Focusing on the tumultuous years of the Irish revolution from 1916 to 1921, this comprehensive account meticulously catalogs the deaths of individuals during this pivotal period. Authors Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin detail the circumstances surrounding 505 deaths in 1916 and 2,344 between 1917 and 1921, offering insight into the impact of the conflict on civilians and combatants alike. This authoritative work serves as an essential reference, providing a profound understanding of the human cost of the struggle for Irish independence.
Cathal Brugha’s life was member of the Gaelic League, Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers; celebrated survivor of the 1916 Rising despite multiple gunshot wounds; crucial figure in the post-Rising reorganization of the Volunteers; speaker at the first sitting of Dáil Éireann; minister for defence during the War of Independence; passionate and acerbic opponent of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921; a reluctant participant in the Irish Civil War, having tried to prevent it, and that conflict’s first high profile fatality in July 1922. This book chronicles Brugha’s public and private life and the influences that shaped him; appraises his multi-faceted involvement in the Irish Revolution; contextualizes his relationships with contemporaries such as Michael Collins; reveals how his premature death at the age of forty-seven affected his young family and how his wife, Caitlín, upheld his political principles by standing as a Sinn Féin TD; and reflects on how Brugha’s indomitable patriotism was propagandized after his death. Based on wide research, this is a fascinating portrait of an intriguing, complex, and often misunderstood figure.
On 1 November 1920, eighteen-year-old UCD medical student Kevin Barry was hanged in Mountjoy Jail for his role in an IRA raid that killed a British soldier. The reaction to his execution was incensed and international, and to this day, he remains a vibrant icon of patriotic, idealistic death, his name synonymous with youthful republican sacrifice. The persistence of his memory is singular, not only within Irish republicanism but also in the wider world. Eunan O'Halpin, esteemed historian and grand-nephew of Kevin Barry, explores his ancestor's short but significant life, the dynamics of growing up with 'a martyr in the family', and why Barry's name has continued to resonate in Ireland and beyond. O'Halpin examines Barry's ideological formation and the impact of his religious education, and challenges common misconceptions about educated, privileged men who were just as willing as rural Volunteers to do what they saw as their duty. Indeed, Barry's life in the IRA in Carlow and Dublin was a surprisingly active one, despite his age, and his story tells us a great deal about the young men who joined the IRA to fight against British rule, and later each other, and the families left beh
