The shot was fired at point blank range by Sean Culhane hitting Swanzy, as he later claimed, behind the right ear and exiting on the other side of his head between his ear and his eye. Almost simultaneously Dick Murphy, the other Cork man, fired a volley at Swanzy. As he fell further shots were fired into his body with McCorley pausing to deliver the coup de grace.Many RIC officers were killed during this period but the murders of Divisional Commissioner Colonel Smyth and District Inspector Swanzy led to unprecedented reprisals against the Catholic population in the towns of Banbridge, Dromore and Lisburn.Lawlor traces the events which led to serious sectarian rioting and the burning of Catholic owned property over a period of three months in 1920 and details, for the first time, the extent of the destruction and loss of life in these towns. The sectarian violence in Belfast during 1920-1922 has been well documented but the scale of the violence in Belfast was such that events which took place in other towns, while mentioned, were never explored in detail. Lawlor highlights the importance of Cork and the killing of Tomas MacCurtain in the tragic events that later came to pass in the north.

From her overprotected girlhood to her ascension to the throne at twenty-five, to her personal and national difficulties as queen, Elizabeth II has presided over her people for half a century. Acclaimed historian Erickson tells the queen's story from her point of view, letting the reader re-live Elizabeth's long and eventful life. Lilibet shows us an Elizabeth we thought we knew - but in a different light. We glimpse, as never before, the strong and appealing sovereign who has reigned over the decline of Great Britain and the fall in prestige of her own Windsor dynasty.

Charles J. Haughey, over the last five decades, has been involved in major political scandals of Watergate proportions: the Arms Crisis, the telephone tapping scandal, the Beef Tribunal, the Ben Dunne payments, tax evasion, the Terry Keane revelations, the Moriarty Tribunal investigation into payments to politicians, the McCracken Tribunal, etc.; In this revised edition of Fallen Idol, Ryle Dwyer updates the scandals and delivers his conclusions on the Haughey Years.; Lively, succinct, opinionated, drawing extensively on in-depth research, Forty Years of Controversy is the indispensable handbook for anyone intrigued by one of Ireland's most inscrutable politicians.

Most people have a preconcieved image of Edward VII: a short, stocky man with a distinctive beard, more noted for his lascivious disposition and passion for sports than diplomatic gestures. Like most caricatures, the picture bears an element of truth. This biography of Edward VII however, sets out to show that he was a more successful king than he was given credit for. It seeks to go beyond the myth to present a picture of Edward as both monarch and family man.;The book covers his years as Prince of Wales, the strictly regimented upbringing, the death of Prince Albert and the scandals resulting from his private affairs. This leads on to coverage of his years as king. While the book looks at aspects of Edward VII's constitutional life as king, it is primarily a study of the man whose personal impact on society was of paramount importance in the establishing of an era. His marriage to the highly influential Alexandra is also re-examined as a partnership of enduring affection which withstood all his womanizing and also challenged accepted ideas of child-raising. The golden age of the country-house party, sporting celebrations and diplomatic pursuits are captured in early photographs.

This is the life story of Meini Dunlevy, born in Massachusetts of County Kerry parents. Meini was rearded in he grandparents' house in Dunquin. When she was 19, she eloped with an island widower to the Great Blasket, where she worked as a nurse and midwife for 36 years. Returning widowed to Dunquin, she died in 1967, aged 91. Meini's story, recorded by the author from her own accounts and those of her friends and relatives in Dunquin, is an evocation of a forceful personality and a reconstruction of a way of life that has passed.

In the late 1950s Stuart Hall, Edward Thompson and Raymond Williams, among others, came together as part of a promising new political formulation, the New Left. The six years of the group's formal existence represents one of the richest and most exciting periods in the intellectual history of the left in Britain. This short period saw the beginning of many future theoretical developments in radical politics, and the founder members of the New Left are now associated with ground-breaking work in history, culture and politics. Michael Kenny documents and analyses the debates of the New Left, showing how their preoccupations prefigure many contemporary concerns: the broadening of the previously narrow definition of politics, an engagement with popular culture, the exploration of a Gramscian politics, and the attempt to open a 'third space' between a defunct Marxism-Leninism and an intellectually barren labourist tradition.

In this most improbable of twentieth-century wars, Argentina and Great Britain waged a three-month conflict over a group of islets in the South Atlantic that hold no strategic or material value for either side, that are barely habitable by any human standard, and that have fewer permanent settlers than the total number of combatants.

