Monaghan: The Irish Revolution, 1912-23

by Terence A.M. Dooley

In 1912, a bloodless revolution had already taken place in Monaghan that resulted in the overthrow of one ruling elite, which was replaced by another. What began in 1912 with the signing of the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant, followed the next year by the founding of the Ulster Volunteer Force, might be considered from the Protestant perspective as an attempted counter-revolution. It was, at the very least, a determined effort to remain part of the British empire, the spiritual and ancestral home of Monaghan Protestants. But constitutional nationalists were not prepared to give up the gains they had made. Separatist nationalists wanted more, and so for them the 1916 Rising represented the beginning of unfinished business. In this political maelstrom there were agrarian agitators who sought the final solution to the land question; 2,500 young men who went to war, one-fifth of whom never returned and the others who did returned to a very changed country; and paramilitaries who divided along sectarian lines. Thus, between 1912 and 1923, Monaghan politics and society were transformed for a second time, not least of all by the imposition of the border with all the attendant social and economic problems partition brought. Because of Monaghan's socio-religious demographic and its borderlands location, this book offers an intriguing insight to how the period 1912-23 played itself out at local level. ( Irish Revolution 1912-23) [ Irish Revolution, Easter 1916, Monaghan, Irish History, Irish Studies]

170 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 2017

About the author

Dr. Terence A.M. Dooley is an Irish historian and educator. He received his Ph.D. from Maynooth University (NUI Maynooth) in 2001 and was NUI Fellow in the Humanities and Social Sciences 2001-2003. He had previously earned an M.A. and a Higher Diploma in Education, also from NUI Maynooth.

Professor Dooley's areas of specialisation are Irish social and political history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly the history of Irish country houses and the landed class; land and politics in independent Ireland; the working of the Irish Land Commission from 1881 to 1992; the revolutionary period 1916-23; and local history in Ireland. He teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate courses as a Senior Lecturer in the history department at NUI Maynooth.

Professor Dooley is also Director of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates, which is under the auspices of NUI Maynooth’s history department.

Reviews

[Brian Mcmahon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, a very interesting read of my home county, at a very difficult, exciting & defining time in our history. Exceptionally well written, by an author with total knowledge of the time, the history & it’s relevance.