The Workers' Republic was the mouthpiece of the Irish Republic Socialist Party, and was edited by its founder, the Scottish-born James Connolly (1868-1916). Its first iteration lasted for eleven issues in 1898. A second series was published between May 1899 and May 1903, though Connolly had by then left the party, and emigrated to America. He returned in 1911 as a trade union organiser, having published The Harp in the interim. For the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union he edited The Irish Worker, and when this was suppressed, he brought out a third series of The Workers' Republic, which in turn was suppressed in the wake of the Easter Rising of 1916, after 48 issues.
Mac an Bheatha, Prionsias. James Connolly and the workers' republic. Dublin: Foilseacháin Náisiúnta, 1978.
An accounts book for the newspaper covering 1902-1903 is available in the National Library of Ireland.
Special Collections holds two copies of The Workers' Republic in print form, from the third series: No 1 (29 May 1915) and No 9 (24 July 1915).
In addition, the full run of the paper is available on microfilm and via the Irish Newspaper Archive's Radical Archive collection.
James Connolly (1868-1916). Public domain image.
