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Book Review: Ireland’s Special Branch: The Inside Story of their Battle with the IRA, 1922-1947 – The Irish Story
By Gerard LovettPublished by Eastwood Books (2022)ISBN: 978-1-913934-29-3Reviewer: Daniel MurrayBook Review:Ireland’s Special Branch: The Inside Story of their Battle with the IRA, 1922-1947, by Gerard Lovett (2022)Anyone believing the Civil War was over in Ireland by 1926 might have reconsidered th
TV documentary reviews: The Irish Civil War and Marú in Íarthar Chorcaí – The Irish Story
The Irish Civil WarDirected by Ruan ManganReviewer: Thomas TormeyAiring on RTÉ One over the nights of 11,12,13 December and now available on the RTÉ Player,The Irish Civil Wardocumentary series represents the national broadcaster’s latest contribution to the Decade of Centenaries. As such it follows
‘One Irregular was killed’: The death of John Lawlor of Ballyheigue, Co. Kerry, 31 October 1922. – The Irish Story
An IRA flying column, at Kilflynn Kerry in 1922. (Courtesy of the Irish Volunteer website)By Bryan MacMahonBallyheigue, Co. Kerry, has received very little attention from national or even local historians of the revolutionary years of 1916 to 1923. But significant events took place there and in the
When Donegal had trains! – The Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company – The Irish Story
The Lough Swilly railwayBy John Joe McGinleyThe first railway in Ireland was planned in 1826 as a link between Limerick and Waterford.However, planning was delayed and a railway line in Ireland would have to wait until 1834. This was the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR) between Westland Row in Du
‘He Died as a Prince’: Erskine Childers: Executed November 1922 – The Irish Story
Erskine Childers.By John DorneyErskine Childers was executed by the Irish Free State, 100 years ago this November, in Dublin’s Beggar’s Bush Barracks. An urbane intellectual but also military man and skilled propagandist, his life’s journey defies easy explanations.He journeyed from a Protestant uni
Executions during the Irish Civil War – The Irish Story
A commemorative plaque, Kilmainham Gaol to the first execution of the Irish Civil War. (Courtesy of Kilmainham Tales).By John DorneyOn the morning of November 17 1922, the mother of John Gaffney, an anti-Treaty IRA member and 21 year old electrician at Dublin Corporation, was preparing a food parcel
Book Review: Republicanism, Crime and paramilitary policing in Ireland 1916-2020 – The Irish Story
By Brian HanleyPublished by Cork University Press, Cork, 2022ISBN:9781782055471Reviewer: John DorneyThis book is the first in a new series launched by Cork University Press on ‘studies in Irish crime history’. They have enlisted historian Brian Hanley for the first volume, which deals with the invol
The Ancient Guild of Incorporated Brick and Stone Layers: from medieval times to Irish independence – The Irish Story
Bricklayer Hall on Dublin’s Cuffe Street. Courtesy ofArchiseek.By John DorneyOne of the oldest, if not the oldest trade unions in Ireland is the bricklayers’ trade union the Ancient Guild of Incorporated Brick and Stone Layers, which dates back to 1670.The story of the union is an interesting one an
Wikipedia, the Black and Tans, and the ‘R.I.C. Special Reserve’ – The Irish Story
Chief Secretary for Ireland reviews RIC ‘Black and Tan’ recruits.By David LeesonWho were the Black and Tans?According to Wikipedia: ‘TheBlack and Tans(Irish:Dúchrónaigh) were constables recruited into theRoyal Irish Constabulary(R.I.C.) as reinforcements during theIrish War of Independence. Recruitm
Podcast: Talk on the Dail Courts – The Irish Story
A Dail Court in Skerries, Co Dublin.Talk originally given online by John Dorney for South Dublin County Library on November 4 2021. Followd by Question and Answer SessionSee also article:The Rise and Fall of the Dail Courts 1919-1922If you enjoy the Irish Story and wish to support our work, please c
Podcast: Commemorating the Irish Civil War 100 Years on – The Irish Story
With John Dorney and Cathal Brennan, in association with theIrish History Show.We discuss:How the Irish Civil War is being commemorated (or not) 100 years on.How the conflict is interpreted today – democrats vs dictators or the unfinished revolution?The enduring mythology surround Michael CollinsTh
Review: Burning the Big House, the Story of the Irish Country house in Time of War and Revolution – The Irish Story
By Terence DooleyPublished by Yale University Press, New Haven 2022Reviewer: John DorneyTerence Dooley has devoted much of his historical career to the study of the ‘Big House’ or country mansion and associated aristocracy in Ireland. His seminal ‘The decline of the Big House in Ireland’ (2001) open
The Media War: Robert Erskine Childers in West Cork – The Irish Story
Erskine Childers in Volunteer uniform in 1913.By Anthony BarrettAn important aspect of the Irish Civil War was the use of propaganda in the media by both sides to win over public support, the key to success in this conflict. While the Provisional Government’s army was resourced from Britain, their o
The Cork Landings – August 8-10, 1922 – The Irish Story
A Peerless armoured car in Cork, 1922.On August 8 1922, pro-Treaty forces landed by sea in Cork, seizing the Free State’s second city from anti-Treaty forces. By John DorneyAt Passage West, a ferry port and fishing village on the estuary of the river Lee, early on the morning on August 8 1922, a ste
Betrayal or breakthrough? Arthur Griffith, the Boundary Commission and an unsigned memorandum – The Irish Story
Arthur Griffith addresses a crowd.By Colum KennyABSTRACT:The interpretation of certain events in London on the weekend of 12–13 November 1921 is central to any understanding of the negotiations that resulted the following month in an agreement for a treaty leading to the foundation of the Irish Free
A CHALLENGE: Rewriting Arthur Griffith’s role in the Treaty negotiations – The Irish Story
Arthur Griffith.For nearly ninety years, Frank Pakenham’s 1935 account of the Anglo-Irish Treaty talks in London (Peace by Ordeal) has dominated the narrative of what happened in 1921 and subsequently. It is challenged robustly and at length here by Prof. Colum Kenny, a recent biographer of Arthur G
Professor Arthur Kingsley Porter The ‘Indiana Jones’ of Glenveagh Castle – The Irish Story
Arthur Kingsley PorterBy John Joe McGinleyThis is the story of a Yale educated Professor of art, Arthur Kingsley Porter an archaeologist, art historian, and medievalist who has been called a ‘real-life Indiana Jones’. He once owned Glenveagh Castle in County Donegal and is as famous for his mysterio
An Ongoing Injustice: State Responses to ‘Historical’ Abuses in Ireland – The Irish Story
By Maeve O’RourkeThis is an adapted extract from an essay by Maeve O’Rourke in the recently published bookREDRESS: Ireland’s Institutions and Transitional Justice(UCD Press 2022), edited by Katherine O’Donnell, Maeve O’Rourke and James M Smith.In her essay entitled ‘State Responses to Historical Abu
‘Defacing our Deliverer’, The history of the William of Orange statue in Dublin – The Irish Story
The statue of William of Orange on College Green.By John DorneyCollege Green in Dublin city centre was once the centre of the Protestant Kingdom of Ireland. On one side stood the Parliament building, constructed in the 1730s (now the Bank of Ireland) and at the head of the street, Trinity College, t
A State of Denial: Irish state response to the Magdalene Laundries – The Irish Story
Inside the Bessborough mother and Baby Home, Cork.By Maeve O’RourkeTo this day, the Irish state refuses to accept that it is responsible for constitutional or other human rights violations in Magdalene Laundries, despite the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) issuing an official apology to survivors i
The River Lee and the Republican Armoured Cars of the Irish Civil War – The Irish Story
A Peerless armoured car in Cork, 1922.By Anthony BarrettWhen the artillery of the Provincial Government’s National Army opened fire on the Four Courts on the morning of the 28thof June 1922, their anti-Treaty IRA opponents were ill-prepared for a lengthy conventional war. Chief-of-Staff Liam Lynch a
Violence against Women in Belfast, 1920-22 – Part 2 – The Irish Story
Belfast refugees in Dublin 1922Kieran GlennonPart 1 of this articleexamined the first two of the forms of violence against women in the revolutionary period outlined by Marie Coleman: “The violence against women in Ireland during the years 1919 to 1921 can be categorised as physical, psychological,
Violence against women in Belfast, 1920-22 – part 1: Killing and lethal violence – The Irish Story
