Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 467
Irish History
23/24 January 2010
The Rising: Ireland Easter 1916 by Fearghal McGarry
Hardback; 24 Euro / 29 USD / 19 UK; 364 pages
The Easter Rising of 1916 not only destroyed much of the centre of Dublin - it changed the course of Irish history. But how did it achieve this? What role did people from ordinary backgrounds play in the making of the Irish revolution and what motivated them to take part in it? What did the rebels think they could achieve? And what kind of a republic were they fighting for? These basic questions continue to divide historians of modern Ireland. The Rising is the story of Easter 1916 from the perspective of those who made it, focusing on the experiences of rank and file revolutionaries - a story now told for the first time. To do this, Fearghal McGarry makes use of a unique source that has only recently seen the light of day - a collection of over 1,700 eye-witness statements detailing the activities of members of Sinn Féin, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Cumann na mBan, and the Irish Volunteers at the time of the Rising. This collection represents one of the richest and most comprehensive oral history archives devoted to any modern revolution, providing new insights on almost every aspect of this seminal period. Using this unique source, McGarry shows how people from ordinary backgrounds became politicized and involved in the struggle for Irish independence in the early years of the twentieth century. He illuminates their motives and aspirations and highlights the importance of the Great War as a catalyst for the uprising. He concludes by exploring the Rising's revolutionary aftermath, which saw the creation of an Irish parliament, Dáil Éireann, and the Irish Republican Army's armed campaign to win independence.
Dublin’s Fighting Story 1916-21: Told by the Men Who Made It. With an introduction by Diarmaid Ferriter.
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 15 UK; 440 pages, with an 16-page black-and-white photo insert [Add To Basket]
Major Haig ordered them to ‘prepare to fire’, whereupon they the fired indiscriminately, point blank, at the people in the street. Four people were killed and thirty-seven wounded. All Ireland seethed with indignation ...
This new edition of Dublin’s Fighting Story features stories and reports from every aspect of the War of Independence, from the formation of the Fianna Éireann and the Volunteers, through the Great Dublin Strike and Lock-out in 1913 and the 1916 Rising to the death of Seán Treacy in a bloody street shoot-out, the triumph and tragedy of Bloody Sunday and the burning of the Customs House. Dublin’s Fighting Story offers the perspective of the eye-witnesses and fighting men themselves to the struggle for independence in Dublin.
Rebel Cork’s Fighting Story 1916-21: Told by the Men Who Made It. With an introduction by Peter Hart.
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 15 UK; 440 pages, with an 16-page black-and-white photo insert
Originally published by The Kerryman in 1947, this is one of the four titles in the Fighting Stories Series. It records the events of the War of Independence in the words of the people who fought it and those who wrote about it at the time.
The book features reports on the Cork City Volunteers, the ambushes at Tureengarriffe, Clonbanin, Rathcoole, Tureen and many others, the murder of Tómas MacCurtain, the disastrous battle of Clonmult and the campaigns of the flying columns around the county from Mitchelstown to Blarney.
With a selection of original pictures from the conflict and reports from both Kilmichael and Crossbarry, Rebel Cork’s Fighting Story is a treasure trove of information and intriguing detail.
Limerick’s Fighting Story 1916-21 Told By the Men Who Made it with an intro by Ruan O’Donnell
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 14 UK; 380 pages, with an 16-page black-and-white photo insert [Add To Basket]
Originally published by The Kerryman in the 1940s, this is one of the four title in the ‘Fighting Stories’ Series. It records the events of the War of Independence in the words of the people who fought it and those who wrote about it at the time. Amongst the gripping episiodes recorded are: Limericks heroes of 1916, The execution of an enemy spy in West Limerick, Limerick’s Night of Terror, Cumann na mBan in Limerick and the destruction of Killmallock Barracks. The book features reports of the ambushes, battles, successes and failures.
