Dublin Opinion

Found this letter while doing some research on James Connolly and the Irish Socialist Republican Party.

It’s from a party member, Edward Stewart, who wants to set the record straight on the bundling of socialists in with anarchists in the coverage of the assassination of President McKinley.

Mr. Stewart is not happy to be associated with those damn fangled anarchists, and has no problem letting the readers of the Irish Times know as well.

David Lynch, author of the history of the ISRP, Radical Politics in Modern Ireland: THe Irish Socialist Republican Party 1896-1904, has this to say about Stewart:

Edward Stewart, a Dublin man, joined the party in late 1896 and was to make an impact on the organisation surpassed only by that of Connolly himself. Stewart had been a tailor, but while he was a member of the party he became a warehouse assistant in a major tailoring establishment in Dublin. A tireless worker in the early years, Stewart was the ISRP’s first election candidate. Deeply involved in Dublin’s trade union circles, Stewart was elected President of the Dublin Trades Council in September 1902 - the mist significant union post held by any member of the ISRP. After this Stewart’s politics took a sharp turn to the right and he was to become a major thorn in Connolly’s side in the final months of the ISRP. (Lynch, 22)