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The I.R.A. and its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916-1923

Online ISBN:
9780191677892
Print ISBN:
9780198208068
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The I.R.A. and its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916-1923

Peter Hart
Peter Hart

Visiting Research Fellow, The Queen's University, Belfast; and Adjunct Professor, Department of History

Memorial University of Newfoundland
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Published online:
3 October 2011
Published in print:
18 November 1999
Online ISBN:
9780191677892
Print ISBN:
9780198208068
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

What is it like to be in the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.), or at their mercy? This book explores the lives and deaths of the enemies and victims of the County Cork I.R.A. — the most powerful and deadliest branch of the I.R.A. — between 1916 and 1923, during one of the most turbulent periods in 20th-century Ireland. These years saw the breakdown of the British legal system and police authority, the rise of republican violence, and the escalation of the conflict into a full-scale guerrilla war, leading to a wave of riots, ambushes, lootings, and reprisal killings, with civilians forming the majority of victims in this unacknowledged civil war. Religion may have provided the starting point for the conflict, but class prejudice, patriotism, and personal grudges all fuelled the development and continuation of widespread violence. Using an unprecedented range of sources — many of them only recently made public — the book explores the motivation behind such activity. Its conclusions not only reveal a hidden episode of Ireland's troubled past but provide valuable insights into the operation of similar terrorist groups today.

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