Detailed Information
Ireland at War 1913-1924
Ireland at War explores political violence, militarism, paramilitarism, rebellion and war in Ireland from 1913 to 1924. The course identifies and discusses the main events of the period, including the foundation of the Ulster and Irish Volunteers, the Great War, Easter Rising, War of Independence, civil war and Army Mutiny. One over-arching question is how and why the newly established Irish state survived when so many other new European states set up in the wake of the Great War did not.
The courses focusses in particular on the organisation, development, personnel, tactics, strategy, and activities of the various British, Irish (including Northern Irish) armed forces - military, paramilitary and police – involved the fighting. These organisations include the Ulster and Irish Volunteers, Irish Republican Army, Cumann na mBan, Fianna Eireann, British Army, Royal Irish and Ulster constabularies, Black &Tans, Auxiliaries, ‘B’ Specials, Ulster Imperial Guards and the Irish Army. It also examines the experience, attitudes and memories of the combatants on all sides, and considers the various debates and historiographical approaches relevant to the study of political violence and war, war memory and commemoration.
The weekly lecture addresses wider themes, major historical and historiographical issues, and introduces participants to selected British and Irish contemporary documents, newspapers, memoirs and personal testimonies. The second half of each session is devoted to debate and discussion, covering various relevant political, ethical, historical and ideological issues. Participants are encouraged take an active part.
political violence, war, paramilitarism, Irish independence struggle, civil war, Irish Volunteers, Irish Republican Army, Great War, Easter Rising
Dr Eve Morrison read history at Trinity College, Dublin, receiving her BA in 2003. She continued her studies in modern Irish History as an Irish Research Council of the Humanities and Social Sciences (now IRC) postgraduate scholar at TCD and was awarded her PhD in 2011. Legacy interviews with veterans of the Irish independence struggle and civil war are her area of expertise. The Bureau of Military History (BMH) was the subject of her doctorate, and she held an IRC postdoctoral fellowship at University College, Dublin from 2013-2015, researching the Ernie O'Malley notebooks interviews. She is currently writing a book about the BMH for Liverpool University Press, and continuing to work on the O'Malley interviews.
Richard Abbott, Police casualties in Ireland, 1919-1922 (2000)
Timothy Bowman, Carson's Army: the Ulster Volunteer Force, 1910-22 (2007)
Michael Farrell, Arming the Protestants: the formation of the Ulster Special Constabulary, 1920-7 (1983)
Adrian Gregory and Senia Pašeta, Ireland and the Great War: ‘a war to unite us all’? (2002)
Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence (2002)
Michael Hopkinson, Green against green: the Irish Civil War (1988)
John Horne, Our war: Ireland and the Great War (2008)
David Leeson, The Black and Tans: British police and auxiliaries in the Irish War of Independence, 1920-1921 (2012)
Robert John Lynch, The Northern IRA and the early years of partition, 1920-1922 (2006)
Ian McBride, ed., History and memory in modern Ireland (2001)
Cal McCarthy, Cumann na mBan and the Irish Revolution (Cork, 2007)
Eunan O’Halpin, Defending Ireland: the Irish state and its enemies since 1922 (Oxford, 1999)
Charles Townshend, The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence, 1918-1923 (2013) Charles Townshend, Easter 1916: the Irish Rebellion (2005)