Second Edition

“...A number of years have since passed, and with those years passing, so too accumulated previously unearthed source material that had not been available to me while writing the book’s first edition. Intermittingly, as health permitted, the project was revisited, and then put on the backburner, only to be again returned to over the past number of years. I did this with the help of my son, Ultan, who consulted archives and co-wrote with me the additional material that appears in this second edition. The epilogue that follows therefore provides a platform to engage with discrepancies evident in previous material written about the Revolutionary period in South Mayo. However, it also provides an avenue to incorporate hitherto unheard voices whose actual participation in the events under focus, adds context and throws additional light onto our understanding of what took place in this part of the west of Ireland a century ago. These previously unheard voices are mainly made up of the opposing sides of the Anglo-Irish conflict, including accounts that do not often correspond to opponents’ recollections relating to the same events, nor even with the recollections of their own comrades.”

About the authors

The late Micheál Lally was a quiet, low key and very thoughtful individual who gave great counsel to whomever might seek it off him. He had a great and infectious laugh, what some people call the ‘Lally laugh’. He possessed an uncanny ability to recognise talents in others where many of the rest of us might only see fault. He was generous in every sense of the word but again low key in being so. He thought of others before himself. He loved talking to people one on one rather than holding court with a crowd, mainly, I suspect, because he was genuinely interested in what others had to say. He was a brilliant listener, and the very best of company. It could often be a restorative if not transformative experience being in his presence. He was married to the late Josephine (née Clarke), with whom he had 7 children. The second edition, like the first, is dedicated to Josephine.

One of Micheál’s children, Ultan, was the late author’s co-pilot on this venture. Ultan has worked in Dominican archives for a number of years now. In 2016, he assisted Sr. Alberta Ní Mhaolalaidh OP in the transference of the Galway Dominican Library (founded 1643) to its present location at the James Hardiman Special Collections at the University of Galway. In the summer of 2018, Ultan assisted Sr. Mary O'Byrne OP (General Archivist of the Congregation of Irish Dominican Sisters) in the transference of the Library of the Irish Dominican Convent of Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso, Belém, Lisbon, Portugal (founded in 1639) to its present location at the Convento de São Domingos de Benfica, Lisbon. His main area of historical research is the influence of Dominican friars and sisters on Connacht society in the seventeenth century.