IRA Internments and the Irish Government

Description

Examines a neglected period in the history of the IRA and looks at the acceptability and success of internment as an expedient in the Irish government’s ongoing struggle with republic an subversive organisations during both the Second World War and the border campaign. The book looks at the reasons for the subsequent drift away from the use of this measure, despite its previous successes in containing the IRA threat to the Irish State. It draws extensively on previously unavailable primary source material in various archives in both Ireland and Britain. The oral testimony of many surviving contemporaries is supplemented by an in-depth examination of the files of the Irish government, thereby presenting a detailed political assessment of the events under consideration. In addition, the voluminous records relating to the Lawless Case held in the Attorney General’s Office have been particularly valuable in documenting, for the first time, the unprecedented domestic legal proceedings in this landmark action. The book considers the overall impact of the Lawless Case in influencing the future direction of Irish counter-insurgency policy and the subsequent drift away from the use of internment as an acceptable expedient in the State’s ongoing struggle with subversives.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. ‘Liquidating the Irish Separatist Movement’: Internment, 1939-1945
3. ‘A Tireless, Ceaseless Effort’: IRA Reorganization, 1948-1956
4. ‘The National Revolutionary Resurgence’: Campaign and Reaction, December 1956
5. ‘The Nettle Had At Last Been Gripped’: Forkill and the Reintroduction of Internment, July 1957
6. ‘The Powers of Detention Should Not Again Be Exercised’: the Lawless Case, 1957-1961
7. ‘This is not an Abandonment of the Campaign, but a Strategic Retreat’: Closing Stages, 1957-1962
8. Conclusion

About the Author

John Maguire is a former Government of Ireland postgraduate scholar, who has recently completed a PhD thesis at the University of Limerick. From 2004-2006 he served as co-editor of History Studies: The Journal of the History Society of the University of Limerick.