[1] He was born into a middle-class family, and after secondary school went to Trinity College Dublin to prepare for a career as a priest.
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa wrote in condemnation of the execution of Georges Darboy, and most Fenians shied away from anything that appeared to support the Commune.
[5] In 1872 McDonnell sailed to New York City with his new bride, Mary McEvatt, to represent the IWA in America.
[8] In 1876 the AUWA and other socialist organizations merged to form the Workingmen's Party of the United States (WPUS).
The faction of the WPUS that favored action withdrew their support from the paper, which ran into financial difficulties.
[10] The Socialist Labor Party of America was founded in 1877 by a Marxist-oriented group in Newark led by Friedrich A. Sorge.
He denounced the "industrial despotism" of employers and called for labor to become master of its own products rather than the slave of capitalism.
[15] In February 1880 he was tried again for libel after publishing a letter from a brick maker who said of the Clark & Van Blarcom brickyard that the men were overworked and starved, and housed in places no better than pigsties.
[11] McDonnell attacked Dixon as anti-labor and anti-union, and threw his support behind Leon Abbett, giving a useful boost to the Democratic candidate.
[17] In 1884 Leon Abbett, now governor of New Jersey, appointed McDonnell deputy inspector of factories and workshops, although he did not hold this position for long.
[15] From 1883 until 1897 McDonnell chaired the legislative committee of the New Jersey Federation of Organized Trades, which remained a relatively small body that was further weakened by the dispute between the Knights of Labor and the craft unions.
Despite its weakness, the legislative committee drafted laws and lobbied for their passage by the New Jersey legislature, and often achieved at least partial success.
The Federation obtained ballot reforms, protection against eviction, public libraries and a compulsory education law.
However, in 1897 The Boston Post wrote, Every labor law on the state statute books of New Jersey owes its birth to the fostering care and indefatigable work of McDonnell... Not a tithe can be told of all he has done for the betterment of mankind.