Echoes of Their Footsteps - Volume II

The Irish Civil War 1922-1924

echoes-of-their-footsteps-II-cover

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If you want a play-by-play account of important operations and key people during the Irish Civil War... this is your book!

Kathleen Hegarty Thorne’s love of Ireland and its fighting men and women ignited in 1992 during a visit to the Hegarty cottage in Ballinaheglish, County Roscommon, where the echoes of the footsteps of her deceased great-uncle and his comrades had fallen silent o’er the fields. In 2005 she introduced her first Irish tome, They Put the Flag a-Flyin’, The Roscommon Volunteers 1913 to 1923, now in its third edition. Her next book, Echoes of Their Footsteps, Volume I, is a history of Ireland’s War of Independence countrywide, including the months between the Truce and the beginning of the Irish Civil War. This edition, Echoes of Their Foot¬steps, Volume II, documents the actions of men and women dedicated to Ireland’s freedom, the well-planned but sometimes desperate attacks and ambushes, the political pronouncements of figureheads, and the sorrowful events that engulfed the soul of the people of Ireland during the years 1922 through 1924.

Originally Kathleen planned a single book about the twenty-two hunger strikers who sacrificed their lives in the twentieth century. To understand the men and women and their particular circumstances, however, she wanted to provide a clear history of the Movement itself. And so, as a backdrop to each striker’s story, she began a chronology of events in his time period that would help explain his viewpoint and position.

When fifty pages of chronology had been accumulated, she read through them and realised she had the beginnings of a survey history of the IRA written not in streams of words, but in concise entries, sequentially ordered. The reader is provided with an overall view of the Civil War countrywide with a look at happenings in Co. Clare, on the same day an ambush in Co. Tipperary, and the following day an explosion in Dublin. The main crux of the book is a running historical calendar of events about the Irish Republican Army (interspersed with various tidbits of notable Irish happenings), punctuated with articles detailing the various hunger strikers and placing those articles alongside the time period during which they lived. She also included in the items specific references from which she derived her information in case any reader wanted to further explore the particulars of various events. In the process of amassing all the minute pieces of information and spotlighting the important happenings and persons of the time, Kathleen also determined that a lengthy article about each of the men who held the Chief of Staff position in the Republican Army would be a valuable addition to the story. The book is illustrated by scores of photographs strategically placed next to the text which they illustrate.

This volume was greatly enhanced by the labours of Patrick “Patsy” Flanagan of Four Mile House, Co. Roscommon, a researcher extraordinaire, who forwarded hundreds of news articles across the Atlantic to add credence and accuracy to the text.