Kerry’s Fighting Story 1916-1921 Told By the Men Who Made It with an intro by JJ Lee
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 14 UK; 352 pages, with an 16-page black-and-white photo insert [Add To Basket]
This is the classic text on the struggle for independence in Kerry. Originally published by The Kerryman in 1947, this is one of the four title in the "Fighting Stories Series". It records the events of the War of Independence in the words of the people who fought it and those who wrote about it at the time. The range of the book is incredible, everything from the formation of the volunteers, the German expedition to Tralee Bay during World War One, the Kerry Heroes of 1916, the RIC mutiny at Listowel Barracks, ambushes at Headford Junction, Lispole and Ballyduff, to the IRA firing party that challanged a Royal Navy ship in bantry bay in Autumn 1922. "Kerry's Fighting Story" is a treasure trove of information and intriguing detail.
A New History of Ireland volume IV: Eighteenth Century Ireland 1691-1800 edited by TW Moody and WE Vaughan
Large Format Paperback; 40 Euro / 56 USD / 30 UK; 850 pages [Add To Basket]
The definitive, scholarly history of Ireland in the eighteenth century, covering a wide range of topics. The fourth volume of A New History of Ireland opens with an introductory survey of Ireland in the eighteenth century, followed by chapters that examine the Protestant ascendancy, social and political life, religion, the economy, and the arts.
Blood Upon the Rose: Easter 1916 – The Rebellion That Set Ireland Free by Gerry Hunt
Large Format Paperback ; 13 Euro / 18 USD / 10 UK; [Add To Basket]
The rebellion that set Ireland free, told as a graphic novel. The 1916 Easter Rising was an attempt by a small group of militant Irish republicans to win independence from Britain. It was the most significant rebellion in Ireland. Though a military failure, it set Ireland on the road to freedom from Britain. The book covers the story from the early planning to the final executions and includes the tragic romance between Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford. Following on from the success of political graphic novels such as Maus and Persepolis, this is accessible, informative and insightful history at its best.
A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes by Jonathan Bardon
Large Format Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 11 UK; 556 pages, with two 16-page full-colour photo inserts
Large Format Paperback with 8 page full colour photo insert; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 10 UK; 300 pages [Add To Basket]
Jonathan Bardon covers all the obvious things: the invasions, battles, development of towns and cities, the Reformation, the Georgian era, the Famine, rebellions and resistance, the difference of Ulster, partition, the twentieth century. What makes his book so valuable, however, are the quirky subjects he chooses to illustrate how history really works: the great winter freeze of 1740 and the famine that followed; crime and duelling; an emigrant voyage; evictions. These episodes get behind the historical headlines to give a glimpse of past realities that might otherwise be lost to view. The author has retained the original episodic structure of the radio programmes. The result is a marvellous mosaic of the Irish past, delivered with clarity and narrative skill.
Irish Battles: A Military History of Ireland by G.A. Hayes-McCoy
Large Format Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 10 UK; 326 pages, with illustrations and maps throughout [Add To Basket]
While warfare has been a characteristic of much of Irish history, Irish Battles is the first book to have portrayed the major Irish wars in detail. Illustrated in full colour and with plans of each battlefield, it presents a military history of Ireland in the form of connected accounts of the major Irish battles, from Clontarf in 1014 to Arklow in 1798. Among the subjects discussed are the leadership of outstanding military figures such as Hugh and Owen Roe O'Neill and Patrick Sarsfield, and the continuance down the centuries of two kinds of warfare, the formal type and also the distinctively Irish warfare of the countryside which foreshadowed the guerrilla tactics of more recent times. The book will appeal not only to students of history, but also to the general reader and to the tourist with an eye for places where the drama of history was shaped.
The Sons of Ulster: Ulstermen at War from the Somme to Korea by Richard Doherty
Hardback; 18 Euro / 24 USD / 13 UK; 166 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
Based on the highly popular BBC radio series, The Sons of Ulster is a personal record of the experiences of Ulstermen in the major wars of this century. Offering a powerful and often harrowing account of each campaign, the military historian Richard Doherty examines the degree to which Ulstermen and Ulster units were involved in battle. Here infantrymen, sailors, airmen and prisoners of war tell their stories in their own words, and a picture of their courage, ingenuity and selflessness, in spite of terrible suffering, emerges. These are the men, for example, who survived the horrors of the First World War, where they squelched through thigh-high mud and saw men drown in mire, to speak of comradeships and a trust in adversity that surpassed political and religious bounds. Copiously illustrated with black-and-white photographs and loca-tion maps, The Sons of Ulster is an honest account of war in this century as it was experienced by those who did the fighting.
