- Paperback: 250 pages
- Publisher: The Mercier Press Ltd (Jun 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1856353141
- ISBN-13: 978-1856353144
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.3 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,052,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
The year 1919 saw the beginning of a serious challenge to the Royal Irish Constabulary, a force whose members had peaceably served the community for many years. Within the space of three years, policing had changed out of all recognition throughout Ireland. This book tells the story of these turbulent years, and charts the history of both the RIC and the nationalist groups that rose to oppose them, leading to the establishment of the Irish Free State and the eventual disbandment of the force in 1922. The book records in detail accounts of the killing of serving and former members of the RIC, supplying available background details of many of these fatal attacks.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the seminal books about the war of independence. Its written in a calm factual prose but its searing stuff.
500 policemen were murdered between 1919/22, some were shot in their sick beds or on their way to mass or walking in the street.
Most were country policemen, bewildered by the way some of their fellow Irishmen turned on them in an orgy of killing.
Its tough reading, most of the RIC come from the same kind of stock the current Irish Guards (Gardai) take their recruits from so its hard to see any thing glorious or meaningful in a whole generation of policemen being murdered.
The book also serves notice that the people who bore the brunt of the violence during the war of independence were as Irish as their killers, having read this book a more corrct term for the war of independence would be the first Irish Civil war.
One comment on another review makes the suggestion that the RIC were obstructing the democratic will of the people, maybe so but that does not justify mass murder or make their lives more dispensable.
Also the pre war of independence election gave no warrant for these killings, none whatsover, no where is it listed in the Sinn Fein election manifesto that the Dail authorises the murder of policemen indiscriminately.
I cant see any of the RIC men deserving the fate that befell them, next time I pass one of those lonely memorials to an old IRA ambush on some quiet road in Ireland from that time the policemen who suffered and died at these places will have names.
This book bears comparison to "lost lives" one of the most amazing books about the troubles and a tome that gave me sleepless nights and still does
500 policemen were murdered between 1919/22, some were shot in their sick beds or on their way to mass or walking in the street.
Most were country policemen, bewildered by the way some of their fellow Irishmen turned on them in an orgy of killing.
Its tough reading, most of the RIC come from the same kind of stock the current Irish Guards (Gardai) take their recruits from so its hard to see any thing glorious or meaningful in a whole generation of policemen being murdered.
The book also serves notice that the people who bore the brunt of the violence during the war of independence were as Irish as their killers, having read this book a more corrct term for the war of independence would be the first Irish Civil war.
One comment on another review makes the suggestion that the RIC were obstructing the democratic will of the people, maybe so but that does not justify mass murder or make their lives more dispensable.
Also the pre war of independence election gave no warrant for these killings, none whatsover, no where is it listed in the Sinn Fein election manifesto that the Dail authorises the murder of policemen indiscriminately.
I cant see any of the RIC men deserving the fate that befell them, next time I pass one of those lonely memorials to an old IRA ambush on some quiet road in Ireland from that time the policemen who suffered and died at these places will have names.
This book bears comparison to "lost lives" one of the most amazing books about the troubles and a tome that gave me sleepless nights and still does
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) have gone down in history as the forgotton police force. Yet historians are reminding us now that those brave honourable Irishmen served their communities well. This book tries to tell the real story of the demise of this fine police force who suffered the insult of being disbanded due to the need of a political solution. It graphically tells the true story of policemen were being shot in front of their families as they came out of Mass. How pensioners were shot dead because they served as policeman
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A thoroughly well researched and comprehensive list of police fatalities during the Irish War of Independence. An easy to read style with casualties listed both chronologically and aphabetically, and written in a non-partisan style. This book should be on the bookshelf of everyone interested in Irish History and in every library.
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