This book situates the history of Trinity College Dublin within the great upheavals and changes that were taking place in Ireland such as: Irish involvement in WW1; the Easter Rising of 1916; the violent struggle for Irish independence; the end of the Civil War; and the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.
In 1912, a bloodless revolution had already taken place in Monaghan that resulted in the overthrow of one ruling elite, which was replaced by another. What began in 1912 with the signing of the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant, followed the next year by the founding of the Ulster Volunteer Force, might be considered from the Protestant perspective as an attempted counter-revolution. It was, at the very least, a determined effort to remain part of the British empire, the spiritual and ancestral home of Monaghan Protestants. But constitutional nationalists were not prepared to give up the gains they had made. Separatist nationalists wanted more, and so for them the 1916 Rising represented the beginning of unfinished business. In this political maelstrom there were agrarian agitators who sought the final solution to the land question; 2,500 young men who went to war, one-fifth of whom never returned and the others who did returned to a very changed country; and paramilitaries who divided along sectarian lines. Thus, between 1912 and 1923, Monaghan politics and society were transformed for a second time, not least of all by the imposition of the border with all the attendant social and economic problems partition brought. Because of Monaghan's socio-religious demographic and its borderlands location, this book offers an intriguing insight to how the period 1912-23 played itself out at local level. (Series: Irish Revolution 1912-23) [Subject: Irish Revolution, Easter 1916, Monaghan, Irish History, Irish Studies]
County Louth and the Irish Revolution, 1912–1923 explores the local activism of the IRA and how revolution was experienced by rural and urban labourers, RIC men, republican women, cultural activists, and Big House families. Events were increasingly shaped for all these groups by the developing reality of partition, transforming a marginal county into a borderland and creating a zone of new violence and banditry. The expert contributors to the first-ever local history of the county during this period bring to light a wealth of fascinating stories that will appeal to the general public and historians alike. Critically, these stories reveal new findings about the early military skirmishes in County Louth by republican figures such as Seán MacEntee and Frank Aiken; the controversial sectarian massacre at Altnaveigh; and how the Civil War made a fiery battlefield of Dundalk and Drogheda. County Louth and the Irish Revolution, 1912–1923 documents the complexity of the local experience as the national revolution merged with long-established antagonisms and traditions, the effects of which have shaped the county ever since.
This is the first comprehensive single volume history of County Kildare during the Irish Revolution of 1912-23. A noted garrison county, the concentration of British military personnel in Kildare was the highest in Ireland, and the Curragh was the most extensive military camp in the country. A military presence continued after the British withdrawal in 1922 when the network of military barracks passed to the National army. Based on rigorous research of British and Irish archives, this study charts the fortunes of home rule in Kildare during which the county was at the centre of the significant Curragh incident in 1914. It explains the slow development of the Irish Volunteers and the position of the local unionist community vis-a-vis home rule. Attention is drawn to the key role played by British army units from Kildare in suppressing the 1916 Rising, as well as the post-Rising development of Sinn Fein and concomitant decline of the Irish Parliamentary Party. This study challenges the depiction of Kildare as a 'quiet county' during the War of Independence by highlighting the pivotal role it played in the intelligence war and the county's strategic communications importance for both Crown forces and republicans. During the Civil War period Kildare was to the forefront of national events with the evacuation of the British army, which had a major negative impact on the local economy, and the utilization of military barracks as prisons by the Irish government. Politically, the Irish Revolution in Kildare did not see an ultimate triumph for republicanism in any form. While the emergence of Labour was notable during the Irish Revolution, nevertheless after 1923 Kildare returned to its Redmondite roots, though under a pro-Treaty label.
Using a wide variety of sources in Ireland and Britain, Patrick McGarty has produced an absorbing, comprehensive and insightful exploration of County Leitrim during the Irish Revolution. This wide-ranging study details social, political, cultural and military developments from the introduction of the ill-fated third home rule in 1912 through the First World War, Irish War of Independence and Civil War. The decade witnessed extraordinary upheaval and unrest at both a national and a local level. In Leitrim there was a decisive political transformation with the collapse of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the unprecedented rise of Sinn Fein. McGarty pays close attention to how various modes of resistance were deployed first against British rule and after the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 against the pro-Treaty Irish government. These included political violence and widespread campaigns of boycott and intimidation and this study provides new insights on the nature and implications of both republican and state violence. McGarty offers a novel and compelling account of the Irish Revolution in a so-called 'quiet' county.
