An account of a little-known yet crucial development in the Irish War of Independence

On Easter Monday 1916, Irish rebels seized a number of strategic buildings in Dublin, including the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, and declared an Irish Republic. Within a week they had been bombarded into surrender. Out in the countryside, amidst chaos and confusion over counter orders, the Rising failed to materialize as planned. The one notable exception was the campaign of the Fingal Brigade of North County Dublin. Their leader, the charismatic Tom Ashe, launched a fast moving guerrilla campaign against the para-military Royal Irish Constabulary, seizing barracks and capturing arms. At Ashbourne the Irish Volunteers, having captured the RIC barracks, were faced with the arrival of a numerically superior force of armed policemen. Using tactics evolved from British army training manuals, they overcame and defeated the police. Ashe and Fingal Brigade had shown that fast moving guerrilla warfare was the way ahead in the future struggle for Irish independence

This little-known yet crucial development in the Irish War of Independence is well researched and described in this over-due account.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The 5th Fingal Battalion
• Chapter 2 He Rises on Sunday, and We on Monday
• Chapter 3 Monday: Confusion and Certainty
• Chapter 4 Tuesday: Waiting for Orders
• Chapter 5 Wednesday: On the Offensive
• Chapter 6 Thursday: Controversy and Conviction
• Chapter 7 Friday: The Attack on Ashbourne Barracks
• Chapter 8 The Battle of Ashbourne
• Chapter 9 After the Battle
• Chapter 10 Prisoners
• Chapter 11 Executions and Deportations
• Chapter 12 Frongoch
• Chapter 13 The Aftermath
• Chapter 14 An Analysis of the Battle of Ashbourne
• Appendix I: Volunteers of the Dublin 5th Battalion
• Appendix II: RIC Men Killed and Wounded
• Appendix III: Awards to RIC Men
• Postscript
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Plates