Witnesses: Inside the Easter Rising - Couverture souple

Ryan, Annie

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1905483708 ISBN 13 : 9781905483709

Editeur : Liberties Press Ltd, 2009

Synopsis

This thought-provoking book retells the 1916 Rising story through previously unavailable first hand accounts from the protagonists. Illustrated with unpublished and rare photographs, this book also features an introduction by well-known historian and author Dr Margaret Mac Curtain.

Witnesses: Inside the Easter Rising is the first book to draw on official witness statements taken over several years from the late 1940s onwards by the government of the time and only released to the public by the Bureau of Military History in 2003. In its judicious use of the statements given by the foot-soldiers and second-line participants in the Rising, the book provides a unique perspective on the events of Easter 1916. From the volunteers walking the Royal canal from Kildare to fight in Dublin (of which the author's father was one), to the women fighting, smuggling guns and cooking for the insurgents in the GPO, Witnesses transports the reader alongside those taking part in this pivotal event in modern Irish history.

Insights into controversial matters such as the decision to countermand the order for the Rising on its eve, the so-called Castle document, as well as the personal affections and jealousies of those involved, are all discussed in detail. There are also previously unpublished photos taken inside the GPO during Easter week.

Above all, the book is told with tremendous warmth, the voices of combatants and their contemporaries ringing out in clarity and honesty about the awful, heroic and occasionally amusing incidents that took place around this period of history that helped cement the modern Irish identity.

A propos du livre

Biographie de l'auteur

Anne Ryan is a retired school teacher who is best known for her work championing the rights of people with intellectual disabilities and mental health problems. Her campaigning in relation to the state mental hospital in Portrane gained her national prominence and she ran in the 1997 general election as an independent candidate on a mental health issue platform. She was born in County Kildare on the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1916 Rising. Her father Tom Harris, who later would represent Kildare in the Dáil, was a member of a small band of twenty men or so who had walked from County Kildare to Dublin to fight in the G.P.O. during Easter Week. Like most veterans he did not talk much of his experiences in the rebellion or afterwards. Annie was aware, however, of the existence of the Witness Statements from the time her father's statement was recorded on November 11th 1949. Over fifty years later the release of the records enabled her to read the accounts of her own father and hundreds of others of the events of Easter 1916 that were to prove to be a watershed in Ireland's road to independence. She was President of NAMHI from 1992 to 1994 and a member of the Commission for the Status of People with Disabilities. She received the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Mother's Award in 1998. She is a member of the Mental Health Commission.

Présentation de l'éditeur

Witnesses: Inside the Easter Rising is the first book to draw on official witness statements which were taken over several years from the late 1940's onwards by the then National government and only released to the public by the Bureau of Military History in 2003. In its judicious use of the statements given by the foot-soldiers and second-line participants in the Rising, the book provides a unique perspective on the events of Easter 1916. From the volunteers walking the Royal canal from Kildare to fight in Dublin, to the women fighting, smuggling guns and cooking for the insurgents in the G.P.O, Witnesses puts the reader next to those taking part in this pivotal event in modern Irish history. Insights into controversial matters such as the decision to countermand the order for the Rising on its eve, the so-called "Castle document", as well as the personal affections and jealousies of those involved, are all discussed in detail. There are also previously unpublished photos taken inside the G.P.O during Easter week. Above all, the book is told in a warm readable way with the voices of the combatants and their contemporaries ringing out in clarity and honesty about the awful, heroic and occasionally amusing incidents that took place around this time.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Liberties Press Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2009
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1905483708
• ISBN 13: 9781905483709
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 256
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible