Songs and Revolution

In Starry Plough, my favourite Irish pub in Berkeley, California, every Sunday evening, a large group of musicians in the Irish tradition meet to play and sing traditional songs. The place is decorated with posters, flags and statements of many revolutionary movements. It is very 60s and 70s. But I like the statement that is hanging just behind where the musicians play. It is attributed to James Connolly, and Irish union member who took a very relevant role in the Easter Rising of 24th April 1916 in Dublin. He was badly injured, but still executed by a firing squad few weeks later. This is his statement :

"No revolutionary movement is complete without its poetic expression. If such a movement has caught hold of the imagination of the masses, they will seek a vent in song for the aspirations, fears and hopes, the loves and hatreds engendered by the struggle. Until the movement is marked by the joyous, defiant singing of revolutionary songs, it lacks one of the most distinctive marks of a popular revolutionary movement: it is the dogma of the few and not the faith of the multitude". James Connolly. 1907