‘I am a propagandist, unrepentant and unashamed’, Dorothy Macardle, author of The Irish Republic, announced in June 1939. Many readers familiar with her classic history of the Irish revolution, commissioned by her political hero Éamon de Valera, might be only too ready to concur with Macardle’s candid self-assessment. In this instance, however, she was speaking … Read more
On the morning of 22 September 1920, four volunteers from the IRA’s West Clare brigade gathered at a level crossing at Caherfeenick, near Doonbeg. Presently, they heard an approaching Ford two-seater—the object of their attentions. The driver was local resident magistrate Captain Alan Cane Lendrum MC, a native of County Tyrone, a former rubber-planter in … Read more
The memoirs of John M. Regan, a Catholic officer in the RIC and RUC, 1909–48 Joost Augusteijn (ed.) (Four Courts Press, e55) ISBN 9781846820694 Editor Joost Augusteijn has made accessible a ‘warts-and-all’ memoir that provides a unique insight into the 1914–22 period in Irish history and into what it was like to be a Catholic … Read more
Gerard Murphy’s new book is the latest examination of the Protestant experience in revolutionary Cork. It offers an engaging narrative, often based on extensive research, that will open new doors for Irish historians. Murphy provocatively argues that the IRA secretly executed up to 40 Cork Protestants in 1922, prompting a sectarian exodus from the city. … Read more
Sir, —In his response (HI 12.3, Autumn 2004) to my review of his Harry Boland’s Irish Revolution (HI 12.2, Summer 2004), David Fitzpatrick states that he ‘could not afford the academic luxury of anodyne “impartiality” (as distinct from “multipartiality”)’, having made the tu quoque argument that ‘the reviewer who sets out to expose political prejudice … Read more