Richard Mulcahy

Richard Mulcahy

Author: Pádraig Ó Caoimh

Publisher: Merrion Press

Published: 2019-11-04

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1788551001

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Chief of Staff of the IRA, successor to Michael Collins as Commander in Chief of the National Army, founding member of Cumann na nGaedheal and later leader of Fine Gael: Richard Mulcahy was a leading figure in revolutionary Ireland and the new Irish State. But who was the enigmatic man behind the myth? Conspiratorial IRB nationalist; stubborn military tribune; pragmatic, political officeholder; or a fascinating combination of these and other traits? In Richard Mulcahy: From the Politics of War to the Politics of Peace, Pádraig Ó Caoimh expertly explores the awkward, often competitive, relationships Mulcahy had with Brugha, Cosgrave, de Valera, O’Higgins and Stack, and investigates the forging of the Irish national army out of the furnace of change brought about by the rise of militarism, a mismanaged rebellion and two wars, one of liberation, the other of brothers. This long overdue new biography also reveals the ambiguous role of the IRB, and the strategically important military and political executive positions that Mulcahy occupied during the post-rebellion, army-building and state-building phase of 1917–24. This extensively researched new study of Richard Mulcahy and the struggle for supremacy concerning the post-revolutionary government-army relationship is a vital contribution to understanding Ireland’s revolutionary past.


Portrait of a Revolutionary

Portrait of a Revolutionary

Author: Maryann Gialanella Valiulis

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 1992-01-01

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9780813117911

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Richard Mulcahy was architect of the guerrilla war that forced the British to grant Dominion status to Ireland and the guiding spirit behind the civil war that ensured the survival of the new state. In this illuminating portrait, Maryann Valiulis uses Mulcahy's career as a focus for reexamining Ireland's transition from colony to nation state between 1916 and 1924. She also views the Irish struggle from Mulcahy's varied perspectives - chief of staff in the Anglo-Irish war and minister for defence and commander-in-chief during the civil war. Contrary to traditional interpretation, she argues, Mulcahy and General Headquarters Staff played a crucial role in setting ethical boundaries for the guerrilla war, in ensuring that the war of independence did not degenerate into wanton violence, sectarian conflict, or personal vengeance. In the civil war, Mulcahy was less successful. In fact, in an attempt to enforce standards and control the actions of the army, he was led into his most controversial policy - execution of prisoners. Valiulis contends that within an atmosphere of terror and counter-terror, Mulcahy and GHQ kept the threads of the revolutionary struggle woven together. Under Mulcahy's direction, GHQ became a focal point for a guerrilla war that the IRA may not have been able to win but, thanks to Mulcahy and GHQ, did not lose. Mulcahy's life reveals much about the diversity of Irish nationalism, the nature of the revolutionary struggle, and the influence of colonialism. He epitomized the political and cultural nationalist whose vision of a free and independent Ireland was a synthesis of traditions: Gaelic and English, constitutional and revolutionary, modern and traditional. From such blendings did Ireland forge an enduring democratic nation state. Portrait of a Revolutionary is an essential contribution to our understanding of modern Irish history.


An Introduction to the Irish Civil War

An Introduction to the Irish Civil War

Author: John O'Donovan

Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd

Published: 2022-04-12

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 1781178070

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During the Irish Civil War, events of late 1922 and early 1923 together with waves of 'dishonourable' killings created poisoned relations between Republicans and 'Free Staters' which would last for several generations. The most enduring of these controversies, a policy of summary executions carried out by the Provisional Government from November 1922, continues to surround the argument. This book offers a fresh perspective on the causes, development and consequences of the Irish Civil War. Triggered by the signing of the Anglo-Treaty, there were those that would accept nothing less than complete Irish independence. Very few IRA commanders active in the field supported the Treaty and, as happens often in the dissection of civil wars, controversy over the conduct of both sides figures heavily within the text, where, at a local and national level, it left bitter legacies. This book offers an overview of the war in all regions of Ireland.


