General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert’s epochal military campaign in Ireland, or ‘The Year of the French’ – Bliain na bhFrancach as it is often referred to, was euphemistically known to the ordinary people of Mayo as ‘The Hurry’, ‘The Time O’ the Frinch’, or ‘The Turnout’.

The ‘short fatiguing campaign’, as Lord Cornwallis, the Viceroy and British commander-in-chief contemptuously described it, began with the arrival of Humbert’s small expeditionary force, numbering only 1,019 troops, on August 22, 1798 at Kilcummin, County Mayo. It was played out over four counties, occupied for a month the attention of all the available soldiers of a British army 100,000 strong, and ended back in Mayo, at Killala, on September 23, with the brutal massacre of hundreds of Irish citizens.

The précis follows broadly in the footsteps of Humbert’s Franco-Irish army through Mayo, and is an honest, straightforward and sympathetic attempt to document the living heritage of ‘The Year of the French’ in Mayo.

It also incorporates various aspects of heritage, namely folklore, history, music, geography, and includes selected reproductions of contemporary illustrations, maps and photographs of the monuments, graves, landmarks and relics associated with the regional social memory of ‘The Hurry’; all of which are clarified with historical references that reflect both local folklore traditions and academic historiography.

This second edition was published after the death of the book’s author, Stephen Dunford, and includes updates such as a comprehensive index and a tribute to Steve Dunford.