After a late and shaky start because of the jealousies of local agricultural societies, the Welsh National Agricultural Society founded in 1904 (to be renamed the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society in 1922) was to surmount many problems and difficulties in its first seventy years or so to become by the 1980s one of the three major agricultural societies in the United Kingdom. This remarkable success story is traced by David Howell in fourteen chapters which cover the holding of the show at Aberystwyth from 1904 to 1909, the migratory years between 1910 and 1962 when some 37 'canvass towns' were erected at different centres in north and south Wales in alternative years, and the society's fortunes on the permanent site at Llanelwedd from 1963.

The acclaimed author of "Troublesome Young Men "reveals the behind-the-scenes story of how the United States forged its wartime alliance with Britain, told from the perspective of three key American players in London: Edward R. Murrow, the handsome, chain-smoking head of CBS News in Europe; Averell Harriman, the hard-driving millionaire who ran FDR's Lend-Lease program in London; and John Gilbert Winant, the shy, idealistic U.S. ambassador to Britain. Each man formed close ties with Winston Churchill--so much so that all became romantically involved with members of the prime minister's family. Drawing from a variety of primary sources, Lynne Olson skillfully depicts the dramatic personal journeys of these men who, determined to save Britain from Hitler, helped convince a cautious Franklin Roosevelt and reluctant American public to back the British at a critical time. Deeply human, brilliantly researched, and beautifully written, "Citizens of London" is a new triumph from an author swiftly becoming one of the finest in her field.

The 1998 Belfast Agreement promised to release citizens of Northern Ireland from the grip of paramilitarism. However, almost a decade later, Loyalist paramilitaries were still on the battlefield. After the Peace examines the delayed business of Loyalist demilitarization and explains why it included more fits than starts in the decade since formal peace and how Loyalist paramilitary recalcitrance has affected everyday Loyalists.

Drawing on interviews with current and former Loyalist paramilitary men, community workers, and government officials, Carolyn Gallaher charts the trenchant divisions that emerged during the run-up to peace and thwart demilitarization today. After the Peace demonstrates that some Loyalist paramilitary men want to rebuild their communities and join the political process. They pledge a break with violence and the criminality that sustained their struggle. Others vow not to surrender and refuse to set aside their guns. These units operate under a Loyalist banner but increasingly resemble criminal fiefdoms. In the wake of this internecine power struggle, demilitarization has all but stalled.

Gallaher documents the battle for the heart of Loyalism in varied settings, from the attempt to define Ulster Scots as a language to deadly feuds between UVF, UDA, and LVF contingents. After the Peace brings the story of Loyalist paramilitaries up to date and sheds light on the residual violence that persists in the post-accord era.

The difficulties that have dogged the Northern Ireland peace process and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement are rarely out of the headlines. This book gives a uniquely up-to-date insight into one of the issues at stake for the people of Northern Ireland - the long-term impact of political violence on the civil population. The result of extensive research among local communities, and drawing on survey and interview evidence, Northern Ireland After the Good Friday Agreement sets this issue within the context of past conflict and the continuing sectarian violence of the present. In particular it presents the views of ordinary people about their personal experiences of political violence and the impact it has had upon their lives. Moreover, it shows how the Troubles have affected the young people of the region, and looks at the problems facing a society coming out of a protracted period of low-intensity conflict.

Between the world wars, unemployment spread throughout the industrialized world like a disease. Focusing on the United States, Britain, and Europe, Matt Perrry compares and contrasts popular attitudes and the government response toward unemployment.Looking beyond statistics and economic cycles, Perry investigates the human impact of unemployment. He uncovers the experience of being jobless from the perspective of those who lived through it, their employers and their communities. He uses oral history, memoirs, literary accounts, and newspaper articles to reveal the reality of unemployment.Perry argues that the scale of the crisis has been minimized by historianswho have tended to emphasize that prolonged unemployment was the problem of the distressed fringe.Finally, Perry argues that the lessons of the 1930s have direct relevance today since the structural problems of industrial capitalism remain inherent.

We are the people is a popular Loyalist slogan in Northern Ireland - a statement of loyalty, identity and devotion to and from Ireland's Protestants. This collection examines the meaning behind this legend, providing a critique of the issues which affect this heterogeneous community.

Part of the "Past in Perspective" series, this text provides a concise introduction to the events which led to the partition of Ireland, with a discussion of the subsequent development of the two Irish states which emerged from the events of 1920-1922. The author is even-handed in his treatment of the two Irish states and their politics, and deals sensitively with a very complex affair, especially when he deals with post-1968 developments. In addition to a core of chapters which explore a major theme in depth and from a number of angles, this book begins with a survey of the ways in which its theme has been treated in the past by historians and other writers; it includes a section of contemporary documents substantial enough to give an accurate flavour of the relevant theme, and it ends with a bibliography to give the guidance to further study. By these means, as well as the inexpensive format, the series aims to convey the facination of Irish history to a wider public.

