Biblio Ireland

Author: DEASY, Liam.

Cork: Royal Carbery Books, 1992 (reprint). x, 366 pages. Paperback.

In the War of Independence, military leaders such as Michael Collins, Liam Lynch and Liam Deasy secured Irish independence from a country that had seemingly limitless resources of men, money and arms. The British, however, lacked the one thing which the Irish possessed in abundance: a burning conviction in the justice of their cause.

First published in 1973, Towards Ireland Free is the story of one of these leaders. Liam Deasy was just twenty at the time of the 1916 Easter Rising. He enrolled in the Volunteers in Bandon in 1917 and by 1921 was in command of the West Cork Brigade. In this account of the War of Independence in west Cork, he vividly recreates the tense and hope-filled atmosphere of those years and provides a rich gallery of portraits of those alongside whom he fought. Best of all, he recounts in great detail famous episodes such as the successful attack on the British Naval Sloop in Bantry, Howes Strand and Ballycrovane Coastguard Stations, the ambushes at Kiimichael and Crossbarry and the raid on Fastnet Rock.

Liam Deasy was born near Bandon in County Cork in 1896. He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1917 and on the formation of the West Cork Brigade of the IRA was appointed adjutant. He later became Brigade Commander. He took the Republican side in the Civil War and after it ended returned to civilian life, setting up a successful weatherproofing business. He did not subsequently take part in the public life of the country although he served with distinction in the Irish Army during the Emergency. He died in August 1974, while still working on his civil war memoir Brother Against Brother.

CONTENTS:-

Editor’s Note
Preface

1 The Seed is Sown
2 Rebels Muster in a Loyalist Town
3 The Menace of Conscription 1918
4 The Beara Battalion
5 The Bantry Battalion
6 The Skibbereen Battalion
7 The Dunmanway and Clonakilty Battalions
8 Action at Rathclarin
9 Glandore Training Camp
10 ‘On the Run’
11 Raid on British Naval Sloop at Bantry Bay
12 An Offensive Launched against the R.I.C.
13 The Momentous Month of July 1920
14 An Important Decision of GHQ and its Sequel
15 Tom Barry joins the West Cork Brigade
16 The Formation of the Schull Battalion
17 The Flying Column
18 The Ambush at Kilmichael
19 The Projected Arms Landing at Squince Strand
20 Christmas Interlude
21 The Year of Victory Dawns
22 Darkness before Dawn
23 The Tragic Ambush at Upton Railway Station
24 The Triumph of Crossbarry
25 Destruction of Rosscarbery R.I.C. Barracks
26 An Answer to the Terror Campaign
27 A Moral Victory at Gloundaw
28 Light and Shade
29 A Narrow Escape
30 The Naval Operation at Fastnet Rock
31 The Truce

Appendix A— Numerical Strength of the Companies of the Third Cork Brigade
Appendix B— Numerical Strength of Enemy Garrisons in the Third Cork Brigade Area
Appendix C— Attendance at Glandore Training Camp
Appendix D— Brutal Treatment by the Enemy of Captured Volunteers
Appendix E— English Press Accounts of the Crossbarry Ambush
Appendix F— List of Men who Fought at Crossbarry
Appendix G— Cumann na mBan in West Cork
Appendix H— Brigade Council Meetings
Appendix I— Sources

Index

ISBN: 0946645140 

Related titles: 1916, Civil War, Cumann na mBan, War of Independence
Categories: Cork, Modern History.