Lillie Connolly

Lillie Connolly née Reynolds, was born in Carnew, County Wicklow, a Protestant. She was the wife of James Connolly, the Irish revolutionary who was involved in the 1916 Rising.

The Year of Lillie's birth remains uncertain but it is widely believed that she was born in the year 1867 or 1868 in Carnew, in the rural county of Wicklow. She was a member of a Protestant family which indicated that she came from a good family background and lived a wealthy life. Her father was John Reynolds, a farm labourer, and her mother's name was Margaret. Lillie was the fourth child in the family and she had an older sister named Maggie who was born in 1861, and identical twin brothers, Johnny and George who were born in 1863.

Lillie Reynolds was a member of the 'Girls Friendly Society' in the Church of Ireland. This society, organized by the church itself, was set up to help girls particularly from rural Ireland to find some sort of employment. This organization had found Lilly an occupation as a domestic servant with William Wilson and his Wife Anne. Mr Wilson was a stockbroker and notary public, and his family lived at 35 Merrion Square East. During the time that Lillie worked at this address for this family she had risen from her position as a maid, to a governess to the couple's younger children.

Lillie Reynolds and James Connolly were married in St John the Baptist Church in Perth on 30 April 1890. This was when James resigned from the army and Lillie decided to move with him to Scotland. Lillie supported and encouraged her husband to chase after his dreams. In the spring of 1890 they moved to Edinburgh and lived at 22 West Port with 30 other people. He scraped a living as a labourer and then as a manure carter with Edinburgh Corporation. Their daughter Nora was born on 14 November 1892. At the invitation of the Scottish Socialist John Leslie Connolly returned to Dublin in May 1896 as paid organiser of the Dublin Socialist Society. He founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party in May 1896, and in 1898 The Workers' Republic newspaper, the first Irish Socialist paper, from their house at number 54 Pimlico, where Lillie and James Connolly and their three daughters shared the house with six other families, a total of 30 people. Their sixth child, Roderick, was born in February 1901. They moved back to Dublin in May 1896 as James was an organizer of the Dublin Socialist Society. James was busy spending most of his time promoting Irish causes and then became the founding editor of The Socialist Newspaper, which then left Lillie the job of minding their children. Then in 1903, James thought that he and his family would be better off living in America due to the little progress the Irish Socialist Party was making. Also after the tragedy that happened to their first born child, Lillie again trusted her husband and thought it would be a great way to start life again. Then in 1910, the Connolly family decided to move back to Ireland and James got a job as Larkin's right-hand man in Transport and General Workers Union. He lived at Countess Markievizc's home while Lillie lived in Belfast with their children and James would travel up the north every weekend. In 1913, James Connolly was put in jail which left Lillie the only to raise and took care of their children for 3 years, yet Lillie stood strong for her children and never left her husbands side. As reported in the Census of Ireland in 1911 they were living in 70 Lotts Road, South (Pembroke West, Dublin) with their 6 children.

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