Great Hatred

The Assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson MP

Ronan McGreevy

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9780571372836
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: History

THE IRISH TOP 10 BESTSELLER

A gripping investigation into one of Irish history's greatest mysteries, Great Hatred reveals the true story behind one of the most significant political assassinations to ever have been committed on British soil.

'An incredible story, full of melodramatic details, and brilliantly handled by McGreevy in his wonderfully gripping book.' TOM HOLLAND, THE REST IS HISTORY

'Heart-stopping . . . The book is both forensic and a page-turner, and ultimately deeply tragic, for Ireland as much as for the murder victim.'
MICHAEL PORTILLO

'Gripping from start to finish. McGreevy turns a forensic mind to a political assassination that changed the course of history, uncovering a trove of unseen evidence in the process.'
ANITA ANAND, author of The Patient Assassin

'Invaluable.' IRISH TIMES

'Intelligent and insightful.' IRISH INDEPENDENT

On 22 June 1922, Sir Henry Wilson - the former head of the British army and one of those credited with winning the First World War - was shot and killed by two veterans of that war turned IRA members in what was the most significant political murder to have taken place on British soil for more than a century. His assassins were well-educated and pious men. One had lost a leg during the Battle of Passchendaele. Shocking British society to the core, the shooting caused consternation in the government and almost restarted the conflict between Britain and Ireland that had ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty just five months earlier. Wilson's assassination triggered the Irish Civil War, which cast the darkest of shadows over the new Irish State.

Who ordered the killing? Why did two English-born Irish nationalists kill an Irish-born British imperialist? What was Wilson's role in the Northern Ireland government and the violence which matched the intensity of the Troubles fifty years later? Why would Michael Collins, who risked his life to sign a peace treaty with Great Britain, want one of its most famous soldiers dead, and how did the Wilson assassination lead to Collins' tragic death in an ambush two months later?

Drawing upon newly released archival material and never-before-seen documentation, Great Hatred is a revelatory work that sheds light on a moment that changed the course of Irish and British history for ever.

'McGreevy provides more than the anatomy of a political murder; in reconstructing this era of blood, poverty and wartime trauma, he also gives full expression to the terrible forces that WB Yeats once called the "fanatic heart" and the "great hatred".'
THE TIMES

'Thoughtful and well-researched . . . an important and valuable addition to the library of the Irish Revolution.'
PROFESSOR DIARMAID FERRITER, University College Dublin

Table of contents

• Landing Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Timeline
• Epigraph
• 1: Assassination: ‘Here, in the middle of our own metropolis, he has been murdered’
• 2: Henry Wilson – The Early Years: ‘I am an Irishman’
• 3: Wilson – The Post-war Years: ‘Never daunted, never dismayed’
• 4: Henry Wilson and Ulster: ‘The Orange Terror’
• 5: Reginald Dunne: ‘The blood that’s in them’
• 6: Joseph O’Sullivan: An Old Fenian Family
• 7: Planning: ‘The Wilson job is on’
• 8: Aftermath: ‘The assassination has horrified the whole civilised world’
• 9: Rescue: Kidnapping the Prince of Wales
• 10: Execution: ‘The felon’s cap is the noblest crown an Irish head can wear’
• 11: The Irish Civil War: ‘The madness from within’
• 12: Repatriation: ‘The Irish Government’s attitude is strictly illogical’
• 13: Conclusion: Ireland’s Sarajevo
• Glossary of Terms
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Select Bibliography
• Index
• Plates
• About the Author
• Also by Ronan McGreevy
• Copyright