ABSTRACT
In a plea written shortly afterwards and concerning the Easter Rising, the English socialist intellectual Harold Laski asked, “Surely, for the first time England can try and understand”. This chapter explores the extent to which Laski’s words were heeded in his own British labour movement. It explores the reactions to and explanations of the Rising and its immediate aftermath offered by the Labour Party and other left-wing parties in Britain. The latter included the Independent Labour Party, the Fabians and the Socialist Labour Party, of which James Connolly was the first national secretary. These reactions are located within the context of the British labour movement’s ideological traditions with respect to Ireland, contemporary British politics, the Irish community in Britain and international socialism. The opinions and writings of prominent individuals are also considered, for example those of J.H. Thomas of the Labour Party and Trades Union Congress, Georg Lansbury of the ‘Daily Herald’, and socialist feminist Sylvia Pankhurst. These responses highlight the mixture of confusion, condemnation and, very occasionally, commendation that characterised British socialist responses to the Rising.
