A small story

Interesting article. What books would people recommend on this period of Irish history? I know next to nothing about the Irish war of independence or the civil war.

Charles townshends “the republic” is a good introduction.
Peter Hart “the Ira at war” and Bill kissane “the politics of the irish civil war” would probably need more background knowledge, but are more political science in nature (looking at causes, occupational structure /geography of revolutionaries, international context etc) and the most insightful books I’ve come across on it.
Roy foster’s “vivid faces” Is pretty good as well, but more a narrative history about segments of the revolutionaries.
There are a lot of local histories these days, the best (vaguely) in that area that I know is probably Fergus Campbell ( Land and Revolution: Nationalist Politics in the West of Ireland 1891-1921 )
Also various books by ferghal mcgharry, Joost Augusteijn, Ann Matthews, Tom Garvin, senia paseta, Michael laffan…. Kieran allen and Geoffrey bells new books might be decent from a left perspective (I haven’t read either yet )

Lovely story, Hen. Thanks – I hadn’t known that one.

Frank, I think stories that go against the grain are useful. You could even argue they challenge grand narratives rather than uphold them.

Tim Pat Coogan’s books on Michael Collins and on deValera. Micháil Martins book on the civil politics of Cork in that era.

I would recommend JJ Lee’s excellent Ireland 1913-1987 to anyone looking for an introduction much quicker than Tim Pat’s stuff.

JJ Lee’s work certainly over Tim Pat Coogan’s, which has had Myers-ian levels of difficulty with verifying anecdotes. Foster, as befits someone from that background, is obsessed with the middle classes (to say nothing of Ann Matthews with the unfortunate Constance Markievicz, who has done nothing to justify the level her treatment here). I also always found Townshend to be rather sneering and condescending, rather like an English Tory might.

The best sources are the accounts left by these men and women themselves. The Bureau of Military History files have been digitised and made available online. Some icons are treated unkindly by their contemporaries, putative presidents of the Irish Volunteers included.

Whatever about his claims in the “ira and its enemies”, “the ira at war” is a good book. Foster obviously has his biases and preferences, but his new book is decent, even if he wouldn’t be my favourite historian in a lot of ways. Townshend’s book is well worth reading imo. Is there a better up to date introduction ?

I heartily endorse the recommendation above of “On Another Man’s Wound” and add my own for “The Singing Flame”, which covers the slide into civil war and eventual defeat; a tremendous self-portrait of a fanatic mind. The scene where O’Malley and his fellow jihadis in the Four Courts receive General Absolution won’t leave you in a hurry

My maternal grandfather fought for “the rights of small nations” between 1914-1919. He was happy enough to help pound the German trenches with ordinance, but not stupid enough to walk towards the machine-guns. Nevertheless, he took 3 bullets rescuing a mate off the wire. Returning to County Cork, he threw away his uniform but kept hold of his Military Medal. Of course, he joined the lads as Lieutenant and Quartermaster. He happened to be reclining in a turnip field outside Killorglin when the Tans came rooting the fields for Barry’s bold men. Good job it was Tommy stumbled stumbled upon grandda. “Hello Tommy!”
“Sarge! Fancy seeing you here!”
“Just having a lie-in here, Tommy.”
“Sweet dreams, Sarge.’

When Ireland was freed, and the spoils were divvied up, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker all got their share. Jeremiah who’d donned the king’s uniform got fuck all. Good job the British Legion sent parcels–otherwise I may not have been here to tap this. And when my mother came back, after 2 years at the Magdalene , my grandda walked across the town—like he’d walked across no-man’s land—to carry my sister home.

(Although apologies for the bluntness of the comment before the link. My kindle keeps freezing which makes typing at length difficult. The more general point is true though, afaik, that some of the more ott claims made about British soldiers treatment in the free state don’t seem to be supported by the evidence. At a general/societal level)

@Tomatis

The scene where O’Malley and his fellow jihadis in the Four Courts receive General Absolution won’t leave you in a hurry

‘Jihadis’, really? *insert eyeroll here*

Ronan(rf) is correct. The ex-British Tommies were comparatively well looked after (and certainly in comparison to neutral or anti-Treaty IRA, who got nothing under the Free State).

My understanding* is veterans weren’t systematically discriminated against in the new state . A lot of the economic problems they faced were more general problems of being poor in ireland, and veterans were disproportionately more likely to come from poor backgrounds.
Whether they were targeted during the revolution, afaik, isn’t really knowable at the minute to support the claims that some journalists and historians make (that they were a “targeted class” etc) The historian Eunan o halpin is writing a book that catalogues all the dead during the revolutionary period (or at least up to the truce) which might give some insight into it, though afaict reading interviews he has done on it, it’s very difficult to work out motive, ie when sectarianism/politics/land/personal grudges etc were responsible for the victimisation. In some ways it’s disingenuous to use the impossibility of proving a trend to argue against what was definitely an individual reality (a disproportionate number of service men were killed,we know some were targeted because of their service) but a number of the claims about how widespread it was seem overstated.
It’s true that the state, particularly as the years went on, was reluctant to commemorate the war dead but (1) a lot of commemoration was fraught in ireland (2) again the extent to which this is true is overstated, particularly when you look at the micro level (how different counties, communities, families remembered those who fought) There’s a lot more diversity than some of the more ideologically driven irish commentators claim.
I am genuinely sorry though for my reaction to Jim, which on re reading (again) did come across as overly dismissive (which I didn’t mean it to be, as I don’t doubt the personal experience)

to complicate matters further, a fair number served both in the British Army in WWI and in the Volunteers/IRA afterward. Emmet Dalton and the killers of Sir Henry Wilson spring to mind in this regard.