Synthesizing a vast body of scholarly work, Henry Patterson offers a compelling narrative of contemporary Ireland as a place poised between the divisiveness of deep-seated conflict and the modernizing - but perhaps no less divisive - pull of ever-greater material prosperity. Although the two states of Ireland have strikingly divergent histories, Patterson shows more clearly than any previous historian how interdependent those histories - and the mirroring ideologies that have fuelled them - have been. With its fresh and unpredictable readings of key events and developments on the island since the outbreak of the second world war, "Ireland Since 1939" is an authoritative and gripping account from one of the most distinguished Irish historians at work today.

In the already vast literature on Churchill, no single work has focused on his changing attitude towards the Soviet Union. In the first four decades after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, he oscillated in a seemingly bewildering fashion between enmity and apparent friendship with the Soviets. Taking the Bolshevik Revolution as its starting point, this is a pioneering study of this great statesman's relationship with the USSR until his retirement in 1955.

This book will provide a ground-breaking introduction to the history of poverty and welfare in modern Ireland in the era of the Irish poor law. As the first study to address poor relief and health care together, this book will fill an important gap in the existing literature providing a much-needed introduction to, and assessment of, the evolution of social welfare in nineteenth and early-twentieth century Ireland. The collection also addresses a number of related issues, including private philanthropy, the attitudes of landowners towards poor relief and the crisis of the poor law during the Great Famine of 1845-50. Together this interlinking set of contributions will both survey current research and suggest new areas for investigation thus it is hoped, proving a further stimulus to the growing field of Irish welfare history.

This text looks at the important issues in British politics since 1945, including a brief guide to the changing political culture of Britain in that period. It should be essential reading for all students studying politics at A2 level, as it covers all the important issues required by the main examining boards. Neil McNaughton begins by reviewing the changing nature of the principal political ideologies - Conservatism, Labourism and Liberalism - before discussing how these ideological changes impact generally on policy developments in the UK. Having described the changing nature of the political culture, addressing partisan dealignment, changing morality, the decline of religion and class fragmentation, he examines on a chapter-by-chapter basis the key issues of British politics today, the particular problems affecting Northern Ireland, devolution, constitutional reform, rights, the environment, issues of gender and sexual orientation, European integration and the European Union, the impact of the European Union on Britain, ending with a brief summary of the issues that are likely to take centre stage in British politics in the first decade of the 21st century. The text has been written in a accessible style, with helpful features such as summaries, definitions, tables and boxes to illuminate the points made.

In 'Marching to the Sound of Gunfire' scores of soldiers from almost every echelon of the British Army tell their amazing stories of life - and death - at the sharp end. In the eleven frenzied months of warfare that followed D-Day, these soldiers successfully drove the Nazi hordes back into their Fatherland, and beat them into surrender. There are stories from the 'poor bloody infantry' with their machine-gunners, mortar men, stretcher bearers and pioneers; the brave assault troops who stormed the Normandy beaches and forced bridgeheads over rivers and canals in four countries; the outgunned 'tankies' in their Shermans, Cromwells and Churchills, slogging it out against the mighty German Tigers and Panthers, and the fearsome dug-in 'eighty-eights'; the dashing recce types in their thin-skinned armored cars and carriers, sending back vital radio reports; the sappers building bridges and clearing minefields under fire; the gunners with their dedicated FOOs bringing down furious and accurate barrages; the signalers, patching up communication links; the non-combatant stretcher-bearers picking up the dead and dying from the battlefield, their Red Cross armbands no guarantee of immunity from fire; the RAMC doctors and orderlies tending the wounded in their RAP under the most terrible conditions; the immediate support services of the RASC, bringing up vital food and ammunition for the morrow; and the REME repairing armored vehicles to fight another day.

Charles Hudson VC was one of the twentieth century's outstanding fighting soldiers. His military career through two world wars and in Russia in 1919 earned him a host of medals. He was also a man of deep feeling, an accomplished poet and, in many ways, a rebel. In this compelling biography, the author skilfully interweaves his own narrative insight with his father's wartime journals and other unpublished material. The narrative includes detailed personal descriptions of the Battle of the Somme and other actions. It recounts the authoress Vera Brittain's bitter reaction to the death of her brother Edward when under Hudson's command in Italy in 1918 and tells how Hudson, out of compassion for her feelings, did not reveal the truth until he met her in 1934. It tells of the extraordinary affair in the summer of 1940, when the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, asked a meeting of senior army commanders in the then beleaguered Britain whether, in the event of a successful German invasion, their soldiers would agree to be evacuated to Canada or whether they would insist on going home to support their families. The author examines Hudson's motivation in both wars and delves deeply into his complex, and highly courageous, character.