SHAW, CONNOLLY, AND THE IRISH CITIZEN ARMY

Abstract

Near the end of his life, G. B. Shaw wrote to dismiss a plaque acknowledging his Irish contributions that was to be placed on his Dublin Synge Street birthplace: All my political services have been given to the British Labour movement and to International Socialism.1 This remark might appear misleading given Shaw's involvement in Irish social and political affairs. In fact, many of Shaw's biographers and scholars have focused much attention on his interest with Ireland and Irish political developments during his lifetime. Yet, despite this attention, there has been little if any focus on Shaw's specific flirtation with militant Irish socialism, from the 1913 Dublin Lockout to the Easter Rising in 1916. Although Dan Laurence and David Greene's second edition of The Matter with Ireland includes Shaw's