Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution

by Charles Desmond Greaves

Regarded as a key source for understanding the turbulent years during the partition of Ireland, and with a new introduction by Gerry Adams, this fascinating biography examines the period of modern Irish History from 1916 to 1922 in this account of the life of Liam Mellows. One of the most radical and intellectually questioning of the political leaders at the time, Mellows was the personification of the realism and romance of the Irish struggle. The story of the Easter uprising and the partition of Ireland are seen through the lens of this charismatic figure, encapsulating many of the key themes of the times. This biography illustrates the ways in which class and nationalism intersect in Irish politics, both then and now.

Genres: Ireland, History, Nonfiction, Biography

Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Odrán de Bhaldraithe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential book for the understanding of one of our great lost leaders and an understanding of how the revolution and the course it took shaped a young man who joined Na Fianna into one of our best thinkers so cruelly robbed from us. I have seen others try to argue that the idea of Mellows as a socialist is overblown, but this lays it out brilliantly and when the facts of the revolution and Mellows life are taken into consideration - the international context of the post-WWI world including the Bolshevik revolution, how let down he felt by the Americans during his exile there, the betrayal of the revolution by the bourgeoisie as ensured by their footman Arthur Griffith - it becomes very clear that Mellows (who was only 30 and politically active for 11 years when he died and thus hardly fully formed as a thinker) did come to something that could at least be described as a left-wing position.

There are moments in the book where I think Greaves was being harsh: I do not know a great deal about Cathal Brugha other than what your average republican does but it is hard to imagine a man of such great principles and of such fortitude to stick by them being so simple-minded as he is portrayed here; and there are times when I feel the failures of republicans and labour to fuse are blamed mostly on republicans when the blame is equal in my opinion. I suppose, as the ascendent force, Greaves believes the republicans should have taken the lead, but if the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland and vice versa, then it falls equally on both republicans and socialists to ensure the confluence of the two.

Lastly: there is something very funny about Gerry Adams writing the introduction to a book that concerns itself in great detail with the folly of pursuing the approval of yankee imperialists for your anti-colonial struggle and with the failure of republicanism to take on the concerns of the working class. Íoróin na híoróine, mar a deirtear.

[Micheál McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts of this was really dense to get through but over all an important book on one of the greatest revolutionaries that came out of the irish revolution. In contemporary Ireland Mellows is relevant more than ever. It seems Provisional Sinn Fein members would do well to read this book again because there is no way some one is that unaware of their party’s current policies was everything Liam Mellows fought against.

[Differengenera · Rating 4 out of 5]

like greaves' biography of Connolly it's a fantastic piece of scholarship and provides a great narrative of class struggle over over the period. Unfortunately Greaves could not write and there are paragraphs here I had to read over and over to make sense of.

Rather than providing, for example, a verbatim quotation of Lloyd George's famous ultimatum to the plenipotentaries during the Treaty negotations, Greaves, assuming we are already familiar with i,, makes vague reference to an 'histrionic evocation' and starts listing random places along which Lloyd George's declaration of war would travel

on the stance of the Irish bourgeoisie on the Treaty, Greaves writes 'on the principle that ruling-class prejudices must not be flouted when uttered by the son of Cerdic, cried woe to the churls'

[Senioreuge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unquestionably one of the most significant figures during the period leading up to the formation of the free state and the turmoil surrounding the time. During the treaty debates he posed the simple question of who will tell the English its time to go. His contribution to the debate which postulates men will get into office and hold power and men who get into office will not take any action for fear that there actions may mean their removal. Greaves sets about placing him where he deserves to be in the history of the period, correcting a long neglected omission.