Centenary Classics – serie

The Centenary Classics series examines the fascinating time of change and evolution in the Ireland of 100 years ago during the 1916-23 revolutionary period. Each volume is introduced by Fearghal McGarry who sets the scene of this important period in Ireland's history. Free State or Republic? provides eye-witness accounts by two reporters from the Irish Independent newspaper of the historic Treaty debates of Dail Eireann, held in University College Dublin's Earlsfort Terrace building in December 1921 and January 1922. Eamon de Valera, Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith and a host of other participants come to life. The colourful descriptions of the scene and of the reactions to speeches, written while the debates were in progress, are far more revealing than the published record of the debates. This book was originally published in 1922 and the introduction by Patrick Murray constructs a modern analysis of these lively debates.

The Centenary Classics series examines the fascinating time of change and evolution in the Ireland of 100 years ago during the 1916-23 revolutionary period. Each volume is introduced by Fearghal McGarry who sets the scene of this important period in Ireland's history. Rising Out tells the story of Brigadier Sean Connolly, O/C of the Longford Brigade, who was fatally wounded in action on 11 March 1921 at Selton Hill, near Mohill (Co. Leitrim), by British forces during the War of Independence. Comdt-General Ernie O'Malley came across the story in interviews with Tan and Civil War survivors in the early 1950s. The account makes Connolly come alive as a person - his schooling, love of music, education, farming family background and devotion to the nationalist cause. O'Malley, who had actually organised the Irish Volunteers in parts of the area and had known many of the local leaders, gives the social setting for the IRA activities and explains the subtle roles of the IRA General HQ, of the Catholic Church and the Anglo-Irish gentry. Most memorably, he describes in detail what the fighting men actually did locally and what a local leader had to do in order to organise his men.The introduction by his son, Cormac K.H. O'Malley, explains how this memoir came into existence and describes his father's role during the revolutionary period.

The Centenary Classics series examines the fascinating time of change and evolution in the Ireland of 100 years ago during the 1916-23 revolutionary period. Each volume is introduced by Fearghal McGarry who sets the scene of this important period in Ireland's history. Victory and Woe is an account of life at the grassroots during the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War by the Officer Commanding, 2nd Battalion, West Limerick Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. Mossie Harnett (1893-1977), who fought on the Anti-Treaty side in the Civil War, describes his early life on a farm in Tournafulla in the southwest corner of Limerick, his enrolment in the Irish Volunteers in 1915, and his involvement in the conflict until his release from a Free State prison in 1923. In an appendix, the British troops' little-known and short-lived practice of taking hostages in order to protect themselves is vividly described by Mossie's cousin, Dr Edward Harnett, who was taken hostage in spring 1921. An introduction by Harnett's son-in-law, James H. Joy, places his father-in-law's text in the context of the revolutionary period.

The Centenary Classics series examines the fascinating time of change and evolution in the Ireland of 100 years ago during the 1916-23 revolutionary period. Each volume is introduced by Fearghal McGarry who sets the scene of this important period in Ireland's history. The Victory of Sinn Fein, originally published in 1924, is an eyewitness account of events in Ireland from the Easter Rising of 1913 until 1923. It is written from a now almost forgotten viewpoint - that of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. O'Hegarty's heroes were Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins and he took the Pro-Treaty side in 1921, strongly opposing those who assumed a continuing mandate for force after ratification of the Treaty. The book contains vivid character sketches of Griffith, Collins and de Valera, and as Tom Garvin writes in his introduction 'it is...written with enormous passion, verve and energy; it reads like a thriller.'