After the Rising: Soldiers, Lawyers and Trials of the Irish Revolution

Description

In this sequel to his bestselling Easter Rising 1916: The Trials, Seán Enright puts the great legal cases of the period into context with exacting clarity, including the Mac Curtain Inquest, the trials of MacSwiney, Markievicz, Maher and Foley, the Bloody Sunday courts martial and the trials under martial law.

Following the executions of the 1916 leaders, a new government policy of conciliation was attempted but quickly faltered. Rebel prisoners were released, the Great War reached its climax, and Ireland was gripped by the conscription crisis and subsequent resentment over exclusion from the Versailles Peace Conference. It was in this atmosphere that revolution took hold. Raids and reprisals became widespread, dozens of police barracks were raided and over 90 courthouses were burned down. Under such pressures, Westminster abandoned jury trial in favour of trial by court martial, and martial law was introduced in the south and west.

After the Rising provides a vibrant account of Ireland’s slow descent into turmoil as the law unravelled and the country engaged in a new and shocking conflict.

Table of Contents

Part 1

Chapter 1 – After the Rebellion
Chapter 2 – The Royal Commission into the Causes of the Rebellion
Chapter 3 – Conciliation and Repression: 1916 and 1917
Chapter 4 – The End of the Great War
Chapter 5 – Failure at Versailles: 1919
Chapter 6 – The Collapse of the Justice System, January to July 1920
Chapter 7 – The Emergence of Trial by Court Martial, August to November 1920
Chapter 8 – Martial Law: December 1920
Chapter 9 – A Small War: 1921
Chapter 10 – Due Process Re-established

Part 2

The Trials
1916: MacNeill, Bowen Colthurst, Casement
1918: Joseph Dowling and the German Plot
1919: The Silvermines Trial
1920: John Madden, Michel ORourke, Constance Markievicz, Fr Delahunty, Fr Ahern
1921: Caherguillamore, The Bloody Sunday Trials, Drumcondra, Captain King, Thomas Traynor, Bryan Kelley, Knocklong, Carmody and Lenehan, O’Shea

About the Author

Seán Enright was called to the Bar at Middle Temple (1982) and at the Four Courts (1993). He practiced at the Bar in London for many years and is now a Circuit Judge. He is the author of The Trial of Civilians by Military Courts: Ireland 1921 (Irish Academic Press, 2012) and Easter Rising 1916: The Trials (Merrion, 2013).