By Daragh Fitzgerald
September marked the 85th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland and the start of the Second World War, as good a time as any to read Clodagh Finn and John Morgan’s The Irish in the Resistance: the untold stories of the ordinary heroes who resisted Hitler. While the activities of famous Irish resisters like Samuel Beckett—dismissed by the man himself as ‘boy scout stuff’—and ‘the Scarlet Pimpernel’, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, are widely known, The Irish in the Resistance documents the stories of Irish resisters that are yet to enter the popular consciousness. The proportion of the population that resisted the Nazis across Europe was usually small—numbering between one and three per cent—with a tenth of those being women. Remarkably, more than half of all known Irish resisters were women, including the indomitable Maureen ‘Paddy’ O’Sullivan. ‘Paddy’ parachuted behind enemy lines into occupied France, almost breaking her neck on impact, only for the Resistance network with which she linked up to be furious when they discovered that ‘Paddy’ was a woman. Despite their complaints she served heroically, transmitting over 300 messages to London while also helping to blow up a train, ultimately winning the admiration of her sexist colleagues.
Irish people in the armed forces have not always covered themselves in glory, of course. In the light of serving Irish soldier Cathal Crotty’s despicable attack on Natasha O’Brien and the scandalous justice (or lack thereof) served, ‘discipline’ may not be the first word that comes to readers’ minds when considering the Irish Army. Crotty, however, is not the only member of the defence forces to have acted in such a way, unfortunately, as the army struggled to impose discipline on its troops at its inception in the aftermath of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Daniel Ayiotis’s Moral formations: discipline and religion in the Irish Army, 1922–1932 documents the birth of the National Army and the attempts to maintain order and restraint in the first decade of its existence. As Ayiotis points out, the task of building up a professional and disciplined army while swelling the ranks with new recruits to prosecute a civil war was an arduous one, to say the least. The actions of some in high places in the army set a worrying tone that resonates with Crotty’s recent actions. The National Army’s first public appearance in uniform was on 1 February 1922 at the hand-over of Beggar’s Bush barracks, when ex-members of the IRA’s ‘Dublin Guard’ took the place of their British counterparts. The core of this group had been in Michael Collins’s ‘squad’—glorified in Neil Jordan’s hagiographic film—and the unit was commanded by Paddy O’Daly, who would be accused of rape just over a year later, with the incident covered up by Minister for Defence Richard Mulcahy and President of the Executive W.T. Cosgrave. O’Daly was also implicated in the tying of republicans to land-mines and other atrocities committed in Kerry during the Civil War, for which he was never held accountable.
Turning to the other Óglaigh na hÉireann, James Durney’s Jailbreak: great Irish republican escapes, 1865–1983 catalogues the numerous prison breaks attempted by Irish republicans over the years, a practice as strong as the hunger strike and the split in the Republican tradition. Piaras Béaslaí noted that, while some people might spend decades behind bars without attempting to escape, ‘he who has once escaped is certain to attempt it again’—an astute observation on Béaslaí’s part, considering that he was a serial offender (in both senses of the word). Fittingly, the book opens with the flight from Richmond Prison by the founder and first president of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, James Stephens, and takes the reader through the subsequent ‘great escapes’ that followed, from Dev getting keys smuggled into Lincoln Jail inside a fruitcake to Provos landing a helicopter in Mountjoy and their daring escape from Long Kesh, the biggest post-war prison break in Europe.
Dev’s escape from Lincoln Jail also features in Gerard O’Rourke’s Land War to Civil War 1900–1924: Donoughmore to Cork and beyond. This is a meticulously researched local history focused on the parish of Donoughmore and its environs in the revolutionary era. Dedicated to O’Rourke’s late wife Tricia, the book serves a great cause, with €15 from every sale being donated to cancer care services.
Mary J. Murphy’s Achill remembers Marie Howet (1897–1984), acclaimed Belgian impressionist painter is another excellent local history, in this case focused on the artist Marie Howet and in particular her relationship with Achill Island. Howet first visited Achill in 1929 and immediately became enchanted with the place, returning frequently over the following decades. This was not just leisure, however, as the island’s beauty inspired many of Howet’s works, including her masterpiece, A La Source D’Ara. A folio containing 25 watercolours mostly of Achill, the collection was prefaced by former Irish Parliamentary Party politician, soldier and journalist Stephen Gwynn.
The Irish history community was united in grief earlier this year owing to the untimely passing of Maynooth stalwart Raymond Gillespie. Published posthumously, Gillespie’s Reforming Galway: civic society, religious change and St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church, 1550–1750 is an exceptional local history of one church in Galway, which is used as a microcosm to explore the complexities of religious change in early modern Ireland. This text is really a social history of both the physical church and the parish community and illustrates why Gillespie’s scholarship will be sorely missed.
Those interested in religious change and how that relates to society both locally and writ large will also be interested in Edel Bhreathnach’s Monasticism in Ireland AD 900–1250. Edel Bhreathnach will be a familiar name to History Ireland readers, with her most recent article tackling the historical St Brigid. Monasticism emerged as a prominent movement in Ireland in the mid-sixth century, arriving on the island via links from Britain and Gaul. Once rooted, these networks remained and were well travelled by Irish monks, who went even further afield to Lombardy and the greater Frankish empire. Most of the historiography focuses on the emergence of the movement and its early flourishing, when Ireland became the clichéd ‘land of saints and scholars’, or the later reforms of the twelfth century, and Monasticism in Ireland AD 900–1250 fills a gap in the literature by examining the hitherto neglected intermittent period.
Dr Ian Miller is another name that should ring a few bells for readers, with his last History Ireland appearance examining tea addiction in 1870s Ireland. His latest publication, A history of Ireland in ten body parts, explores Irish history through a carnal lens and is replete with great prose, insight and humour. From Clonycavan Man to the stolen skulls of ‘giants’, and from the red hand of Ulster to kneecaps, Miller’s inventive text uses the body to tease out real themes and issues of Irish history from an irreverently visceral perspective.
Clodagh Finn and John Morgan, The Irish in the Resistance: the untold stories of the ordinary heroes who resisted Hitler (Gill Books, €19.99 pb, 355pp, ISBN 9780717191352).
Daniel Ayiotis, Moral formations: discipline and religion in the Irish Army, 1922–1932 (Eastwood Books, €25 pb, 288pp, ISBN 9781913934590).
James Durney, Jailbreak: great Irish republican escapes, 1865–1983 (Merrion Press, €18.99 pb, 264pp, ISBN 9781785374920).
Gerard O’Rourke, Land War to Civil War 1900–1924: Donoughmore to Cork and beyond (self-published, €25 pb, 464pp, ISBN 9780993386732).
Mary J. Murphy, Achill remembers Marie Howet (1897–1984), acclaimed Belgian impressionist painter (Knockma Publishing, €24 pb, 73pp, ISBN 9780956074942).
Raymond Gillespie, Reforming Galway: civic society, religious change and St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church, 1550–1750 (Four Courts Press, €45 hb, 240pp, ISBN 9781801511285).
Edel Bhreathnach, Monasticism in Ireland AD 900–1250 (Four Courts Press, €50 hb, 504pp, ISBN 9781801511179).
Ian Miller, A history of Ireland in ten body parts (Gill Books, €26.99 hb, 352pp, ISBN 9781913934590).