This volume is the definitive biography of Liam Mellows, one of the most radical and intellectually questioning members of the 1916-1922 Irish Republican leadership. It is a standard source for the years 1916-1922, a period when Ireland experienced revolutionary turmoil, partition and Civil War. This revised edition includes a new introduction by Ruan O’Donnell, as well as the preface by Gerry Adams from the 2004 edition.
As Adams comments, the book offers ‘an incisive insight into the important 1916-22 period when the island was partitioned [and] … into the social and class politics which underpinned the Republican split on the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty’.
Desmond Greaves (1913-1988) was one of Ireland’s leading historians, and was also author of biographies of James Connolly and Sean O’Casey, as well as other works.
Ruan O’Donnell is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Limerick and former Visiting Chair of Irish Studies at Notre Dame University.
Gerry Adams was President of Sinn Fein from 1983 to 2018. He has published many titles on the social history and culture of Belfast as well as a series of memoirs.
New Introduction by Ruan O’Donnell vii
Preface by Gerry Adams 1
Introduction by C. Desmond Greaves 7
- Family History and Childhood 30
- Another Robert Emmet 41
- Soldiers of Ireland 54
- Awakening the West 72
- The West’s Awake 85
- Transition in Ireland 102
- Land of the Free 118
- Resurgence 135
- The Irish Progressive League 149
- Dail Eireann 166
- De Valera in America 197
- Director of Purchases 220
- Negotiation at Gunpoint 250
- Metamorphosis 268
- The Long-lived Phoenix 284
- No King in Israel 302
- Last Hope of Freedom 324
- Easter Week in Reverse 341
- Republic without Government 354
- Minister for Defence 370
- Shot at Dawn 386
Index 394
‘a carefully written and superbly researched book, [which] has contributed greatly to clearing away the mists that cover so much of our history since’.
Irish Times
‘People of all opinions in the country, and political activists in particular, should read this book. It is, more than ever, necessary now’.
Dick Walsh
‘a book of mighty importance to all Irishmen, especially at this time’.
Proinsias MacAonghusa
‘It is not just a book to be read. It is to be used’.
Sean Redmond
‘A book of mighty importance to all Irishmen’
Proinsias MacAonghusa
‘It is not just a book to be read. It is to be used’
Sean Redmond
‘Thoroughly researched and well written’
Books Ireland