Women and children refugees from Belfast, in Dublin, May 1922By Kieran GlennonBetween July 1920 and October 1922, at least499 people lost their lives in the city of Belfast due to political violencein the period known to nationalist memory as the ‘Belfast Pogrom’. Of these, seventy five were women o
The Irish Civil War – A short military history – The Irish Story
Fighting on O’Connell Street at the start of the Civil War.By John Dorney(See also theIrish Civil War a Brief overview)The Irish Civil War, the conflict between rival nationalist factions over whether to accept the Anglo Irish Treaty, brewed for six months after the Dailvoted for its acceptanceon Ja
Bill Dwyer -The King Of The Rum Runners – The Irish Story
‘Big Bill’ Dwyer.By John Joe McGinleyBill Dwyer was one of a number of Irish American figures to rise to prominence through organised crime in the 1920s and 30s.Unlike many others who ended their careers with violent death or imprisonment, Dwyer reinvented himself as legitimate businessman and owner
Podcast: Ireland and Ukraine with Nadia Dobrianska – The Irish Story
A stamp of the short lived Ukrainian People’s Republic from 1919, depicting Cossacks in the Great Rebellion of the 1650s.Interview by John Dorney with Ukrainian scholar Nadia Dobrianska on the history of Ukraine and its parallels with Ireland.In the wake of the February 24, 2022 Russian invasion of
Owney ‘the killer’ Madden – Irish bootlegger who became the hotelier for the mob. – The Irish Story
Owen ‘the killer’ Madden, as a young man.By John Joe McGinleyOwen Vincent Madden, who would later be known as Owney ‘The Killer’ Madden, was either the deadly enemy or close friend of anyone who was anyone in the 1920s and 30s New York criminal underworld.Despite his nickname, he would not meet an u
‘Riot of Plunder’: Rural revolt in May 1922 – The Irish Story
Fighting at Kilkenny Castle in May 1922.By Terry DunneIn his 1923 memoir Lord Castletown gave us a standard conservative account of the spring of 1922 – “a very unsettled one in weather and life conditions”.[1]Castletown, the heir of the old Gaelic dynasty the Mac Giolla Phádraigs, complained of “ch
The last commandant-general of 1916? Sean McLoughlin’s Easter Rising – The Irish Story
Seán McLoughlinBy John GibneyWas Sean McLoughlin the most senior surviving commandant of the Easter Rising?Given that independent Ireland was governed for the first decades of its existence by veterans of the revolution, for whom service in 1916 was often the foundational event of their careers, the
Book Review: Kilmichael: the life and afterlife of an ambush – The Irish Story
By Eve Morrison,Published by: Irish Academic Press, 2022ISBN: 9781788551458Reviewer: Jack HepworthCommemorating thewest Cork IRA ambush of 28 November 1920, John F. Hourihane’s famous ballad implored republicans to ‘forget not the boys of Kilmichael, who feared not the might of the foe’. Hourihane c
The Man Who Saved Howth – sea mine defused in 1946 – The Irish Story
By Terence O’ReillyIn the cold pre-dawn hours of the 12th March 1946, the village of Dalkey was suddenly rocked by a massive explosion on its seafront. The sky was lit by a brilliant blue flash visible from Drumcondra and the thunderous blast was heard in Clontarf. Hundreds of windows were shattered
Book Review: Spiritual Wounds, Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War – The Irish Story
By Siobhra Aiken,Published by Irish Academic Press, 2022Reviewer John DorneyISBN:9781788551663The Irish Civil War (1922-23) which formed the final phase of the Irish revolutionary period, it is commonly said, provoked enduring silence among those involved in the decades afterwards. Eoin Neeson, who
Why was there a Civil War in Ireland? – The Irish Story
Pro-Treaty troops escort a wounded fighter in Dublin during the Civil War.By John DorneyWhy was there aCivil War in Irelandin 1922-23? Why did those who had been comrades in pursuit of Irish independence over the previous four years begin killing each other over the Anglo-Irish Treaty?The short answ
Belfast Republicans and the Treaty Split of 1922 – Part 2 – The Irish Story
Belfast 1922 – Arson attacks by the IRABy Kieran GlennonPart one of this article (seehere) analysed the initial reaction of the Belfast IRA to the Treaty –just like other IRA units around Ireland, they split on the issue and while the majority remained loyal to the pro-Treaty leadership in IRA Gener