This book provides a play-by-play account of important operations and key people during the Irish War of Independence. In 1992 Kathleen Hegarty Thorne’s first became interested in Irish history and its fighting men and women during a visit to the Hegarty cottage in Ballinaheglish, County Roscommon, where the echoes of the footsteps of her deceased great-uncle and his comrades had fallen silent o’er the fields. This book reaches out beyond these borders to chronicle the vents and the people who changed the course of Irish history.

Kathleen Hegarty Thorne presents a history of the IRA through concise entries, sequentially ordered. The book provides a running historical calendar of events about the IRA (interspersed with various tidbits of notable Irish happenings), punctuated with articles detailing the various hunger strikers and placing those articles alongside the time period during which they lived. She also highlights the important persons in the Republician Army and was determined that an article about each of the men who held the Chief of Staff position in the Republican Army would be a valuable addition to the story. Some of these men were Chief for only a few days before circumstances changed. Others had a profound effect on the happenings in Ireland during their tenure. To the reader she explains the unusual construction of this book, begs forgiveness if every event is not included or fully explained, but sincerely hopes that this accounting will endear many of these men and women to your hearts, and that in generations to come, their story will remain vibrant and valued.