and early 20th century, best known as the writer of the anthem "The Red Flag" in December 1889.

 

Life

Connell was born in the townland of Rathniska near the village of Kilskyre, to the north of Kells, County Meath and as a teenager became involved in land agitation and joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood.  Aged 18 and a signatory to the Fenian Oath, he moved to Dublin where he worked as a docker until he became blacklisted for attempting to unionise the workers.

 

In 1875, he moved to London. He held a variety of jobs, including time as a staff journalist on Keir Hardie's newspaper The Labour Leader, and was secretary of the Workingmen's Legal Aid Society during the last 20 years of his life.

 

For 10 years he was a member of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) led by Henry Hyndman, which supported the cause of Irish land reform and self-determination; both Connell and Hyndman were on the executive of the National Land League of Great Britain, which aimed to promote the need for land reform in Ireland amongst the workers in England. In the late 1890s, however, Connell left the SDF and joined the Independent Labour Party.

He also wrote for the SDF's newspaper 'Justice'.

 

Although Lenin dismissed the Independent Labour Party as bourgeois, he later awarded Connell the Red Star Medal in 1922.

 

"The Red Flag" and other songs

The Red Flag was not his only work. An early song of his was 'Workers of England', which Connell set to the tune of O'Donnell Abú.

Workers of England why crouch ye like cravens?

Why clutch an existence of insult and want? Why stand to be plucked by an army of ravens,

Or hoodwinked forever by twaddle and cant?”

Connell was inspired to write a socialist anthem after attending a lecture at a meeting of the SDF during the London Dock Strike of 1889. He set down the words while on a train journey from Charing Cross railway station to his home in Honor Oak, south London.  It is generally accepted that he gained inspiration as he watched the train guard raise and lower the red signal flag on the platform. It is normally sung to the tune of "Lauriger Horatius" (better known as the German-language carol "O Tannenbaum", which is also used for the state song of Maryland, though Connell had wanted it sung to "The White Cockade", an old Scottish Jacobite song. Connell disapproved of the new rendition, calling it "church music... composed to remind people of their sins and frighten them into repentance." Connell's favourite part of the song was "It well recalls the triumphs past/It gives the hope of peace at last/The banner bright, the symbol plain/Of human right and human gain", which he saw as expressing the goal of the socialist movement. Nevertheless, both the original and newer versions of the song have been performed.

 

In 1920 in How I Wrote "The Red Flag" he commented:

"Did I think that the song would live? Yes, the last line shows I did: "This song shall be our parting hymn". I hesitated a considerable time over this last line. I asked myself whether I was not assuming too much. I reflected, however, that in writing the song I gave expression to not only my own best thoughts and feelings, but the best thoughts and feelings of every genuine socialist I knew... I decided that the last line should stand."

 

Memorials

 

memorial at Crossakiel

 

Connell died in south London and his funeral was held in Golders Green. He is commemorated by a plaque at 22a Stondon Park, SE23 in Crofton Park/Honor Oak, South-East London. On 26 April 1998 a monument to Jim Connell was unveiled in Crossakiel, County Meath, Ireland, a spot where he addressed a crowd of 600 in 1918.

 

In 1997, a local committee was formed to erect a memorial,  and from 1998 there has been an annual memorial parade on May Day (1 May), in the village of Crossakiel, near Kilskyre. The parade attracts a large number of Irish and British trade unionists. In 2011 a Jim Connell School of Political Discussion was also held in the town of Kells.

 

 

Jim Connell Society

@JimConnellSociety · Community

A locally based and Internationally supported committee dedicated to the memory of Jim Connell, the author of the Socialist anthem - The Red Flag - who was born in Kilskyre, Co. Meath, Ireland in 1852.

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Jim Connell Monument

Jim Connell

Author of “The Red Flag”
which became the anthem of the
International Labour Movement
Born Rathniska, Kilskyre 1852
Died Lewisham, London 1929

Oh, grant me an ownerless corner of earth,
Or pick me a hillock of stones,
Or gather the wind wafted leaves of the trees
To cover my socialist bones,
Jim Connell

This monument was unveiled on 26th April, 1998 by
Peter Cassells, general secretary, ICTU, before an
international gathering from the trade unions and
Labour movement.

 Jim Connell Monument Dedication

 

This monument, in memory of Jim Connell is dedicated to the millions
of Irish emigrants who fought for economic and social justice and
helped to build the trade union movement worldwide. The song
“The Red Flag”, was inspired by the London Dock Strike of 1889 and
the struggle to win the eight hour day by gas workers the same year.
These significant events heralded the unionisation of unskilled
workers in Britain and Ireland and their liberation from unrelenting
toil. Jim Connell was also actively involved in the development of the
Irish Land League and the establishment of its first branch in England.

 "The Red Flag" on Jim Connell Monument

 

The People's Flag is deepest red;

It shrouded oft our martyred dead;

And, ere their limbs grew stiff or cold,
Their hearts' blood dyed its ev'ry fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die;
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the Red Flag flying here.

It suits to-day the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on self and place,
To cringe before the rich man's frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.

 

"The Red Flag" - Anthem of The British Labour Party

181,679 views

Mar 2, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHoyoKgRq5U&t=15s 

 

 

"This song shall be our parting hymn"-- "이것은 우리들의 고별의 찬송"
이 '붉은 기' 찬송가 마지막 구절을 둘 것인지를 두고 상당한 시간 고심한 Jim Connell은

자기자신과  모든 사회주의자들의 최고의 사상과 감정(thebest thoughts and feelings)이라고 판단 ...

 

The red flag

1889년 런던에서 일어난 항만노동자의 파업에 대한 찬사로

1889년 12월, 아일랜드의 정치운동가 짐 콘넬(Jim Connell)이 작사한, 〈적기가〉(赤旗歌, 赤旗の歌,"The Red Flag")는 좌익, 특히 사회주의와 관련된 노래다.

 

영국 노동당의 반공식적인 당가이며, 북아일랜드 사회민주노동당 당가, 아일랜드 노동당의 공식 당가(黨歌)이다.

 

독일 민요 '소나무야~~~~' 오 탄넨바움(O Tannenbaum)의 번안곡이다.

1921년 아카마츠카츠마로 (赤松 克麿, あかまつかつまろ)가 일본어 개사곡을 내었다.

 

The red flag

The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts' blood dyed its ev'ry fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

Look 'round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung
Chicago swells the surging throng.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

It waved above our infant might,
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We must not change its colour now.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe before the rich man's frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

With heads uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BPLzgBXaIg