Book Launch | Cork: The Irish Revolution 1912-23

Join us for the launch of Cork: The Irish Revolution, 1912-23 by Richard S. Grayson.

The book will be launched by Micheál Martin, Taoiseach and Uachtarán Fhianna Fáil, at 4.00-6.00pm on Saturday 21 November 2026 in the Ante Room of the Officers’ Mess, Collins Barracks, Old Youghal Rd, Cork, T23 VA02

RSVP info@fourcourtspress.ie — only those on the guestlist will be permitted entry.

Parking is available at Collins Barracks.

Events in County Cork during the Irish Revolution point to there being many different Corks between 1912 and 1923. The county contributed some of the most prominent aspects of the Revolution’s central narrative: Clonakilty’s Michael Collins and his death at Béal na Bláth; the murder of Tomás MacCurtain; the hunger strike and death of Terence MacSwiney; and the actions of Tom Barry’s ‘flying column’ in West Cork. However, Cork was also home to prominent southern unionists and had a strong Crown forces’ presence. Notably, unlike other counties, Cork was divided between two parliamentary nationalist parties: William O’Brien’s All-for-Ireland League and John Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party. There were vast differences between city and county.

This is the first county-wide study of Cork’s experience of the Irish Revolution, into which the story of the First World War is carefully woven. Both strands of parliamentary nationalism supported the British war effort in different ways. This allied to a growing popular demand for a republic led to their replacement by Sinn Féin in 1918. This book takes a new approach to understanding conflict in Cork through analysis of patterns of death, spatially and chronologically. It also analyses in new ways the scale and nature of IRA operations during the War of Independence, and both IRA and National army activities during the Civil War. In so doing, this study argues that some past work has been overly focused on violence in West Cork, which was no more violent than the rest of the county; indeed, the bulk of deaths and operations took place in the area covered by the IRA’s Cork No. 1 Brigade, which was centred on Cork city.

Professor Richard S. Grayson is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London, and has published extensively on Ireland’s 1912–23 period.