The Clones affray, 1922 – massacre or invasion?

On Saturday 11 February 1922 a gun battle at a County Monaghan railway station resulted in the deaths of four Ulster Special Constables, the local IRA commandant and the wounding of numerous other combatants and civilians. What really happened? Robert Lynch investigates. The events at Clones were inevitably interpreted in radically different ways by both … Read more

Harry Boland’s Irish revolution

David Fitzpatrick (Cork University Press, 335) ISBN 1859182224   In writing this biography at the request of Harry’s nephew and namesake Annraoi Ó Beolláin, David Fitzpatrick declared his objective to be ‘a balanced and impartial account of an outstanding life’. With unlimited access to the family archive, it undoubtedly presents an unprecedented wealth of detail. … Read more

The other women of 1916

In October 1914, two months after the outbreak of the Great War, the civilian voluntary effort to support Irish troops at home and at the front was coordinated for the provinces of Leinster, Munster and Connacht by a joint executive committee of people from the British Red Cross Society (Co. Dublin branch) and the Irish … Read more

Paddy Butner: the boy in the GPO, 1916

‘Many people have claimed to be him. His real name was Paddy Butner. He was 9 years old’ (Desmond Ryan). Sir, —I am compiling information in order to write a short articleconcerning Paddy Butner. In 1929 Col. Charles Dalton, in his book Withthe Dublin Brigade, gave the credit for driving the stolen armoured carunder the … Read more

What happened afterwards?

Sir, —I read with interest about those who engineered or took part inthe Easter Rising of 1916 (HI 14.2, March/April 2006) but I would liketo know about the thousands of ordinary people who were affected indifferent ways by the fighting on their doorsteps, the bombing andburning and the loss of livelihood. My great-grandparents had a … Read more