Atlas of the Irish Civil War: New Perspectives

by Hélène O'Keeffe (Editor), John Crowley (Editor), Donal Ó Drisceoil (Editor), John Borgonovo (Editor), Mike Murphy (Editor)

Overview

This new volume in the award—winning Atlas Series presents fresh perspectives on, and a nuanced understanding of, the history of the Irish Civil War (1922–3). 

The centenary of the Civil War has prompted wide—ranging research into that tumultuous and complex period in Irish history. Featuring contributions from over ninety leading scholars from a range of disciplines, this book provides new insights into the conflict’s regional, national and international dimensions. It includes the first—ever listing of Civil War fatalities and original explorations of issues including propaganda, gender, trauma, culture, labour, land and class. 

Produced in partnership with the National Library of Ireland with support from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, the Atlas of the Irish Civil War: New perspectives is richly illustrated with over 400 photographs, archival documents and a series of newly created original maps. From the research team that produced the widely acclaimed Atlas of the Irish Revolution, this volume represents a major and accessible contribution to the historiography of a conflict that has cast a long shadow over Irish life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782055921
Publisher:	Cork University Press
Publication date:	09/12/2024
Series:	Atlas Series , #13
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 11.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Hélène O'Keeffe is a historian and Research Support Officer in the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences at University College Cork. She was a researcher on the Atlas of the Irish Revolution (2017) and coordinated a series of Atlas of the Irish Revolution public engagement projects during the Decade of Centenaries.  

John Crowley is a lecturer in the Department of Geography, University College Cork. He jointly edited the award—winning Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (2012) as well as the Atlas of the Irish Revolution which was named Irish Book of the Year in 2017.  He is a member of the Senate of the National University of Ireland. 

Donal Ó Drisceoil is a Senior Lecturer in History at University College Cork and was an editor of the Atlas of the Irish Revolution (2017). His most recent book was Utter Disloyalist: Tadhg Barry and the Irish Revolution (2021). 

John Borgonovo is a Senior Lecturer in the School of History at University College Cork. He has published extensively on different aspects of the Irish Revolution and was associate editor of the Atlas of the Irish Revolution (2017). 

Mike Murphy is head of Cartography in the Department of Geography, University College Cork. He has worked as cartographer and joint editor on Atlas of Cork City (2005),Atlas of the Iveragh Peninsula (2009), Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (2012) and Atlas of the Irish Revolution (2017).

Table of Contents

List of contributors

Foreword by Michael D. Higgins

Acknowledgements

Introduction

 

SECTION 1

Before the War

 

Chapter 1

The Treaty and the Irish Civil War: British perspectives

Heather Jones

 

Case Study – The Treaty Debates and the Irish Civil War

Liam Weeks and Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh

 

Arthur Griffith

Owen McGee

 

Case Study – Military Dress and the Irish Civil War

Lisa Godson

 

Disbandment of the Royal Irish Constabulary

Brian Hughes

 

SECTION 2

The War in the Provinces

 

Chapter 2

The Irish Civil War in Provincial Ireland: Landscapes, communities and localised conflict

John Borgonovo

 

The ‘Sliabh na mBan’ Armoured Car

Niall Murray

 

Case Study – Graffiti at Ash Hill Towers

Aidan Harte, Niall Murray and Joanna Brück

 

Moore Hall, County Mayo

John Crowley

 

Case Study – ‘Small House’ Burnings during the Irish Civil War: A County Kilkenny case study

Eoin Swithin Walsh

 

Case Study – Tormore: The strategic use of a cave dugout during Sligo’s Civil War

Robert Mulraney, Marion Dowd and James Bonsall

 

Liam Lynch

Gerard Shannon

 

Chapter 3

Civil Confict in Ireland, 1922–3: Political violence and the consolidation of Northern Ireland

Adrian Grant

 

Frank Aiken and the Breakout from Dundalk Gaol

Bryce Evans and Rory O’Dwyer

 

Case Study – Protestants and the Irish Civil War

Conor Morrissey

 

SECTION 3

Labour, Land and Everyday Life

 

Chapter 4

‘What the hell do they want a republic for?’ Labour, the left and the Irish Civil War

Emmet O’Connor

 

Case Study – Agrarian Unrest in Civil War Ireland

Heather Laird

 

The Postal Strike, 1922

Donal Ó Drisceoil

 

Case Study – Everyday Life in Dublin during the Irish Civil War

Pádraig Yeates

 

SECTION 4

Propaganda and Legitimisation

 

Chapter 5

Irregulars Versus Slave Staters: Propaganda, censorship and the Irish Civil War

Donal Ó Drisceoil

 

The Cartoon War

Donal Ó Drisceoil

 

Case Study – Songs of the Irish Civil War

Terry Moylan

 

Constructing Identity in the Fledgling State

John Crowley

 

Case Study – Parliamentary Politics and the Experience of Dáil Éireann during the Irish Civil War

Gary Murphy

 

Case Study – The 1923 Land Act

Terence Dooley

 

SECTION 5

The Dead

 

Chapter 6

Death and Killing in the Irish Civil War

Andy Bielenberg and John Dorney with Hélène O’Keeffe

 

Case Study – The Executions Policy

Seán Enright

 

