What do you think?
Rate this book
The Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence was a sporadic guerrilla campaign taht lasted from January 1919 until July 1921. Michael Hopkinson makes full use of the recently opened files of the Bureau of Military Archives in Dublin, which contain valuable first-hand contemporary accounts of the war, meticulously piecing together the many disparate local actions to create a coherent narrative. He stresses the importance of local and contingent issues over the idea of a master plan developed by the Dublin-based republican leadership. The war was prosecuted ruthlessly by the Irish Republican Army which, paralleling the political efforts of Sinn Fein, hoped to break Britain's will to rule Ireland and create an independent Irish republic. The British retaliated by introducing two new irregular forces into Ireland, the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries, Fighting took place principally in counties Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Monaghan, Armagh, Clare, Kerry, and Longford. It was sporadic but vicious, with fewer than 2,000 IRA volunteers facing over 50,000 crown forces. The IRA depended upon energetic local leaders - where there were none, there was little fighting.
274 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2002
23 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
Michael Hopkinson
7 books3 followersThe historian Michael Hopkinson, who has died aged 72, made an immense contribution to the understanding of the Irish revolutionary decade, 1913-1923.
Born in 1944, he was the son of a Church of England clergyman and an only child; he grew up in Wolverhampton and went on to study modern history at Caius College Cambridge. He studied at Cambridge for his PhD on “The Irish Question in US Politics, 1919-22”.
In 1970 he moved to Queen’s University Belfast where he taught American history. In 1974 he took up a lectureship at Stirling University in Scotland where he later became reader in history; he remained there until his retirement in 2009.
While at Stirling, he taught Irish history and published his groundbreaking history of the Irish Civil War in 1988 under the title Green Against Green. As the political scientist Tom Garvin noted at the time, “Hopkinson has finally broken the taboo on research into this crucial event in Irish political history and has given us the first full-length, archive-based history of the Irish Civil War”.
Taking advantage of newly released British state and private papers, Hopkinson was then drawn towards the War of Independence and edited The Last Days of Dublin Castle: The Mark Sturgis Diaries (1999), dealing with the experiences of the Dublin Castle civil servant who was part of a revamped British administration in Ireland in 1920 and oversaw the maintenance of the truce the following year. In 2002, Hopkinson published The Irish War of Independence, based on extensive research in Irish, British, American and Australian archives. Again, he emphasised the importance of regional variations in the conduct of the IRA’s campaign and concluded the war was “more an intelligence triumph for the IRA than a military one”, as well as underlining the contempt and sectarianism that marked the attitude of some of the British political and military establishment towards Ireland.
He also contributed the opening two chapters to volume seven of Oxford’s New History of Ireland in 2003, covering the Treaty and Civil War periods. He wrote highly regarded entries on Tom Barry, Erskine Childers and Michael Collins for the landmark Dictionary of Irish Biography, published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.
- obituary The Irish Times
Born in 1944, he was the son of a Church of England clergyman and an only child; he grew up in Wolverhampton and went on to study modern history at Caius College Cambridge. He studied at Cambridge for his PhD on “The Irish Question in US Politics, 1919-22”.
In 1970 he moved to Queen’s University Belfast where he taught American history. In 1974 he took up a lectureship at Stirling University in Scotland where he later became reader in history; he remained there until his retirement in 2009.
While at Stirling, he taught Irish history and published his groundbreaking history of the Irish Civil War in 1988 under the title Green Against Green. As the political scientist Tom Garvin noted at the time, “Hopkinson has finally broken the taboo on research into this crucial event in Irish political history and has given us the first full-length, archive-based history of the Irish Civil War”.
Taking advantage of newly released British state and private papers, Hopkinson was then drawn towards the War of Independence and edited The Last Days of Dublin Castle: The Mark Sturgis Diaries (1999), dealing with the experiences of the Dublin Castle civil servant who was part of a revamped British administration in Ireland in 1920 and oversaw the maintenance of the truce the following year. In 2002, Hopkinson published The Irish War of Independence, based on extensive research in Irish, British, American and Australian archives. Again, he emphasised the importance of regional variations in the conduct of the IRA’s campaign and concluded the war was “more an intelligence triumph for the IRA than a military one”, as well as underlining the contempt and sectarianism that marked the attitude of some of the British political and military establishment towards Ireland.
He also contributed the opening two chapters to volume seven of Oxford’s New History of Ireland in 2003, covering the Treaty and Civil War periods. He wrote highly regarded entries on Tom Barry, Erskine Childers and Michael Collins for the landmark Dictionary of Irish Biography, published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.
- obituary The Irish Times
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 21, 2021
𝑴𝒊 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒂 𝒍𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒐 𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆́𝒔 🧡
Hola, mis amigos lectores ✨ Hoy quiero compartir con ustedes mi primera vez leyendo un libro en inglés.
🇮🇪"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆" es un libro de historia sobre la Guerra de Independencia de Irlanda. El autor presenta objetivamente tanto a los irlandeses como al británico al discutir éxitos, fracasos y temas.
Tomando un año entero para investigar y escribir un montón de hechos históricos y descripciones de los acontecimientos en Irlanda. Ideal si estás buscando en la historia irlandés, lleno de mucha historia, periódicos y fotos que representa este evento.
Me emocioné al leer en inglés y debemos seguir intentando para leer perfectamente, no pierdan la motivación.
🇮🇪 3/5
Hola, mis amigos lectores ✨ Hoy quiero compartir con ustedes mi primera vez leyendo un libro en inglés.
🇮🇪"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆" es un libro de historia sobre la Guerra de Independencia de Irlanda. El autor presenta objetivamente tanto a los irlandeses como al británico al discutir éxitos, fracasos y temas.
Tomando un año entero para investigar y escribir un montón de hechos históricos y descripciones de los acontecimientos en Irlanda. Ideal si estás buscando en la historia irlandés, lleno de mucha historia, periódicos y fotos que representa este evento.
Me emocioné al leer en inglés y debemos seguir intentando para leer perfectamente, no pierdan la motivación.
🇮🇪 3/5
July 18, 2018
This book is not for the neophyte. Although it is impartial and even insightful, it refers to events obliquely. I found myself going to Wikipedia to find what happened with the German guns and what was the cause of the rift after the Easter Rising.
February 8, 2025
An awesome and comprehensive relay of events and situations that played throughout the period of the Irish Revolution. There are breakdowns based on year and breakdowns based on region/activity level. It is definitely the book to read after getting your feet wet with some basic facts first.
June 21, 2021
Extremely detailed with respect to individual local actions, the Irish political environment and the effects of different parties on both international and Irish policy.
April 15, 2009
Close, but no cigar. Focuses too much on the British aspect of the war effort. The rundown of the war in the provinces reads just like that - a dull recollection of major incidents from a seemingly disinterested writer.
He does provide good perspectives on more ignored areas of the war effort, such as the peace movements, De Valera in America, the British administration in Dublin castle etc. but I get the feeling this book is more about the war as viewed from London as opposed to the war of independence itself. A poor prequel to 'Green against Green'.
He does provide good perspectives on more ignored areas of the war effort, such as the peace movements, De Valera in America, the British administration in Dublin castle etc. but I get the feeling this book is more about the war as viewed from London as opposed to the war of independence itself. A poor prequel to 'Green against Green'.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews