A campaign has been launched to find a missing bust of one of the leaders of the Easter Uprising in Dublin that was created to celebrate his political awakening in Dundee.
Although best known for his Irish Republicanism, and for being one of the 15 leaders of the uprising executive by the British, James Connolly was born in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh.
He joined the British Army aged 14, serving for seven years before deserting.
In 1889 he moved to Dundee, where he said he could hear “the brogue of 32 counties of Ireland” in the streets as thousands of Irish immigrants worked in the city’s jute mills.
He later married in Perth before moving to Edinburgh. He moved to Dublin in 1896 where he founded the Irish Citizens Army, which carried out the Easter Rising in 1916 with the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
Connolly was commandant of the Dublin brigade and the effective commander in chief of the rebels during the uprising.
Seriously wounded during the six days of combat, he was kept in Dublin Castle, in what is now known as the Connolly Room, following the nationalists’ surrender.
He was taken to Kilmainham Jail, where was shot by a British firing squad.
A bust of Connolly in his Irish Citizens Army was kept in the Dundee Trades Council Club on Rattray Street but has been missing since the club closed in 1996.
Now Michael MacGregor of the Dundee for Connolly Group is hoping it can be found again.
He said: “A bust of James Connolly in Irish Citizen Army uniform sat in the lounge of Dundee Trades Council Club in Rattray Street for many years. It was accompanied by a photograph of his wife and of one of his daughters.”
Anyone with any information can contact the James Connolly Dundee Facebook page.
A public meeting about the centenary of the Easter Rising will take place at Dundee University’s Dalhousie Building at 7pm on Friday.