One hundred years ago today, on May 12, 1916, James Connolly became the last of the Easter Rising leaders to be put to death. So weakened was he from injuries incurred during the fighting, he had to be bound to a chair to face his executioners in the Stonebreakers’ Yard at Kilmainham Jail in Dublin.

Asked if he’d pray for the members of the British Army firing squad, he declared that he would pray for all brave men who do their duty.

Connolly was the only socialist among the Rising’s leaders, and he stands as the most important Marxist revolutionary from Ireland.