Harry Boland's Irish Revolution, 1887-1922

by David Fitzpatrick

Harry Boland was a key figure in the Irish r epublican movement between 1916 and 1922. David Fitzpatrick'' s biography draws upon thousands of letters to and from Bola nd, as well as diaries, police reports, memoirs and other do cuments. '

Genres: History, Ireland

420 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Frank Peters · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a biography of Harry Boland, one of the heroes of the Irish Revolution and a both a close friend and eventually enemy of Michael Collins. The book has been well researched and as an academic output is outstanding. Unfortunately, the book is really only the academic output of a professional historian, and is therefore often an unpleasant read. The author starts the book very well, and the first few chapters outlining Harry’s early life through the Easter Uprising and his time in jail is really very interesting and enjoyable. Then the book goes downhill. Far too many pages were written about Boland’s time in the USA. While this is no doubt important for a student of Irish History, it is also extremely dull. The Chapter “Anticlimax” truly is. It covers a few months in the US, over and over again. The author chose to not write fully chronologically, but rather to separate various aspects of Boland’s life and then treat each one chronologically. Thus, in the horrible “Anticlimax” chapter the reader must suffer multiple times. Following this chapter, the book really does not improve very much until the very end. All told reading the book was mostly painful. But, no doubt a diehard student of Irish History will find it very worthwhile. In praise of the book, the author goes out of his way to provide a balanced history, especially during the time of the civil war. This is commendable.