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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2015
The centenaries of events around the Irish Revolution are inevitably bringing forth a spate of new publications. What is remarkable about the existing historiography on this period is that detailed studies of various aspects, particularly regional studies, are plentiful but that there are very few synthetic works. The two books under review here are therefore very welcome additions written by two eminently qualified historians. The works indeed do not disappoint: both go much further than simply putting together the fruits of existing works but rely on a substantial amount of original research. The relatively recent opening up of the archives of the Bureau of Military History, which inevitably means the bringing to light of new facts and insights, made this easier for Charles Townshend, who deals with the Irish side, than for Ronan Fanning, who analyses the British government's attitude to the Irish revolution.
FATAL PATH: BRITISH GOVERNMENT AND IRISH REVOLUTION 1910–1922. By FanningRonan. Pp xxi, 423. London: Faber and Faber. 2013. £16.99; THE REPUBLIC: THE FIGHT FOR IRISH INDEPENDENCE, 1918–1923. By TownshendCharles. Pp xx, 537. London: Allen Lane. 2013. £25.
1 For example: Augusteijn, Joost From public defiance to guerrilla warfare: the experience of ordinary Volunteers in the Irish War of Independence, 1916–1921 (Dublin, 1996);Google Scholar Coleman, Marie County Longford and the Irish Revolution, 1910–1923 (Dublin, 2003);Google Scholar Fitzpatrick, David Politics and Irish life 1913–1921: provincial experience of war and revolution (Dublin, 1977);Google Scholar Hart, Peter The I.R.A. and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916–1923 (Oxford, 1998);Google Scholar O’Callaghan, John Revolutionary Limerick: the Republican campaign for independence in Limerick, 1913–1921 (Dublin, 2010).Google Scholar
2 An exception would be two works by Hopkinson, Michael: The Irish War of Independence (Dublin, 2002) and Green against green: the Irish Civil War (Dublin, 1988).Google Scholar
3 Fanning, Fatal path, p.162.Google Scholar
4 Subsequently published as Townshend, Charles The British campaign in Ireland 1919–1921: the development of political and military policies (Oxford, 1975).Google Scholar