The history of Roscommon in the 1912-23 period is one of transition to new political allegiances while retaining old economic desires. Almost wholly dependent on agriculture to fuel the local economy and sustain the county's people, the fight for land was the ever-present backdrop to Roscommon's recent history. By 1912 the organization that had provided leadership in that fight - the Irish Parliamentary Party - was on the cusp of achieving Irish home rule, a measure believed to have the potential to settle the land issue. The need to protect the bill saw thousands in Roscommon join the Irish Volunteers and proclaim their opposition to anti-home rule unionists. The First World War led to the suspension of home rule and a call by Irish MPs for their followers to support the British war effort. However, a combination of increasing wartime prices, inadequate food production, ongoing land issues as well as the toleration of partition by local MPs and the draconian British response to Easter 1916 caused many in Roscommon to reassess their political allegiance. Sensationally, in February 1917, Roscommon elected the first Sinn Fein-backed MP. This proved a decisive step in the demise of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the success of Sinn Fein, which reinvigorated the fight for the land as part of its efforts for a republic. In 1919, Roscommon men took up arms against the British to pursue Sinn Fein aims, only to turn the weapons on one another three years later when conflict over the continued pursuit of the Irish Republic led to civil war. In tracing the history of Roscommon during these years of instability, Burke's careful research has produced a comprehensive and accessible study that illuminates and explains the changes and continuities that defined the period.
This book arrives on foot of a decade of commemorations. Contemporary Ireland was founded during the fractious years of 1912-1923. This volume features essays by leading historians, journalists, civic activists and folklorists. The outstanding body of scholarship offers a complexity of new views in the debate how to commemorate a divided past.
Veteran IRA leader Ernie O’Malley criticised County Kilkenny as being ‘slack’ during the War of Independence, but this fascinating new study of the period, by historian Eoin Swithin Walsh, challenges that view and reveals that Kilkenny was truly at the forefront of the struggle for Irish freedom. No Kilkenny citizen escaped the revolutionary era untouched, especially during the turmoil that followed the Easter Rising of 1916, the upheaval of the War of Independence and the tumultuous Civil War. Key personalities, revolutionary organisations and dramatic events in Kilkenny illuminate the country-wide struggle. Not to be forgotten, the lives of the ‘ordinary’ men and women of the county are explored, emphasising a life beyond politics and conflict. The listing of Kilkenny fatalities during the War of Independence is examined and, for the first time, combatants and civilians who died during the Truce and the Civil War are recorded, revealing an even more deadly conflict than previously believed. Presenting a complete history of the county in the opening decades of the twentieth century – including the use of previously unseen archival material – Kilkenny: In Times of Revolution, 1900–1923 is an indispensable contribution to the literature on the turbulent birth of the Irish nation.
OBSERVER BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR and OBSERVER BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014 WINNER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'S MORRIS D. FORKOSCH PRIZE 2016 'The most complete and plausible exploration of the roots of the 1916 Rebellion... essential reading' Colm Tóibín Vivid Faces surveys the lives and beliefs of the people who made the Irish Revolution: linked together by youth, radicalism, subversive activities, enthusiasm and love. Determined to reconstruct the world and defining themselves against their parents, they were in several senses a revolutionary generation. The Ireland that eventually emerged bore little relation to the brave new world they had conjured up in student societies, agit-prop theatre groups, vegetarian restaurants, feminist collectives, volunteer militias, Irish-language summer schools, and radical newspaper offices. Roy Foster's book investigates that world, and the extraordinary people who occupied it. Looking back from old age, one of the most magnetic members of the revolutionary generation reflected that 'the phoenix of our youth has fluttered to earth a miserable old hen', but he also wondered 'how many people nowadays get so much fun as we did'. Working from a rich trawl of contemporary diaries, letters and reflections, Vivid Faces re-creates the argumentative, exciting, subversive and original lives of people who made a revolution, as well as the disillusionment in which it ended.
Ireland during the period 1913–1923 was a nation in constant flux. Spanning a pivotal era marked by the Dublin Lockout, the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the birth of the Irish Free State, Revolutionary Times captures the full complexity of this transformative decade through contemporary-style reportage, timelines of key events and insightful essays. Emanating from the acclaimed RTÉ project, Century Ireland, and distilling its essence into a captivating print form, Revolutionary Times is meticulously researched yet accessibly written and beautifully presented. Alongside the political upheaval, the book also delves into the everyday realities of Irish life during this volatile chapter – from sports and fashion to housing debates and extreme weather. Offering a rich, nuanced portrait of a nation on the brink of a new dawn, this is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the tumultuous forces that shaped modern Ireland.