Barack Obama is Irish!

Good genes triumph! In case you are wondering about the words in the backdrop by James Connolly:

'No revolutionary movement iscomplete with out its poetic expression. If such a movement has caught hold of the imagination of the masses,they will seek a vent in song for the aspirations, fears, and hopes, the loves and hatreds engendered by the struggle. Until the movement is marked by the joyous, defiant singing f revolutionary songs, it lacks one of the most distinctive marks of a popular revolutionary movement; it is the dogma of the few and not the faith of the multitude."

This quote, written on the back wall of the Starry Plough pub in Berkeley, is a quote from James Connolly, one of the Irish revolutionaries who was shot by the British, in the aftermath of the 1916 Irish rebellion. It ultimately led to the overthrow of British rule in the south of Ireland.

He helped to found the Irish Labour Party. James Connolly also formed the Irish Citizens Army during the so-called ‘Great Lock-Out’ of 1913. This was created to protect the workers from any groups that might have been employed by the employers to ‘rough up’ any striking worker.

In 1915, James Connolly was appointed acting General Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. He also commanded units of the Irish Citizens Army and took an active part in the preparations for the 1916 Rising. He was appointed Military Commander of the Republican Forces in Dublin, which encompassed the Irish Citizens Army.

When the rebellion started on Monday 24th April, James Connolly was one of the seven signatories to the Proclamation. Connolly was in charge of the General Post Office during the rebellion – the rebels headquarters. He was severely wounded during the fighting and was arrested once the rebels had surrendered. He was court-martialled in a military hospital in Dublin. Charged with treason, there was no doubt as to what the verdict and punishment would be.

On May 12th,1916, Connolly was shot by firing squad. He had been taken by military ambulance to Kilmainham Prison, carried on a stretcher to a courtyard in the prison, tied to a chair and shot. With the other executed rebels, his body was put into a mass grave with no coffin.

All the executions of the rebels angered many Irish people who had shown little support for the rebels during the rebellion. However, it was the circumstances of Connolly’s execution that created the most anger. In death, Connolly and the other rebels had succeeded in rousing many Irish people who had been, at best, indifferent to the rebels and their desires when they had been alive.

Connolly [read his "Last Statement" given to his daughter before he was shot] was a self-educated man who became a brilliant speaker, writer and visionary. (source: http://educationalwhisper.blogspot.com/2008/09/theres-no-one-as-irish-as-barak-obama.html)

Thanks to my late reading of RIFuture's Pat Crowley who originally posted the video. Erin Go Bragh! LOL!!!