Louth

The Irish Revolution, 1912-23

Donal Hall

• Publisher: Four Courts Press
• Year: 2019
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781846828331
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: History

This is the first comprehensive account of County Louth's experience of the revolutionary period (1912-23), revealing a county with a strong industrial and agricultural base that faced serious challenges stemming from declining population, large-scale unemployment and extensive poverty. Although overwhelmingly nationalist, Louth's political activists were bitterly divided until the foundation of the Irish Volunteers in 1913. The First World War split the Volunteers. The majority sided with Redmond and, in late summer 1914, these volunteers, with bands playing and flags flying, saw off many of their comrades to fight in the First World War. The Irish Volunteers, which opposed the war, remained few in number but took part in the 1916 Rising. As the militancy of 1916 faded, the IRA in Louth was widely criticized for its relative inactivity during the War of Independence while Sinn Fein struggled to gain political control in the face of strong nationalist opposition. By 1922, the county was central to the Provisional government's campaign to destabilize Northern Ireland, which witnessed many atrocities. During the Civil War, Louth experienced extensive violence, including streetfighting, ambushes, assassinations, executions and house burnings. When peace was restored, Louth emerged from a decade of instability more divided than ever, cut off by partition from its natural hinterland in Ulster, and facing an uncertain future.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• List of illustrations
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• The Irish Revolution, 1912–23 series
• 1. County Louth in 1912
• 2. Louth and home rule, 1912–14
• 3. War, unity and schism, August 1914–July 1916
• 4. ‘Bungling and duplicity had reaped their harvest’: the British response to 1916 and its repercussions
• 5. ‘The men of north Louth took little, if any, part in the fight’: the War of Independence, 1919–21
• 6. Political transformation, 1921–2
• 7. A war of ‘egotism, jealousies, hatreds and misunderstandings’: Civil War, 1922–3
• 8 Louth in 1923
• Notes
• Select bibliography
• Index
• Plate section