Patrick Pearse: The Triumph of Failure

by Ruth Dudley Edwards

There has always been argument about whether Pearse's leadership of the Easter Rising in 1916 represented a failure or a triumph. Pearse, who found himself on Easter Monday proclaimed President of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Republic, took on himself the most bitter of roles at the finish: he was the first to make the move to surrender - and he was the first to be executed. In this re-issued major biography Ruth Dudley Edwards has placed Patrick Pearse in his historical, political and cultural context: she discusses his involvement with the Gaelic League, his role as a military leader in the nationalist movement and his claims as a socialist. Her account of his life does full justice to the story, recording its irony, absurdity and courage. This book will do much to arouse fresh interest in Patrick Pearse; it is sympathetic, balanced, meticulously researched, and above all highly readable.

Genres: Ireland, Biography, History, Nonfiction

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

After being a Cambridge postgraduate, a teacher, a marketing executive and a civil servant, Ruth Dudley Edwards became a full-time writer. A journalist, broadcaster, historian and prize-winning biographer who lives in London, her recent non-fiction includes books about The Economist, the Foreign Office, the Orange Order and Fleet Street. The first of her ten satirical mysteries, Corridors of Death, was short-listed for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger; two others were nominated for the CWA Last Laugh Award. Her two short stories appeared respectively in The Economist and the Oxford Book of Detective Stories.

Series:
* Robert Amiss Mystery

Reviews

[Conor Smyth · Rating 2 out of 5]

A genuine slog of a book. The chapters surrounding the various councils he was on as well as his literary work make up around the middle 50% of the book and are truly tedious. Also wasn't expecting all the stuff surrounding him and underage boys, made for truly uncomfortable reading. Clearly well researched and I like that no punches are pulled but you can feel the authors bias bleeding into the book (shes identifies as British Irish despite being from Dublin and believes a large chunk of Irish Catholic suffering we hear about under British occupation to be exaggerated nonsense). Wouldn't reccomend.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Irish independence in 1922, the men executed following the Easter Rising of 1916 became secular saints in Ireland. In this book, Ruth Dudley Edwards takes one of the most revered of these saints, Patrick Pearse, and returns him to the world of mortal men and woman. She examines Pearse as a living, breathing man, with great weaknesses and flaws as well as great strengths and talents. For this she was, and has been, vilified by those who wish their saints to remain antiseptic.

While I would consider myself to be on the opposite to Pearse, thanks to Dudley Edwards excellent, humanising biography, I do feel I understand him a bit better.