Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter

by Meda Ryan

Tom Barry:IRA Freedom Fighter chronicles the action-packed life of the Commander of the Third West Cork Flying Column, including the decisive Kilmichael ambush and the controversy regarding sectarianism during the 1920-1922 period.

It details his involvement on the fringes of the Treaty negotiations of the Treaty negotiations; his Republican activities during his engagement in the cease-fire/dump-arms deal of 1923; his term as the IRA's Chief-of-Staff and his participation in IRA conflicts in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and right up to his death in 1980.

With an extensive body of primary source material, including Tom Barry's papers, this biography will appeal equally to both the general reader and to students of Irish history.

Genres: Ireland, History, Biography, Irish Literature, Nonfiction

478 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

MEDA RYAN, historian and author, is a native of West Cork and now lives in Ennis, Clare; she has participated in television and radio documentaries and has had articles published in a wide variety of history magazines and journals, plus national and local newspapers.
She was was widowed when her Husband, Donal Ryan, passed away in Ennis, Clare in 2013, who was also a native of Cork.

Ryan developed a strong interest in the Irish revolutionary period, and interviewed many veterans of the old IRA. For this reason, she has a huge amount of respect for these individuals and famously was involved in a dispute with Canadian historian Peter Hart on IRA Commandant Tom Barry. This prompted Ryan to write an extended biography of Tom Barry. Her fist Biography of Tom Barry, The Tom Barry Story was written in 1982 for the Mercier Press. Following the dispute with Hart, in 2003 She wrote her extended Biography entitled Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter

Her published books include Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter; The Day Michael Collins Was Shot; Liam Lynch: The Real Chief and Michael Collins and the Women Who Spied for Ireland.

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Individualism, like Tom Barry's is going to be challenged, and is a virtue.

A lot of words, and worth the effort.

[Terry Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meda Ryan delivers another great bio. For anyone fascinated with Barry's own autobiography (Guerilla Days), here is the complete picture, i.e., what happened next and Tom Barry's place in history.