Explorations of history-making, commemorations and heritage in modern times.

A study of  the Battle of Ashbourne in 1916, when the 5th Batallion of the Irish Volunteers confronted the RIC.

Contemporary Ireland, north and south, was founded in the decade 1912-23. From the signing of the Ulster Unionists' Solemn League and Covenant to the partitioning of the country and subsequent civil war in the Irish Free State, a series of events shaped Ireland  for the century to come.

The city of Cork experienced a political odyssey between Easter 1916 and the end of 1918. Irish Republicans evolved from a marginalised group to become undisputed political masters. The First World war created the context for this political transformation in Ireland's third- largest city.

Despite the obstacle of being based in the same county as one third of Britain's military strength in Ireland, the Kildare IRA played an important role in the War of Independence running a successful military campaign and playing a crucial role in intelligence gathering.

This classic text explains how the Irish Volunteers, encompassing a new generation of Irish men and women, oversaw the development of a new and re-energized movement, free from much of the party-political machinations and interference that had hindered Irish nationalist attempts at self-determination in previous decades.

After the Rebellion, came the trials. 3,226 men and women were rounded up and brought to Richmond Barracks in Dublin, where they were screened for trial, deportation or release.  Nearly 2,000 men and women were deported and interned. 160 prisoners were tried by Courts Martial. Most trials lasted about 20 minutes or less. 90 death sentences were passed and 15 were carried out. This book provides a powerful analysis of an uncomfortable moment in history when the rule of law gave way to political imperatives.

An account of the life of one of the founding members of the Irish Volunteers. Ceannt fought during the Rising, surrendered when ordered to do so by superior officer Patrick Pearse and was executed by firing squad aged 34.

Drawn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood through his strong conscience and sense of social justice, Thomas MacDonagh became a member of the Provisional Government and a signatory of the 1916 Easter Proclamation before his execution in 1916.

Tells the story of seven Irish women who became widows after their husbands were executed in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising. These women all knew each other and their lives became intertwined.

The first major history of the relatively overlooked 10th (Irish) Division sheds new light on ethnicity, age, religion, employment and social background and reveals that the 10th was neither as Irish nor as nationalist as previously believed.

Bill Mc Cormack demonstrates the profound French influence in Ireland leading up to the Easter Rising. However, it was not the traditions of the Tennis Court Oath or Bastille Day that motivated the Irish rebels, but a new French Catholic nationalism which reached its apogee with the Dreyfus Affair and which pervaded literature as well as politics.

Addressing the close relationship between Irish nationalism and Catholicism when a new republicanism emerged after the 1916 Easter rising, this book examines the War of Independence from the perspective of a powerful social elite: the Catholic clergy.

Diarmaid Ferriter’s account of the Irish Revolutions and their legacy; drawing on newly released archival material, witness statements and testimony from the people who lived and fought 1913-1923.

Biography of Con Colbert, member of Na Fianna Éireann, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who faced the firing squad at Kilmainham Gaol on 8 May 1916, aged twenty-seven.

Biography of Willie Pearse, the younger brother of Patrick Pearse, a leader of the 1916 Rising.

Tim Horgan tells the story of the lives and deaths of 162 Kerrymen who died while fighting for the cause of an independent Irish republic of 32 counties and provides a social history of the county and a snapshot of life in Ireland.

A first-hand account of the 1916 Rising and its aftermath from Joe Good, a member of the Irish Volunteers who guarded the approach across O'Connell Bridge as the rebels took the centre of Dublin, based on his journals and edited by his son Maurice.

A collection of poems of revolution and dreams and visions of freedom and nationhood for Ireland - focusing on before, during and after the 1916 Rising.

The first comprehensive history of Waterford during the turbulent and extraordinary years of the Irish Revolution; revealing what life was like for the ordinary men, women and  children of Waterford city and county during a period that witnessed world war as well as political and social strife in Ireland.