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Influence
Nora Connolly O’Brien was heavily influenced in her political beliefs by her father James Connolly. Who was committed Republican and Socialist, as was Nora. From a young age she attended her father political meetings, accompanying him on a four month Scottish lecture tour at age 8. After moving to Belfast in 1911, where she began to get more involved in labor and republican movements while her father James remained in Dublin and became organizer of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) in Dublin. She was a founding member of the Young Republican Party advocating against Partition of Northern Ireland as the Home Rule Crisis increased. She also helped to found the Belfast branch of Cumann na mBan, the women’s section of the Irish Volunteers

1916 Rising
In her statement to the Bureau of Military History, she described “the rare privilege” of cooking breakfast for the leaders of the rising at Liberty Hall on the morning of the rising. . She was sent back to Co.Tyrone for their safety and to re muster the Northern Division of the Irish Volunteers, under orders from Patrick Pearse. After the attempt failed, she returned to Dublin with her sister, but due to train disruptions walked from Dundalk, and spending a night in a field near Balbriggan only to arrive hours after the leaders of the Easter Rising surrendered. She vividly remembers visiting her father James Connolly, in Dublin Castle the night before his execution, where she smuggled out statement to the court martial; Before they said goodbye, as he feared for his family , he advised them that that there would be resentment against them and advised them to go to the United States

Political Career 1916 - 1918
Nora traveled to the United States under a false name as she was refused a passport, she traveled to Edinburgh, where she was born and applied under Margaret Connolly. She began a lecturing tour where she publicized the Easter Rising and the cause the rebel leaders had stood for. She spoke for hours in Boston at Faneuil Hall in order to gain American support and recognition of the Irish Republic. She furthered her efforts by writing a book titled “The Unbroken Tradition” in which she describes the events of the Easter Rising, which was subsequently banned as President Woodrow Wilson entered the United States in World War One and it was labelled “anti-British” In 1917 she returned anonymously to Ireland, and remained quiet for some time, She disagreed with the Labor Party’s policy on neutrality, and canvassed for Sinn Fein in 1918 general election.

War of Independence and Civil War 1919 - 1923
Following her return to Ireland in 1917, she remained active in Cumann na mBan and fought during the War of Independence from 1919 to 1921. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Cumann na mBan had sided on the anti treaty side. Following the outbreak of the Irish Civil War, she supervised an Anti-Treaty first aid post at Tara Hall.Cumann na mBan was outlawed by the Free State government and in November 1922 she was arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol, with many other members. She was released in 1923 on the wit of Habeas Corpus on the grounds her arrest had been unlawful.

Later Political Career
In 1926 she, along with her brother, the short lived Workers Party of Ireland from 1926-7. Following the meeting of the Republican Congress on 29-30 September 1934 in Rathmines Town Hall. The Socialist movement in Ireland was divided on whether the Congress should resolve itself into a new revolutionary Socialist Party, or remain as a united front of all progressive forces against Fascism. . She supported forming a new political party, but when a resolution was passed to remain as a united front, she and her group withdrew from the congress. She operated the Labor Party’s Drimnagh, Dublin Branch, but resigned from the party when the workers-republic cause was deleted from its constitution in 1939. During the 1930s she as a statistician in the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) and a telegraph agent during the Second World War, until ill-health forced her retirement. She was nominated to the Seanad Éireann in 1957 by nomination of the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera , and stressed that she would not join his Fianna Fail Party and remain independent, although she is technically listed as a Fianna Fail senator. During her time, she blocked many bills including the 1959 proposal to abolish Proportional Representation and a church-promoted bill to consign female juvenile offenders to Magdalene Laundries. She was renominated in 1965 by Sean Lemass, but his successor Jack Lynch, failed to re-nominate her, ending her political career.