Ernie O'Malley was a medical student in Dublin when the 1916 Rising broke out. Although initially indifferent, he soon came to sympathise with the Republican viewpoint and joined the Irish Volunteers, later to become the IRA. He quickly rose through the ranks and was soon organising the IRA around the country, reporting directly to Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy. Cormac O'Malley is Ernie O'Malley's son. He works as an international lawyer and has been extensively involved in ensuring his father's writings are made accessible to all those interested in Irish history. Cormac Ó Comhraí is a Galway-based teacher and local historian. He has been involved in research on the War of Independence in the West of Ireland since he was in university and has contributed to several documentaries and publications dealing with this period.
Ernie O'Malley was born in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, in 1897 and was prominent in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. He was for a time editor of The Bell, and was a close friend and supporter of Jack B. Yeats. Ernie O'Malley was given a State funeral with full military honors when he died in Dublin in March 1957.