James Larkin left Ireland for America in October 1914, leaving the Citizen Army under the command of James Connolly. Whereas during the Lockout the ICA had been a workers' self-defence militia, Connolly conceived of it as a revolutionary organisation dedicated to the creation of an Irish socialist republic. He had served in the British Army in his youth, and knew something about military tactics and discipline. Other active members in the early days included the Secretary to the Council, Seán O'Casey, who tried to have Constance Markievicz expelled for her close associations with the Volunteers, which he considered as being "inimical" to the ICA's best interests. Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and O'Casey left the ICA when it became apparent that Connolly had started gravitating towards the radical nationalist group, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The ICA was grossly under-funded. John Devoy, the prominent Irish-American member of IRB Fenians, believed the existence of "a land army on Irish soil" was the most important sign since the founding of the Gaelic League. James Connolly, a convinced Marxist socialist and Irish Republican, believed that achieving political change through physical force, in the tradition of the Fenians, was legitimate. The ICA was the victim of small numbers, that shrank to only 200-300 persons, and fitful discipline.