Guarding Neutral Ireland: The Coast Watching Service and Military Intelligence, 1939-1945 by Michael Kennedy
Hardback; 30 Euro / 39 USD / 24 UK; 360 pages, with an 16-page black-and-white photo insert [Add To Basket]
Ireland's Second World War frontline troops were the men of the Coast Watching Service. From 1939-45 they maintained a continuous watch along the Irish shoreline, reporting all incidents in the seas and skies to Military Intelligence (G2). They had a vital influence on the development of Ireland's pro-Allied neutrality and on the defence of Ireland during 'The Emergency', as through their reports G2 assessed the direction of the Battle of the Atlantic off Ireland and reported belligerent threats to the state upwards to the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, to the Cabinet and Taoiseach and Minister for External Affairs Eamon de Valera.Using unique Irish military sources and newly available British and American material, the history of the coastwatchers and G2 combines to tell the history of the Second World War as it happened locally along the coast of Ireland and at national and international levels in Dublin, London, Berlin and Washington.
Of particular importance, the study reveals in the greatest detail yet available the secret relationship between Irish military and diplomats and British Admiralty Intelligence, showing how coast watching service reports were passed on to the RAF and Royal Navy Britain in the hunt for German u-boats and aircraft in the Atlantic.
Soldiers of Folly: The IRA Border Campaign, 1956-62 by Barry Flynn
Hardback; 25 Euro / 30 USD / 20 UK; 210 pages [Add To Basket]
Operation Harvest, the codename for the IRA's border campaign of the 1950s, was an ambitious plan to wage a guerrilla war in the North. The IRA used tactics adopted by flying columns that had been successful during the War of Independence in a bid to make Northern Ireland ungovernable and force a British withdrawal. In hindsight, it was an abject failure. They received little or no support from the nationalist population in the North. Most volunteers were from the South with little knowledge of the North. Governments north and south of the border introduced internment and the campaign was almost stillborn. Key players throughout the campaign were Aeamon de Valera, Lord Brookeborough, Sean Garland, Daithi O'Connell and Ruairi A" Bradaigh. But others have been forgotten. In January 1957, the funerals of IRA volunteers Feargal O'Hanlon and Sean South saw an outpouring of nationalist grief not witnessed in Ireland for a generation. How many know of their violent deaths in Fermanagh on New Year's Day 1957? Immortalised in Dominic Behan's ballad 'The Patriot Game', this account outlines the origins, planning and phases of the conflict, and how it was wrapped in outdated notions of republican romanticism.
Bulmer Hobson and the Nationalist Movement in Twentieth-Century Ireland by Marnie Hay
Large Format Paperback; 25 Euro / 30 USD / 20 UK; 275 pages [Add To Basket]
It is widely known that Irish education experienced dramatic changes in the 1960s and 1970s, but this transformation is often identified mainly or even exclusively with the achievement of free second level education. In fact the changes in education policy were much more radical and wide-ranging; it was not any single initiative but the adoption of a general reforming policy by the Irish state which opened the way to a new era in education. The period saw the rapid expansion of higher technical education, the emergence of comprehensive schools and the early development of special education. The influence of international organizations, especially the OECD, was crucial in stimulating educational change. Irish education moved with bewildering speed from a nineteenth century pattern of development into the international mainstream of the postwar era. The book gives a detailed and accessible discussion of the radical changes in Irish educational policy, which was transformed out of all recognition within a single decade. Making use of new archival sources and interviews with key participants, Walsh gives a balanced and original analysis of the forces making for change in Irish education and the obstacles they encountered. The book makes a significant original contribution to our knowledge of Irish education. The book will be of interest to scholars of modern Irish history, politics and public policy. It is essential reading for students of Irish education and of history of education more generally; it will also be invaluable to those with a professional or academic interest in Irish education.
Please note: Prices were correct at time of original posting but are subject to subsequent change without notice.
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