[1980:] The Socialist International had resolved upon turning the expected imperialist war into a civil war against capitalism. Connolly decided that for Ireland this meant transforming it into a war of national liberation. On this matter, he and the I.R.B. were at one. [...] Connolly raised over Liberty Hall the famous streamer, "We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland." But it was made clear that Ireland had only one enemy.
The formal alliance between the Citizen Army and the Volunteers was sealed in January 1916. The I.R.B. had decided on an insurrection at Easter. Unaware of this Connolly was every week intensifying the propaganda of revolution in the 'Workers' Republic'. Fearing that he would alert the authorities, the I.R.B. decided to take him into their confidence, and he made the seventh man on the military committee that was planning the Rising. (Greaves, Easter 52)
"We are going out to be slaughtered" said Connolly to William O'Brien as he left Liberty Hall. This was not a death wish, or a craving for martyrdom. It was a recognition that his forces were inadequate and it was too late to turn back. (Greaves, Easter 56)
It was on Thursday, while directing the setting up of [barricades] that Connolly was wounded severely in the leg. He continued to direct operations from a stretcher, but he was in acute pain, and there is good evidence that his powers of concentration were for a time impaired. (Greaves, Easter 63)
Connolly, who had not recovered from his wounds and was not able to walk, was shot in a chair. [...] Connolly contrived with the help of his daughter to smuggle out of hospital a copy of the statement he made to the Court Martial. He included the words:
"Believing that the British Government has no right in Ireland, never had right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland, the presence in any one generation of Irishmen of even a respectable minority ready to die to affirm that truth, makes that Government forever an usurpation and a crime against human progress." (Greaves, Easter 78ff)
[1994:] On the 50th anniversary of 1916, RTE concentrated on a new dimension to history in a fantastic series of programmes that for the first time gave far greater attention to the role of James Connolly than that of Pearse. (The new recognition of Connolly had its connections to the ballad movement, too. [...] the labour leader had written a number of agitational ballads based on old airs, the best-known of which are The Rebel Song and The Watchword of Labour, which can both still be heard at gatherings of Irish trade unionists.) The historical 'revisionists' began to focus on the social message of Connolly, the leader who placed stress on the role of the working class, the poor and exploited. Throughout his life, Luke belonged to the strain of Irish revolutionary tradition which Larkin and Connolly represent [...]. (Geraghty, Luke Kelly 102)