By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr Following the Treaty debates, the most ‘republican’ members of the IRA, the Dáil and the public still refused to accept the Treaty or the authority of the newly established Provisional Government. Typical of the former was Rory O’Connor, IRA GHQ’s director of engineering during the War of Independence, when his … Read more
JOHN WILSON FOSTER and WILLIAM BEATTIE SMITH (eds) Belcouver Press £12.99 ISBN 9780993560729 Reviewed by Martin Mansergh Martin Mansergh is a former government adviser and peace negotiator. One pervasive myth about Northern Ireland across the divide is that the nationalist case is persuasively presented while the unionist case goes by default. While this flatters nationalists, … Read more
EAMON O’KANE Manchester University Press £80 ISBN 9780719090837 Reviewed by Cillian McGrattan Cillian McGrattan lectures in Politics at Ulster University. This valuable and timely book by the political historian Eamonn O’Kane circles around the incongruities, disconnections and unintended consequences that constituted the stuff of the Northern Irish peace process. Because these nuances are often arcane … Read more
JOSEPH E.A. CONNELL Jnr Eastwood Books €20 ISBN 9781913934200 Reviewed by Thomas Earls Fitzgerald Thomas Earls Fitzgerald is the author of Combatants and civilians in revolutionary Ireland, 1918–1923 (Routledge, 2021). In late October/early November 1920 the Kerry IRA orchestrated a county-wide series of attacks against the Royal Irish Constabulary. In response, the recently deployed Black … Read more
Michael SmithThe O’Brien Press€16.99ISBN 9781788492324 Reviewed by James Bartlett James Bartlett is a writer and journalist. A couple of years ago, horror mini-series The Terror shone a light on a Banbridge-born sailor who was reported to be the last man alive on the most infamous journey in Arctic history—the ‘lost’ 1845 expedition led by Sir … Read more