Portobello Barracks Banner

Brian Crowley

 

Case Study – The Children and Youth of the Irish Civil War

Sarah—Anne Buckley and Linda Connolly

 

SECTION 6

Gender, Poverty and Religion

 

Chapter 7

The Irish Civil War: Family life, gender and loss

Lindsey Earner—Byrne

 

Case Study – Violence against Women during the Irish Civil War

Linda Connolly

 

Cumann na Saoirse

John Borgonovo

 

Case Study – Poor Law Reform in Revolutionary and Independent Ireland

Donnacha Seán Lucey

 

The Irish Bishops’ Pastoral Letter, 10 October 1922

Gabriel Doherty

 

SECTION 7

Imprisonment

 

Chapter 8

Graffiti and Geographies of the Women of Kilmainham Gaol during the Irish Civil War

Laura McAtackney

 

Case Study – Irish Civil War Imprisonment, Humanitarianism and the Red Cross

Lia Brazil

 

The Prison Autograph Book of Seán Sharkey

John Crowley

 

Case Study – ‘Freedom or the Grave’: The mass hunger strike of October–November 1923

Hélène O’Keeffe

 

SECTION 8

Global Connections

 

Chapter 9

Divided Allies: Irish—America responds to the Irish Civil War

Michael Doorley

 

Case Study – Unfinished Business in Post—Civil War Ireland: The repatriation of Fr Albert Bibby and Fr Dominic O’Connor

John Borgonovo

 

Case Study – ‘This Great Institution for Peace’: How Ireland joined the League of Nations in 1923

Michael Kennedy

 

SECTION 9

Legacies

 

Chapter 10

The Civil War Legacy: Ireland in the 1920s and 1930s

Fearghal McGarry

 

Case Study – Veterans, Memorialisation and the Old IRA Movement in Post—Civil War Ireland

John Borgonovo

 

Night’s Candles are Burnt Out, by Seán Keating (1929)

Éimear O’Connor

 

Chapter 11

‘Befitting Emblems of Adversity’: Temporality and disruption in Irish Civil War poetry

Ailbhe McDaid

 

The Poet in a Time of Civil War Theo Dorgan

 

Chapter 12

The Historiography of the Irish Civil War

Diarmaid Ferriter

 

Dorothy Macardle

Leeann Lane

 

Chapter 13

Historians and the ‘Silence’ of the Irish Civil War: Some comparative perspectives

Síobhra Aiken

 

Seán O’Casey

Paul O’Brien

 

SECTION 10

Irish Civil War Fatalities Index

Andy Bielenberg and John Dorney

 

Notes

Index 

Editorial Reviews

Atlas of the Irish Civil War brings together the most distinguished scholars of Ireland to shed new light on the military events, political debates, social experiences, and impact of a war that changed the course of history. Carefully argued, lavishly illustrated, and beautifully produced, it will serve as the central text in the field for decades to come.

Joanna Bourke

There is so much reckoning still to be done with this period in our history that is part of what Conor Cruise O'Brien, in his essay on James Joyce's The Dead, called twilight history — "a twilight zone of time, stretching back for a generation or two before we were born, which never quite belongs to the rest of history". Atlas brilliantly starts up that conversation, with many vital new dimensions.

The Sunday Independent - Emily Hourican

This is now a formidable series of books which presents Irish history and geography with imagination, innovation, scholarship and engagement.

The Irish Times - Catriona Crowe

This is a landmark piece of work—as you would expect from the most exciting team working on the story of modern Ireland. Vivid, fair—minded and beautifully produced.

Fergal Keane

The Atlas of the Irish Civil War is another compelling volume from Cork University Press. It lays bare as never before the tragedy of the Civil War in all its bitterness, sadness and complexity. The newly researched maps and the hundreds of images that accompany the text provide a range of fresh insights and nuanced ways of comprehending this traumatic event and its profound and lasting legacy. In terms of scale it operates both at the global and the local while also providing intimate portraits of the impact of the war on families and individuals. The naming and mapping of the dead of the Civil War is an achievement in itself. This superb publication is a model of interdisciplinary scholarship and a magisterial contribution to our understanding of a defining event in modern Irish history.

Maurice Manning

The civil war, perhaps the most traumatic phase of the Irish revolution, is at last being studied with the careful objectivity it requires. This comprehensive, skilfully designed and superbly produced volume — approachable as well as scholarly — provides an ideal survey. It should be widely read.

Charles Townshend FBA

The publication by Cork University Press of the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine, and Atlas of the
Irish Revolution, are in the realm highly significant in their contribution to Irish Historical
studies, because of the breadth, and depth of topics examined by a multitude of highly
regarded Historians and writers. The latest publication in this series Atlas of the Irish Civil
War, completes this trilogy and has eminently maintained the superb standard of its
predecessors. It is a genuine Magnum Opus.

An Cosantóir - Rory Finegan

But this conflict has never been addressed so comprehensively as in this superb new Atlas of the Irish Civil War, published by Cork University Press. Containing fresh perspectives from over ninety contributors, with 400 photographs and new maps, it is a worthy companion to their 2017 Atlas of the Irish Revolution

Business Post - Dermot Bolger