Weighing in at over 900 pages, including plates and preliminaries, this is a substantial volume, but, thanks to SIPTU sponsorship, it was available at a reasonable price between hard covers before its recent appearance in paperback. The prominence in bookshops of such an attractively-designed biography of Ireland's foremost socialist was a welcome backdrop to last year’s 1916 commemorations, and like the valuable Nevin-edited collections commemorating James Larkin (1997) and the Irish Trades Union Congress (1994), this one comes with useful and interesting appendices quoting from the recollections of contemporaries and from those works of poets, novelists and playwrights that have drawn from the life of the subject. Poignantly, one appendix reproduces seven letters from the young James to his wife-to-be, Lillie Reynolds, written in 1889 and 1890. Like Nevin's previous works, this is also very well-illustrated, although one wonders why the full picture-captions had to be tucked away at the back.
By the author's reckoning, this is the ninth full biography of Connolly, a calculation that raises a question – does it contribute anything new, either by way of fresh information, of original analysis, or even of literary aplomb? In fairness, Nevin has reflected on the matter, and concluded that his book is indeed different, insofar as it quotes to an unprecedented extent from Connolly’s own words – both personal correspondence and political writing. In this, he hopes, it will be ‘seen to resemble an autobiography’ (p.xix).
Whether it resembles an autobiography is a moot point, but is it in any way plausible as an autobiography of James Connolly? For this reader, at least, it lacked the crispness of its subject’s own writings, something that is undoubtedly related to the biographer’s reluctance to pass judgement on almost anything. Readers are left to draw their own conclusions to an extent that is irritating at times – one always has the privilege of choosing to agree or disagree with argument based on evidence, but argument is either absent or oblique here. Indeed, of all of the disputes about Connolly’s life and thought that have exercised earlier writers, it is only with regard to a relatively minor matter – the possibility that part of his British army service was in India – that Nevin carefully weighs the evidence offered by C. Desmond Greaves (1961) and Samuel Levenson (1973) before deciding in favour of the former, and concluding no, he was not in India. The authorial aloofness is nowhere more apparent than in a late chapter, ‘Connolly and Catholicism’. Considerable space is given to the reflections of Lambert McKenna, S.J. (1920), of Greaves, of Owen Dudley Edwards (1971) of W.K. Anderson (1994) and others – though not, I see, to those of Andy Johnston et al (1990) who scolded Connolly for his deviations from Marxist orthodoxy in this regard. Here, Connolly’s pragmatic approach to religious matters, which is treated earlier in segments on disputes with Daniel de Leon and Robert Kane, S.J., is given a fresh airing. Included is the well-known letter of 1908 to John Carstairs Matheson, in which Connolly affirmed: ‘For myself, tho I have usually posed as a Catholic, I have not gone to my duty for fifteen years, and have not the slightest tincture of faith left’, and, in stark contrast, rather less authoritative second-hand testimony from the fiercely-Catholic novelist Annie M.P. Smithson, and from an un-named priest, to the effect that Connolly, while awaiting his execution, pleaded with the still-Anglican Lillie to convert to Roman Catholicism. References in this chapter to Pope John XXIII, and to early writings of Karol Wojtyla seem to suggest that Connolly was really a Vatican Two Catholic, half-a-century ahead of his time, but it is not entirely clear if this is what is intended.
The subtitle of the book, a phrase used by Connolly himself, seems to promise that considerable attention will be paid to personal and family affairs, but the ‘full life’ here is very much a political life. There was scope for a fuller treatment of the private man, which would have involved mining more deeply in Nora Connolly’s Portrait of 1935, as well as in the correspondence with Lillie, and in the impressions of contemporaries which are consigned here to appendices. Some aspects of Connolly’s personality – terseness, impatience, wry humour – are revealed in the excerpts from his writings, but there are rather too many of these, and the way in which they are deployed gives the book a repetitive quality. In any case, given the assurance that editions of Connolly’s complete writings are in preparation, are long and frequent quotations really necessary? A similar question might be asked about the long summaries of the best-known works – widely available in public libraries and on the internet, if not in the shops.
There will be considerable interest in the treatment of Connolly’s roles in 1913 and in 1916. With regard to the ITGWU and 1913, the biographer seems to have decided that his readers would be reasonably well-aware of the circumstances of the founding of the union, of James Larkin’s leadership style, and of circumstances surrounding the lock-out, so there is a skimpiness in the detail here, which contrasts with the plentiful background provided for other episodes. On 1916, inference points towards opinions similar to those of Austen Morgan (1988) – who argued that Connolly abandoned socialism for revolutionary nationalism from 1914 – rather than those of Greaves, whose influence is specifically acknowledged in Nevin’s introduction.
When the reader eventually reaches Chapter 40 ‘Assessment’ (p.700), it is no surprise to find, not the assessment of the author, but a pot pourri of the perceptive, the sentimental, and the platitudinous judgements of others.
