For the first time in published form 'The Men Will Talk to Me: Galway Interviews' chronicles the experiences of the Galway-based survivors of the War of Independence and the Civil War, recorded in the hand-written notebooks of Ernie O'Malley. Many of the individuals would not talk about their experiences, even to their own families, but were willing to talk to Commandant General O'Malley, the senior surviving Republican military commander, who took on the task of preserving the memories of these participants. The resulting O'Malley notebooks provide an unrivaled insight into this important period of Irish history, including the attack on Clifden and life 'on the run' for the Galway IRA volunteers.

For the first time in published form 'The Men Will Talk to Me: Galway Interviews' chronicles the experiences of the Galway-based survivors of the War of Independence and the Civil War, recorded in the hand-written notebooks of Ernie O'Malley. Many of the individuals would not talk about their experiences, even to their own families, but were willing to talk to Commandant General O'Malley, the senior surviving Republican military commander, who took on the task of preserving the memories of these participants. The resulting O'Malley notebooks provide an unrivaled insight into this important period of Irish history, including the attack on Clifden and life 'on the run' for the Galway IRA volunteers.

For the first time in published form 'The Men Will Talk to Me: Galway Interviews' chronicles the experiences of the Galway-based survivors of the War of Independence and the Civil War, recorded in the hand-written notebooks of Ernie O'Malley. Many of the individuals would not talk about their experiences, even to their own families, but were willing to talk to Commandant General O'Malley, the senior surviving Republican military commander, who took on the task of preserving the memories of these participants. The resulting O'Malley notebooks provide an unrivaled insight into this important period of Irish history, including the attack on Clifden and life 'on the run' for the Galway IRA volunteers.

In the 1940s and 1950s Ernie O'Malley travelled around Ireland interviewing survivors of Ireland's struggle for Independence. These interviews, now being made available to the public for the first, time give a fascinating insight into the times and the people who fought. Many of those who were interviewed were unwilling to talk – even to their own families – about their experience, but because O'Malley was such a well-respected figure they consented to be interviewed by him. This book includes accounts of activities in many parts of Mayo and neighbouring parts of Roscommon and Sligo and most of those interviewed also fought against the Free State in the civil war. The key events described took place in the early months of 1921 in places such as Kilmeena, Tourmakeady and Carrowkennedy.

In the 1940s and 1950s Ernie O'Malley interviewed survivors of Ireland's struggle for independence. These interviews, now being made available to the public for the first time, give a fascinating insight into the times and the people who fought. The West Cork interviews detail IRA intervention in Ulster, as well as giving prominence to the Cork No. 5 Brigade. Of eight interview subjects, five participated in the IRA's invasion of Northern Ireland. The interviewees talk about the Republican rifle exchange with the National Army which occurred secretly in May 1922, as Free State rifles supplied by Britain were swapped with IRA rifles, which were then sent to arm the IRA in Ulster. They also document the gruesome torture of Brigade Commander Ted O'Sullivan.

In 1922, following a decade of political ferment and much bloodshed, the Irish Free State was established, became stabilised, and developed along conservative lines. During these years the prevailing impulse was to reprove the actions of republicans who had rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and many significant revolutionary voices were left unheeded. One mind, more agile than most of his contemporaries, belonged to Ernie O’Malley. It was through his vastly popular ‘clipped lyric’ memoirs, especially On Another Man’s Wound in 1936, that many of the complexities of the republican mindset were brought to light for readers worldwide. In Modern Ireland and Revolution, leading Irish and American historians and academics deliver critical essays that consider the life, writings and monumental influence of Ernie O’Malley, and the modern arts that influenced him. After his involvement in the War of Independence and the Civil War, O’Malley developed a modernist approach while living abroad for ten years; he was devoted to the arts, moved in circles that included Georgia O’Keeffe and Paul Strand, and through his probing mind counteracted any notion that republicans of his era were dull, inflexible idealists. In this fascinating collection, art and revolution coincide, enriching every preconception of the minds that supported both sides of the Treaty, and revealing untoward truths about the Irish Free State’s process of remembrance.

Arming the Irish Revolution is an in-depth investigation of the successes and failures of the militant Irish republican efforts to arm themselves. W. H. Kautt’s comprehensive account of Irish Republican Army (IRA) arms acquisition begins with its predecessors—the Irish Volunteers and the National Volunteers—and, counterintuitively, with their rivals, the pro-union Ulster Volunteer Force. After the 1916 Rising, Kautt details the functioning of the Quartermaster General Department of the Irish Volunteer General Headquarters in Dublin and basic arms acquisition in the early days of 1918 to 1919. He then closely examines rebel efforts at weapons and ammunition manufacturing and bombmaking and reveals that the ingenuity and resources poured into manufacturing were never able to become a primary source of weapons and ammunition. As the conflict grew in intensity and expanded, the rebels encountered increasing difficulty in obtaining and maintaining supplies of weapons and ammunition since modern weapons in a protracted conflict used more ammunition than previous generations of weapons and their complexity meant that the weapons could not be clandestinely produced within Ireland. Thus, as the rebels conducted campaigns that became difficult to combat, their greatest limiting factor was that most of their weapons and ammunition had to be imported. Arming the Irish Revolution is the first work of research and analysis to explore in detail the Irish work inside Britain to establish arms centers and to conduct arms operations and trafficking. It also examines the full extent of the overseas or foreign arms trade and the arms operations of the War of Independence, including the continuance into the truce and treaty eras and up to the outbreak of the Civil War (1922–1923)—all of which reveals how the rebel leaders ran complex, maturing, and capable smuggling and manufacturing enterprises worldwide under the noses of the police, customs, intelligence, and the military for years without getting caught. Quite apart from the battlefield these groups and their activities led to political consequences, playing no small part in producing what were real concessions from Lloyd George’s government. In the last chapter Kautt offers observations and conclusions about overall successes and failures that establishes Arming the Irish Revolution as a landmark study of insurgent or revolutionary arms acquisition in both Irish and military history.