'Britain in Ireland is a beast exceeding terrible; his feet and claws are of iron,' The Invincibles In an Ireland still reeling from years of famine, with tenant farmers being evicted and left to starve for their inability to pay exorbitant rents, revolutionary fervour was growing. An inner circle of the IRB was formed, a secret assassination squad within a secret society - the Irish National Invincibles. Their mission was to strike at the heart of British Imperial power, to kill the figureheads of Ireland's oppressors. On their way home from a triumphal parade through the city, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, two of the heads of the establishment, were set upon and stabbed to death in the Phoenix Park. These killings would shake the Empire to its core, and shape the following decades of Irish history.

This condensed history examines why the Great Famine was so catastrophic, and explores its effect on Irish society and culture. It explains the circumstances surrounding the period and addresses issues and characteristics of the time. Aspects covered include the spread of disease, the experiences of those on public works projects and the disagreements between political leaders regarding the distribution of what little food was available. Featuring new material on the Irish Famine which has never been published before, this is an accessible and comprehensive history of the period surrounding the famine, as well as the horrors endured by the people of Ireland.

On 24 April 1916, as President of the Provisional Government, Patrick Pearse appeared under the GPO Grand Portico on Dublin's O'Connell Street and read aloud the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Nine days later, he was the first of the rebel leaders to be executed. Pearse was born in Dublin on 11 November 1879, to an English father and an Irish mother. Considered the face of the 1916 Easter Rising, for many he was also its heart. In this definitive biography, using a wealth of primary sources, Dr Ruan O'Donnell establishes as never before the significance of Pearse's activism all across Ireland, as well as his dual roles as Director of Military Operations for the Irish Volunteers and member of the clandestine Military Council of the IRB. On 3 May 1916, Pearse was executed in the Stonebreakers Yard at Kilmainham Gaol, at the age of thirty-six.

The COLOUR PARTY is an autobiographical novel about a young Irish-American political activist. Set mostly in Dublin and New Orleans, with a backdrop of the Northern Irish War.

The Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) consisted to a large degree of a series of reprisal killings between the IRA and the British Crown forces. An important figure in the development of Republicanism and the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the west of Ireland was Colm O'Gaora, was also a leading figure in the first generation of Nationalist intellectuals who defined the emergence of the nascent Irish state. On the Run is his memoir and provides a fascinating insight into a particularly turbulent era in Irish history. First hand accounts of the West of Ireland during these years of revival and revolution are comparatively rare. O'Gaora illuminates the historical record, however, and provides his unique recollections of the period, as well as descriptions of his imprisonment in both Dublin and in Britain for Republican activities.

Limerick's Fighting Story offers eye witness and first hand accounts of the struggle for independence in Limerick city and county.When the Truce was declared in the War of Independence in July 1921, each of Limerick's brigade areas, west, mid and east had flying columns in the field. While the challenge of city fighting and urban guerrilla tactics were high on the list of concerns for the mid brigade, the east and west flying columns were active raiders and ambush artists.This new edition of the classic Limerick's Fighting Story features stories and reports from every aspect of the conflict in Limerick from the Limerick Heroes of 1916, through the nights of terror and violence in Limerick city as Tans killed residents, to the exploits of the women of Cumman na mBan.