It is a matter of regret to the reviewer that so many shortcomings had to be identified, but it was frustrating to find that what promised to be a great book was merely a moderately good book. For the worst of the flaws, it might well be argued, the publisher shares responsibility. Is it unreasonable to expect that a leading publishing house would have access to the services of a competent editor? Paper, printing costs (and SIPTU subventions) might have been saved if repetitive passages had been excised and quotations abridged. Moreover, an expert reader might have coaxed the author into making occasional judgements. But despite all, given the extent of the research on which it is based, the book remains a considerable resource for future writers on the period and on James Connolly himself.
By the author's reckoning, this is the ninth full biography of Connolly, a calculation that raises a question – does it contribute anything new, either by way of fresh information, of original analysis, or even of literary aplomb? In fairness, Nevin has reflected on the matter, and concluded that his book is indeed different, insofar as it quotes to an unprecedented extent from Connolly’s own words – both personal correspondence and political writing. In this, he hopes, it will be ‘seen to resemble an autobiography’ (p.xix).
Whether it resembles an autobiography is a moot point, but is it in any way plausible as an autobiography of James Connolly? For this reader, at least, it lacked the crispness of its subject’s own writings, something that is undoubtedly related to the biographer’s reluctance to pass judgement on almost anything. Readers are left to draw their own conclusions to an extent that is irritating at times – one always has the privilege of choosing to agree or disagree with argument based on evidence, but argument is either absent or oblique here. Indeed, of all of the disputes about Connolly’s life and thought that have exercised earlier writers, it is only with regard to a relatively minor matter – the possibility that part of his British army service was in India – that Nevin carefully weighs the evidence offered by C. Desmond Greaves (1961) and Samuel Levenson (1973) before deciding in favour of the former, and concluding no, he was not in India. The authorial aloofness is nowhere more apparent than in a late chapter, ‘Connolly and Catholicism’. Considerable space is given to the reflections of Lambert McKenna, S.J. (1920), of Greaves, of Owen Dudley Edwards (1971) of W.K. Anderson (1994) and others – though not, I see, to those of Andy Johnston et al (1990) who scolded Connolly for his deviations from Marxist orthodoxy in this regard. Here, Connolly’s pragmatic approach to religious matters, which is treated earlier in segments on disputes with Daniel de Leon and Robert Kane, S.J., is given a fresh airing. Included is the well-known letter of 1908 to John Carstairs Matheson, in which Connolly affirmed: ‘For myself, tho I have usually posed as a Catholic, I have not gone to my duty for fifteen years, and have not the slightest tincture of faith left’, and, in stark contrast, rather less authoritative second-hand testimony from the fiercely-Catholic novelist Annie M.P. Smithson, and from an un-named priest, to the effect that Connolly, while awaiting his execution, pleaded with the still-Anglican Lillie to convert to Roman Catholicism. References in this chapter to Pope John XXIII, and to early writings of Karol Wojtyla seem to suggest that Connolly was really a Vatican Two Catholic, half-a-century ahead of his time, but it is not entirely clear if this is what is intended.
The subtitle of the book, a phrase used by Connolly himself, seems to promise that considerable attention will be paid to personal and family affairs, but the ‘full life’ here is very much a political life. There was scope for a fuller treatment of the private man, which would have involved mining more deeply in Nora Connolly’s Portrait of 1935, as well as in the correspondence with Lillie, and in the impressions of contemporaries which are consigned here to appendices. Some aspects of Connolly’s personality – terseness, impatience, wry humour – are revealed in the excerpts from his writings, but there are rather too many of these, and the way in which they are deployed gives the book a repetitive quality. In any case, given the assurance that editions of Connolly’s complete writings are in preparation, are long and frequent quotations really necessary? A similar question might be asked about the long summaries of the best-known works – widely available in public libraries and on the internet, if not in the shops.
There will be considerable interest in the treatment of Connolly’s roles in 1913 and in 1916. With regard to the ITGWU and 1913, the biographer seems to have decided that his readers would be reasonably well-aware of the circumstances of the founding of the union, of James Larkin’s leadership style, and of circumstances surrounding the lock-out, so there is a skimpiness in the detail here, which contrasts with the plentiful background provided for other episodes. On 1916, inference points towards opinions similar to those of Austen Morgan (1988) – who argued that Connolly abandoned socialism for revolutionary nationalism from 1914 – rather than those of Greaves, whose influence is specifically acknowledged in Nevin’s introduction.
When the reader eventually reaches Chapter 40 ‘Assessment’ (p.700), it is no surprise to find, not the assessment of the author, but a pot pourri of the perceptive, the sentimental, and the platitudinous judgements of others.
It is a matter of regret to the reviewer that so many shortcomings had to be identified, but it was frustrating to find that what promised to be a great book was merely a moderately good book. For the worst of the flaws, it might well be argued, the publisher shares responsibility. Is it unreasonable to expect that a leading publishing house would have access to the services of a competent editor? Paper, printing costs (and SIPTU subventions) might have been saved if repetitive passages had been excised and quotations abridged. Moreover, an expert reader might have coaxed the author into making occasional judgements. But despite all, given the extent of the research on which it is based, the book remains a considerable resource for future writers on the period and on James Connolly himself.