The Outrages 1920–1922


Book Description

'The Outrages' gives an account of the major incidents, now slipping from local memory, as the War of Independence escalated from attacks on RIC barracks into internecine atrocities. The many lives lost in each border county are chronicled with factual accounts of attacks and reprisals, the impact these events had in Westminster and how Churchill, Craig and Collins reacted. Included are the events leading to the creation of the Ulster Special Constabulary and an in-depth account of the shooting of Specials at Clones railway station, the slaughter of eight unionists in a single night in south Armagh, the cover-up after Specials left three innocent nationalists dead and two wounded in Cushendall, and the litany of reprisal killings from Camlough to Desertmartin. Details of attacks on the Great Northern Railway and other networks, not previously published, provide a unique insight into the problems faced by railwaymen and by the government. A must read for anyone interested in this period of Irish history and a treasury for genealogists.




The Black and Tans


Book Description

The Black and Tans and Auxiliaries are the most notorious police forces in the history of the British Isles, and were the focus of bitter controversy. Based on extensive archival research, this is the first serious study of the forces and the part they played in the Irish War of Independence.




From Pogrom to Civil War: Tom Glennon and the Belfast IRA


Book Description

When the attacks against Catholics known as the Belfast pogrom erupted in July 1920, Tom Glennon was a 20-year old officer in the IRA. The next three years took him from brutal street fighting in Belfast to organising a flying column in the Glens of Antrim, to a daring escape from captivity in the Curragh and then the viciousness of civil war in Donegal. Scarred by his experiences, he sought to create a new life in Australia, only to find further tragedy awaiting him. His silence about his past was so complete that almost eighty years passed before his son learned the truth about his own mother's death. Now, using contemporary documents and the accounts of comrades and enemies, his grandson not only tells the story of Tom Glennon's life, but also re-examines the mythology of the pogrom and questions Michael Collins' northern policy, asking: were the northern IRA the victims of a monstrous betrayal?




Facts and Figures of the Belfast Pogrom, 1920-22


Book Description

G.B. Kenna was the pseudonym of Fr John Hassan and Facts and Figures of the Belfast Pogrom 1920-1922 was his compilation of reports to the Provisional Irish government in Dublin on sectarian violence in Belfast during the Irish War of Independence, Truce period and the start of the Civil War. Originally published by O'Connell Publishers in 1922, only 18 copies were bound and distributed with the remainder seemingly withdrawn on the direction of Michael Collins just prior to Collins' death. This reprint reproduces the text as it appeared in the original. While the record of fatalities appears incomplete, the book provides a contemporary insight into the violence experienced in Belfast at the time.




Political Conflict in East Ulster, 1920-22


Book Description

Reassesses the context in which the state of Northern Ireland was created.




The World of Constable John Hennigan, Royal Irish Constabulary 1912 - 1922


Book Description

In 1912 the average Irish Constable was a generally useful member of society, filling in numerous forms in the role of minor bureaucrat, and pursuing petty criminals. He had little to do with firearms.




Birth of the Border


Book Description

The 1921 partition of Ireland had huge ramifications for almost all aspects of Irish life and was directly responsible for hundreds of deaths and injuries, with thousands displaced from their homes and many more forced from their jobs. Two new justice systems were created; the effects on the major religions were profound, with both jurisdictions adopting wholly different approaches; and major disruptions were caused in crossing the border, with invasive checks and stops becoming the norm. And yet, many bodies remained administered on an all-Ireland basis. The major religions remained all-Ireland bodies. Most trade unions maintained a 32-county presence, as did most sports, trade bodies, charities and other voluntary groups. Politically, however, the new jurisdictions moved further and further apart, while socially and culturally there were differences as well as links between north and south that remain to this day. Very little has been written on the actual effects of partition, the-day-to-day implications, and the complex ways that society, north and south, was truly and meaningfully affected. Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland is the most comprehensive account to date on the far-reaching effects of the partitioning of Ireland.




County Louth and the Irish Revolution


Book Description

County Louth and the Irish Revolution, 1912–1923 explores the local activism of the IRA and how revolution was experienced by rural and urban labourers, RIC men, republican women, cultural activists, and Big House families. Events were increasingly shaped for all these groups by the developing reality of partition, transforming a marginal county into a borderland and creating a zone of new violence and banditry. The expert contributors to the first-ever local history of the county during this period bring to light a wealth of fascinating stories that will appeal to the general public and historians alike. Critically, these stories reveal new findings about the early military skirmishes in County Louth by republican figures such as Seán MacEntee and Frank Aiken; the controversial sectarian massacre at Altnaveigh; and how the Civil War made a fiery battlefield of Dundalk and Drogheda. County Louth and the Irish Revolution, 1912–1923 documents the complexity of the local experience as the national revolution merged with long-established antagonisms and traditions, the effects of which have shaped the county ever since.




A Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume II


Book Description

The second volume of the definitive political history of Northern Ireland. This landmark synthesis of political science and historical institutionalism is a detailed study of antagonistic ethnic majoritarianism. Northern Ireland was coercively created through a contested partition in 1920. Subsequently Great Britain compelled Sinn F?in's leaders to rescind the declaration of an Irish Republic, remain within the British Empire, and grant the Belfast Parliament the right to secede. If it did so, a commission would consider modifying the new border. The outcome, however, was the formation of two insecure regimes, North and South, both of which experienced civil war, while the boundary commission was subverted. In the North a control system organized the new majority behind a dominant party that won all elections to the Belfast parliament until its abolition in 1972. The Ulster Unionist Party successfully disorganized Northern nationalists and Catholics. Bolstered by the 'Specials,' a militia created from the Ulster Volunteer Force, this system displayed a pathological version of the Westminster model of democracy, which may reproduce one-party dominance, and enforce national, ethnic, religious, and cultural discrimination. How the Unionist elite improvised this control regime, and why it collapsed under the impact of a civil rights movement in the 1960s, take center-stage in this second volume of A Treatise on Northern Ireland. The North's trajectory is paired and compared with the Irish Free State's incremental decolonization and restoration of a Republic. Irish state-building, however, took place at the expense of the limited prospect of persuading Ulster Protestants that Irish reunification was in their interests, or consistent with their identities. Northern Ireland was placed under British direct rule in 1972 while counter-insurgency practices applied elsewhere in its diminishing empire were deployed from 1969 with disastrous consequences. On January 1 1973, however, the UK and Ireland joined the then European Economic Community. Many hoped that would help end conflict in and over Northern Ireland. Such hopes were premature. Northern Ireland appeared locked in a stalemate of political violence punctuated by failed political initiatives.




Journals of the House of Lords


Book Description