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The I.R.A. at war, 1916-1923

The I.R.A. at war, 1916-1923

Hart, Peter, 1963-2010

What kind of people joined the IRA? Did Michael Collins order the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson? Using new research and questioning old assumptions, these essays address these and other controversies to suggest new ways of looking at the history of the Irish Revolution of 1916-23. Between 1916 and 1923, Ireland experienced rebellion and mass mobilization, guerrilla and civil war, partition and ethnic conflict, and the transfer of power from British to Irish governments. The essays in The I.R.A. at War propose a new history of this Irish revolution: one that encompasses the whole of the island as well as Britain, all of the violence and its consequences, and the entire period from the Easter Rising to the end of the Civil War. When did the revolution start and when did it end? Why was it so violent and why were some areas so much worse than others? Why did the I.R.A. mount a terror campaign in England and Scotland but refuse to assassinate British politicians? Where did it get its guns? Was it democratic? What kind of people became guerrillas? What kind of people did they kill? Were Protestants ethnically cleansed from southern Ireland? Did a pogrom take place against Belfast Catholics? These and other questions are addressed using extensive new data on those involved and their actions, including the first complete figures for victims of the revolution. These events have never been numbered among the world's great revolutions, but in fact Irish republicans were global pioneers. Long before Mao or Tito, Sinn Fin and the Irish Republican Army were the first to use a popular political front to build a parallel underground state coupled with sophisticated guerrilla and international propaganda and fund-raising campaigns. Ireland's is also perhaps the best documented revolution in modern history, so that almost any question can be answered, from who joined the I.R.A. to who ordered the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson. The intimacy and precision with which we are able to reconstruct and analyse what happened make this a key site for understanding not just Irish, but world history

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Published Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005

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Statement of responsibility: Peter Hart
ISBN: 0191530948, 9780191530944
Note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note: Originally published: 2003.
Physical Description: xv, 274 p. : ill., maps
Subject: History; c 1900 to c 1909; Ireland History Civil War, 1922-1923.; Ireland; Politics and Government.; Ireland History 1910-1921.; Inter-war period c 1919 to c 1939; Terrorism, armed struggle; European history; Irish question.; Irish Republican Army History.; Ireland History Autonomy and independence movements.
Other formats: Also available in printed form ISBN 9780199277865