Come Here To Me!

The historiography of any period is never complete. For young historians, the period known commonly as the ‘Irish revolutionary period’ can appear one with little room for new writers, with so much written on the pivotal events and personas.

Thankfully, recent years have seen historians engage with the ‘Irish revolution’ in new and exciting ways, moving beyond the macro and looking at individual events and themes in greater detail. A particular effort of note would be Mercier’s top class ‘Military History of the Irish Civil War’ series, but in the field of biography O’Brien’s new ‘Sixteen Lives’ series will see first biographies of some of the executed leaders of 1916 published. New Island books have launched ‘1916 In Focus’, with Paul O’Brien’s study of the Four Courts garrison during Easter Week the first work in the series.

O’Brien’s last effort, ‘Uncommon Valour’, which looked at the South Dublin Union, was reviewed here on the blog in February 2010. Looking at key battles and events in Easter 1916, O’Brien has managed to turn events that take up a few paragraphs in broad-histories into full works, which gives you an in-depth look at some characters who somehow often manage to escape from the narrative of other works.

The Four Courts is more so associated with the Civil War in the popular memory of Dubliners, but some of the bloodiest events of the Rising occurred in the area around the courts. The area which saw heavy fighting during the Rising between the 1st Battalion of the Irish Volunteers and British Military Forces was an area home to some of the poorest Dubliners in tenement dwellings, not far for example from the buildings which had collapsed on Church Street in 1913, killing seven. Edward Daly commanded the forces which occupied the Four Courts and surrounding areas. He would later be executed for his role in the week.

(more…)

Read Full Post »