Tom Barry

Tom Barry

Author: Meda Ryan

Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd

Published: 2005-09-30

Total Pages: 590

ISBN-13: 1856357325

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Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter chronicles the action-packed life of the Commander of the Third West Cork Flying Column, including the decisive Kilmichael ambush and the controversy regarding sectarianism during the 1920–22 period. Author, Meda Ryan, details his involvement on the fringes of the Treaty negotiations; his Republican activities during the Civil War; his engagement in the cease-fire/dump-arms deal of 1923; his term as the IRA's Chief of Staff and his participation in IRA conflicts in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and right up to his death in 1980. Includes an extensive body of primary source material, including Tom Barry's papers,


Michael Collins's Intelligence War

Michael Collins's Intelligence War

Author: Michael Foy

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2008-08-01

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0752495909

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Michael Collins is often thought of as Ireland's lost leader: a man born into a revolutionary environment who became a skilled statesman and military leader. This book looks in at Collins' key role in the Anglo Irish War using primary sources which have not previously been available.


No Ordinary Women

No Ordinary Women

Author: Sinéad McCoole

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9780299195007

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"Constance Markievicz had some advice for women activists: 'Leave your jewels in the bank, and buy a revolver.' Most of the women who became involved in the fight for Ireland's freedom did not have jewels to swap for guns, but the change in their circumstances and lives would be just as radical. Setting aside their roles as dutiful daughters, wives, and mothers, they became dispatch carriers, gunrunners, spies. Guns in hand, they fought alongside their male comrades in arms, displaying a courage and resolution that astonished and sometimes offended public opinion of the time." "What they were doing was considered 'unladylike and disreputable' - a notion that explains why their stories became hidden histories; in many cases families were unaware that their great-aunts and grannies had prison records." "But the evidence is there in their prison diaries and autograph books, in the graffiti that remain on the walls of Kilmainham Gaol, and in the archive lists of women prisoners of 1916, the War of Independence, and the Civil War. From this wealth of material and interviews with survivors, Sinead McCoole has produced a portrait of the girls and women whose indomitable spirit overcame hunger strikes, harsh prison conditions, and the tragedy of huge personal loss."--BOOK JACKET.


The Irish Folklore Commission 1935-1970

The Irish Folklore Commission 1935-1970

Author: Mícheál Briody

Publisher: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura

Published: 2008-06-16

Total Pages: 538

ISBN-13: 9522228109

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Between 1935 and 1970 the Irish Folklore Commission (Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann), under-funded and at great personal cost to its staff, assembled one of the world’s largest folklore collections. This study draws on the extensive government files on the Commission in the National Archives of Ireland and on a wide variety of other primary and secondary sources, in order to recount and assess the work and achievement of this world-famous institute. The cultural, linguistic, political and ideological factors that had a bearing on the establishment and making permanent of the Commission and that impinged on many aspects of its work are here elucidated. The genesis of the Commission is traced and the vision and mission of its Honorary Director, Séamus Ó Duilearga (James Hamilton Delargy), is outlined. The negotiations that preceded the setting up of the Commission in 1935 as well as protracted efforts from 1940 to 1970 to place it on a permanent foundation are recounted and examined at length. All the various collecting programmes and other activities of the Commission are described in detail and many aspects of its work are assessed and, in some cases, reassessed. This study also deals with the working methods and conditions of employment of the Commission’s field and Head Office staff as well with Séamus Ó Duilearga’s direction of the Commission.


The Irish Civil War and Society

The Irish Civil War and Society

Author: G. Foster

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-02-18

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1137425709

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The Irish Civil War and Society sheds new light on the social currents shaping the Irish Civil War, from the 'politics of respectability' behind animosities and discourses; to the intersection of social conflicts with political violence; to the social dimensions of the war's messy aftermath.


GPO Staff in 1916

GPO Staff in 1916

Author: Stephen Ferguson

Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd

Published: 2012-04-20

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 1781170908

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The 1916 Rising has been studied from many different angles over the years but the unique perspective of GPO staff on the events of Easter Week has not previously been examined. Post office records and photographs, many previously unpublished, reveal the importance of the role played by postal staff during that week and provide fascinating eye-witness accounts of events as they unfolded across the city centre. Here, based on the official reports of various G.P.O staff, is not merely an exciting account of Post Office people in turbulent times but also nuggets of new information that will be of interest to both historians and the many people for whom the drama of 1916 holds a special fascination.