'It was the most providential escape yet. It will probably have the effect of making them think that I am even more mysterious than they believe me to be, and that is saying a good deal.'Michael Collins knew the power of his persona, and capitalised on what people wanted to believe. The image we have of him comes filtered through a sensational lens, exaggerated out of all proportion. We see what we have come to expect: 'the man who won the war', the centre of a web of inte...

This collection documents one man's attitude to war and his difficult acceptance of peace, his experience of capture, imprisonment, hunger strike and finally release. In these letters, however, 'No Surrender Here!' also captures the voices of both the leadership and the rank and file: the detached and often inappropriate orders from above, and the confusion of men who, in some cases without boots on their feet, know that theirs is a hopeless cause. Letters to friends and family also reveal...

This collection documents one man's attitude to war and his difficult acceptance of peace, his experience of capture, imprisonment, hunger strike and finally release. In these letters, however, 'No Surrender Here!' also captures the voices of both the leadership and the rank and file: the detached and often inappropriate orders from above, and the confusion of men who, in some cases without boots on their feet, know that theirs is a hopeless cause. Letters to friends and family also reveal...

Collins's diaries are not the diaries many people might be expecting. Published here for the very first time, they are pocket appointment bookscum- to-do lists, the working diaries of someone in the midst of the extraordinary times he was central to, but also the diaries of an everyday life, with dental appointments to endure and football matches to enjoy. In short accessible illustrated chapters the life of one of the great leaders of Ireland is revealed. Michael Collins (1890-1922), was ...

The practice of terror in revolutionary Ireland remains a highly controversial topic, which seldom receives either balanced or dispassionate treatment. This collection of essays is designed to illuminate the varied origins, forms and consequences of terror, whether practised by republicans or forces of the Crown. It is the fifth production of the Trinity History Workshop, an informal group of academic historians, research students, and undergraduates associated with Trinity College, Dublin...

Michael Hopkinson's Green Against Green is the definitive study of the Irish civil war, putting in perspective a bitter and passionate conflict, the legacy of which still divides Irish society today. Widely praised and frequently cited as the most authoritative work on the subject, it continues to hold its place as one of the finest works on modern Irish history. Unlike the Easter Rising and the War of Independence, the Irish Civil War has been largely overlooked by historians, put off by ...

Within months of first publication, Michael Hopkinson's study of the Irish War of Independence established itself as by far most comprehensive and evocative account of the role played by the conflict in shaping modern Ireland. It has been welcomed both by scholars and the general public alike, and gone further than perhaps any other recent publication in recasting our understanding of Ireland's decisive confrontation with the military might of the British Empire.

The deaths in and around Dunmanway in 1922 have always been shrouded in rumour and supposition. This book seeks to get to the bottom of them. One thing is certain: Captain Herbert Woods shot Commandant Michael O'Neill of the IRA on the stairs of Ballygroman House at 2.30a.m. on the 26th April and killed him. Who was Herbert Woods and why did shoot an unarmed man? Who was Michael O'Neill and what was he doing inside the house at that hour of the morning? What connection had this event to th...

Before Easter 1916 Dublin had been a city much like any other British city, comparable to Bristol or Liverpool and part of a complex, deep-rooted British world. Many of Dublin's inhabitants wanted to weaken or terminate London's rule but there remained a vast and conflicting range of visions of that future: far more immediate was the unfolding disaster of the First World War that had put 'home rule' issues on ice for the duration. The devastating events of that Easter changed everything. B...

Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera were the two most charismatic leaders of the Irish revolution. This joint biography looks first at their very different upbringings and early careers. Both fought in the 1916 Easter Rising , although it is almost certain they did not meet during that tumultuous week. Their first encounter came when Collins had been released from jail after the rising but de Valera was still inside. Collins was one of those who wanted to run a Sinn Féin candidate in the L...

When President of the Irish Republic Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, he remarked to Lord Birkenhead, 'I may have signed my actual death warrant.'In August 1922 during the Irish Civil War, that prophecy came true – Collins was shot and killed by a fellow Irishman in a shocking political assassination.So ended the life of the greatest of all Irish nationalists, but his visions and legacy lived on.This authorative and comprehensive biogr...

A gripping narrative of the most critical years in modern Ireland's history, from Charles TownshendThe protracted, terrible fight for independence pitted the Irish against the British and the Irish against other Irish. It was both a physical battle of shocking violence against a regime increasingly seen as alien and unacceptable and an intellectual battle for a new sort of country. The damage done, the betrayals and grim compromises put the new nation into a state ...