Hardback : $218.00
For a revolutionary generation of Irishmen and Irishwomen - including suffragettes, labour activists, and nationalists - imprisonment became a common experience. In the years 1912-1921, thousands were arrested and held in civil prisons or in internment camps in Ireland and Britain. The state's intent was to repress dissent, but instead, the prisons and camps became a focus of radical challenge to the legitimacy and durability of the state. Some
of these prisons and prisoners are famous: Terence MacSwiney and Thomas Ashe occupy a central position in the prison martyrology of Irish republican culture, and Kilmainham Gaol has become one of the
most popular tourist sites in Dublin. In spite of this, a comprehensive history of political imprisonment focused on these years does not exist. In Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921, William Murphy attempts to provide such a history. He seeks to detail what it was like to be a political prisoner; how it smelled, tasted, and felt. More than that, the volume demonstrates that understanding political imprisonment of this period is one of the keys to understanding the Irish revolution.
Murphy argues that the politics of imprisonment and the prison conflicts analysed here reflected and affected the rhythms of the revolution. In doing so, he not only reconstructs and
assesses the various experiences and actions of the prisoners, but those of their families, communities, and political movements, as well as the attitudes and reactions of the state and those charged with managing the prisoners.
For a revolutionary generation of Irishmen and Irishwomen - including suffragettes, labour activists, and nationalists - imprisonment became a common experience. In the years 1912-1921, thousands were arrested and held in civil prisons or in internment camps in Ireland and Britain. The state's intent was to repress dissent, but instead, the prisons and camps became a focus of radical challenge to the legitimacy and durability of the state. Some
of these prisons and prisoners are famous: Terence MacSwiney and Thomas Ashe occupy a central position in the prison martyrology of Irish republican culture, and Kilmainham Gaol has become one of the
most popular tourist sites in Dublin. In spite of this, a comprehensive history of political imprisonment focused on these years does not exist. In Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921, William Murphy attempts to provide such a history. He seeks to detail what it was like to be a political prisoner; how it smelled, tasted, and felt. More than that, the volume demonstrates that understanding political imprisonment of this period is one of the keys to understanding the Irish revolution.
Murphy argues that the politics of imprisonment and the prison conflicts analysed here reflected and affected the rhythms of the revolution. In doing so, he not only reconstructs and
assesses the various experiences and actions of the prisoners, but those of their families, communities, and political movements, as well as the attitudes and reactions of the state and those charged with managing the prisoners.
Introduction
1: 'What is Good Enough for the Suffragettes': Ireland,
1912-1914
2: 'In Place of an Academy We Have a Jail': Ireland, Summer 1915 -
Easter 1916
3: 'Nowhere Else Does One Learn to Know a Colleague So Well': May
1916 - June 1917
4: 'Hunger-Strike Mania': Ireland, June 1917- June 1918
5: 'The Same Walls & Doors & Gates & Persons': Internment (Britain)
May 1918 - March 1919
6: 'Out with the Warrants, Set On the G Men, Roll Up the Black
Marias, Fill Up the Jails': June 1918 - July 1919
7: 'You Will Find They Will Climb Down': August 1919-June 1920
8: 'The Tower of Hunger': August-November 1920
9: 'Home Rule within the Empire': November 1920 - June 1921
10: 'Every Internee was a Centre of Disaffection': Truce to
Treaty
11: 'The Gates are Thrown Open'
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendices
William Murphy is an historian of the political and cultural history of modern Ireland. The North American Society for Sport History named The Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884-2009, which he co-edited, best edited collection of 2009.
Political Imprissonment in Ireland marks the appearance of a
significant publication relating to Ireland's revolutionary decade.
This is the first comprehensive study of political imprisonment in
the years 1912 to 1921, when 6,129 men and women were either
interned or imprisoned as a result of the unrest in the country in
the aftermath of the 1916 rebellion and subsequent War of
Independence.
*Maria Luddy, History Today*
Murphy provides a well-written and meticulously researched account
of Irish imprisonment... an important study of a central facet of
modern Irish history that will undoubtedly pave the way for closer
analysis
*Ian Miller, Irish Studies Review*
a well-written, direct, concise, engaging, and enjoyable study,
neither disappointingly simplistic nor needlessly esoteric. It is
accessible to new students of the period and specialists alike. The
original research is extremely impressive and renders the work a
valuable contribution to prison studies and studies of the Irish
revolution while it is simultaneously a great sample of history
written from below.
*Nicholas A. Stark, H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences
Online*
This is a well-written and tightly-argued book. Murphy lays out his
evidence clearly and carefully, yet gives readers an accessible and
engaging text. His analysis of the Irish prison administration is
first-class and is an important addition to the literature.
*John Borgonovo, Studia Hibernica*
This is a landmark study on the subject and will be a benchmark by
which subsequent work in this area is judged.
*James Loughlin, American Historical Review*
William Murphy's monograph is an exciting and necessary scholarly
addition. Meticulously researched, broadly considered, and nuanced
in interpretation, Murphy's book convincingly argues for the need
to move beyond the public arena and instead to examine the period
through the usually hidden "prism" of the prison.
*Laura McAtackney, Journal of British Studies*
Murphy offers the first comprehensive history of a decade during
which political prisoners ... effectively turned the apparatus of
state control into a site of active revolution ... [the book makes]
important contributions to political and social history ...
bring[s] to light hitherto neglected perspectives on the ordinary
activists, paramilitaries and prisoners and their families and
communities who experienced and contributed to a decade of
monumental change.
*Gemma Clark, Social History*
Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, manuscripts,
contemporary publications, memoirs, and secondary literature,
Murphy provides a social and cultural history of political
imprisonment. This is a welcome approach, moving the focus away
from previous research on political developments surrounding
certain prisons and individuals ... [a] well-written and easy to
read book.
*Dieter Reinisch, Saoirse - Irish Freedom*
[Murphy's] work is detailed, and complements well the existing
literature ... a formidable and sensitive study of the 'Irish
felon'
*Marc Mulholland, English Historical Review*
a closely detailed, subtly nuanced study of a penal system placed
under severe, almost intolerable, strain by increasingly organised
protests by prisoners demanding political status ... his account
does much to illuminate the gradual poisoning of the political
atmosphere.
*Charles Townshend, Irish Historical Studies*
With its comprehensive scholarly apparatus, this book will provide
great assistance to all its readers ... this is first-rate
scholarship, working on material of unvarying interest.
*Sean McConville, The Historian*
William Murphy has produced the most complete study to date of the
experiences of Irish political prisoners. Beginning with the
treatment meted out to suffragettess, Murphy takes us with great
skill through the different phases of government policy towards
republican prisoners, through hunger strikes and escapes. Political
Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921 will be the definitive
account for some time to come.
*Brian Hanley, Irish Economic and Social History*
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
