MSPS spark anger by marking birth of Easter Rising leader
● Politicians from three parties sign Green motion on James Connolly
Outspoken SNP MSP John Mason has sparked anger by signing a Holyrood motion marking 150 years since the birth of Easter Rising leader James Connolly.
Mr Mason is one of nine MSPS from the SNP, Labour and the Greens to have signed the motion lodged by Green MSP Ross Greer.
Last year Mr Mason was asked via Twitter to support a private prosecution of those suspected of murdering three young Scottish soldiers, who were victims of the IRA. He declined to do so.
In one of his Twitter posts, Mr Mason said: “You say Irish murderers. Others say freedom fighters. I support Scottish soldiers if they do good but not if they do bad.”
A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: “What people like the naïve Ross Greer and John Mason have to realise is, when they embark on these stunts, they cause huge upset to people who’ve lost loved ones.”
Edinburgh-born socialist James Connolly was a key figure in the violent rebellion in Dublin in Easter 1916, regarded as a key moment in the eventual establishment of the Republic of Ireland.
Mr Greer’s motion has also been signed by Tom Arthur of the SNP, Pauline Mcneill, Alex Rowley and Elaine Smith of Labour plus Mark Ruskell, Patrick Harvie and John Finnie of the Greens. His motion notes Connolly’s founding of the Irish Citizens’ Army “originally to defend workers involved in the Dublin Lockout of 1913 but which evolved into a revolutionary organisation committed to the establishment of an independent, socialist Ireland”.
It also “acknowledges Connolly’s role as de-facto commander in chief of the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland and his contribution to, and signing of, the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, which asserted among other ideas that the men and women of Ireland were equal and all guaranteed religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities, and his subsequent execution by a British firing squad, while tied to a chair on 12 May 1916”. The Easter Rising, which saw Irish Republicans storm the Dublin GPO, was a hugely controversial event. Its critics believe that it served to legitimise the use of the gun in Irish politics.