An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 39 Ground trutHS: BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE IRISH WAR OF INDEPENDENCE Author: W. H. Kautt publisher: Irish Academic Press (December, 2013) iSbn: 978-0-716532200 price: €22.50 PB / €58.50 HB pages: 268 1920S EUROPE: the war to end all wars was over, but Ireland with a divided population was still a place of running gun battles, death and massacres. In 1922, after the War for Independence ended, the British Army's 'Irish Command' drafted an official four-volume historical record of the war in Ireland, entitled 'The Record of the Rebellion in Ireland, 1919–1921.' It includes the testimony of the British Army Officers who led the fight against the Irish Republicans. It is considered as a perception of the British Military's leadership experiences and understanding of the war in Ireland, many of whom believed the war in Ireland was lost. These volumes were released to the United Kingdom National Archives in 2001 after a 100-year release clause. Keith Jeffrey, Queens University Belfast makes a great point in the book's foreword were he ponders had these documents been released earlier to the British Military in the 1960's how different their approach would have been to Northern Ireland. The book covers volume one of the collection, from the situation in Ireland 1919/1920, Policy and Leadership, Martial Law, Parliamentary Elections, the cessation of active operations, and 'the Treaty', as well as other key moments of the War of Independence, such as the arrest and deaths of many key personal on the Republican side, the hunger-strikes of 1920 and the murders of British Army officers that subsequently led to the Croke Park massacre on 21st November 1920. In this decade of centenaries, with so many publications coming out on Ireland's history we rarely look at or study the other side's views – the British. WF AboUT ThE AUThoR William h. Kautt is the author of The Anglo-Irish War: 1916-1921 (1999) and Ambushes and Armour: The Irish Rebellion 1919 - 1921 (2011). he served as an officer in the US Air Force and taught history at the USAF Academy. he is an Associate Professor of Military history at the US Army Command and General Staff College. he was elected a Fellow of the Royal historical Society in 2005. edited by: F.X. Martin, O.S.A., 1963 new introduction by: Dr Ruán O'Donnell & Dr Mícheál Ó hAodha original foreward by: Éamon De Valera, 1963, New Foreward by Éamon Ó Cuív, TD publisher: Merrion, reprint edition (Imprint of Irish Academic Press, August, 2013) pages: 304 iSbn: 978-1-908928-25-2 price: €22.45 ORIGINALLY EDITED BY F.X. Martin in 1963, this is the 50th anniversary edition of the classic work on the Irish Volunteers. The title is a rich compendium of original letters, reports, speeches, newspaper editorials, military and administrative instructions and members subscription lists that together create a unique historical record of the Irish Volunteer movement. Including contributions by Bulmer Hobson, Eoin MacNeill, Pádraig Pearse, Michael Davitt, The O'Rahilly, Éamonn Ceannt, and Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh. The Irish Volunteers were a 'broad church' encompassing members of the Gaelic League, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Sinn Féin, the IRB, Irish Citizen Army, Cumann na mBan and Fianna Éireann, all contributing to a unified and dynamic coalition. Something new and unprecedented occurred in Irish history – a movement which we are only now beginning to understand in terms of its great and distinctive legacy, a full century later. AboUT ThE AUThoR(S): f.X. (francis Xavier) Martin o.S.A. (1922-2000) was an Irish cleric and historian who came to wide public attention through his appearances on television and his role as a social activist in attempts to preserve aspects of medieval Dublin during the 1970s. He was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 1967. He died in Dublin in 2000 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. dr ruán o'donnell is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Limerick. He is an authority on the history of Irish republicanism and has published extensively on the United Irishmen and Irish Republican Army. His most recent book, Special Category: The IRA in English Prisons (IAP, 2012) is a bestseller. dr Mícheál Ó hAodha works at the University of Limerick where he is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of History. He has published books on various aspects of Irish migration and on the history of the Irish Diaspora. tHe iriSH VolunteerS 1913-1915: RECOLLECTIONS AND DOCUMENTS

• Cover