Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
brilliant!, 14 Sep 2003
This book was a big surprise, I bought it more or less on a whim because although I read a lot of history, I very rarely read anything about my own country. This will change now as Ernie O'Malley has made me want to learn more about this much-mythologised but little-known period of Irish history - a pivotal period in Irish history, of which most people actually know very little.
Ernie O'Malley was a medical student in Trinity College when the Easter 1916 Rising took place, before this he was largely unsympathetic to Irish separatism but during the rising - seeing that people were willing to risk their lives for lofty ideals (albeit relatively few people) he changed his mind and joined the Irish Volunteers - the forerunners of the IRA.
This book is his personal account of travelling around Ireland between 1916-1921 to organise the Volunteers locally to fight against the British for an independent Irish republic. O'Malley is an incredible writer and gives a great sense of what the country was like in this era for the majority of the people who lived there and the not always 100% committed 'freedom fighters'.
His writing style is very matter-of-fact, no Bravo Two Zero style posturing or pretentious 'self-confessed war junkie' type 'confessions' a la the likes of Anthony Loyd et al. O'Malley never pulls his punches or talks up events, telling them in a very understated manner, from his torture in a Dublin prison at the hands of the British to his execution of three British officers in the countryside, this is a gripping and somewhat shocking story, beautifully written. Buy it and you won't be disappointed.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
An engaging and stimulating read., 6 Oct 2000
By A Customer
The first instalment of Ernie O'Malley's memoirs, covering his early days as a schoolboy in Dublin (from a Protestant background) through to his role as a commander in the IRA after the Easter Rising, and ending with his capture at the hands of the British. O'Malley is an incredibly engaging author, this is especially the case where he describes the Easter Rebellion from the standpoint of onlooker. Perhaps giving one an impression of what most ordinary citizens of Dublin must have been feeling at the time (going from feelings of mild amusement, to shock and finally anger at the terrible retribution inflicted by the British forces). This is a stimulating book, that one finds hard to ignore.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A Must Read for all Irish Amateaur Historians, 25 Sep 2003
Having read many books dealing with the Black and Tan War, and the civil war that followed it, I would recommend O'Malley’s book’s, and this one in particular, as the most honest and heartfelt biographical text on the subject.
He is at once true to the facts, but also an illuminating and enigmatic writer. At every page you are drawn into the times and places during which O'Malley lived.
By the age of 21 O'Mally was the IRA OC for Leinster and Ulster. The first edition print of this book had a section referring to his torture at the hands of British agents removed from it before going to press. This later reprint has this section included
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