What is it like to be in the I.R.A. - or at their mercy? This fascinating study explores the lives and deaths of the enemies and victims of the County Cork I.R.A. between 1916 and 1923 - the most powerful and deadly branch of the I.R.A. during one of the most turbulent periods in twentieth-century Ireland.

These years saw the breakdown of the British legal system and police authority, the rise of republican violence, and the escalation of the conflict into a full-scale guerilla war, leading to a wave of riots, ambushes, lootings, and reprisal killings, with civilians forming the majority of victims in this unacknowledged civil war.

Religion may have provided the starting point for the conflict, but class prejudice, patriotism, and personal grudges all fuelled the development and continuation of widespread violence. Using an unprecedented range of sources - many of them only recently made public - Peter Hart explores the motivation behind such activity. His conclusions not only reveal a hidden episode of Ireland's troubled past but provide valuable insights into the operation of similar terrorist groups today.

Peter Hart's profile page

Peter Hart is Visiting Resarch Fellow, The Queen's University, Belfast; and Adjunct Professor, Department of History, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

'Hart's biggest achievement in terms of social history is his ability to connect various sources, provide a convincing picture of the life IRA members lived, and place it in the context of the changes in Ireland at the time. The individual histories and violent incidents are connected with more general developments by drawing skilfully on very varied material ... this book has many merits. It shows in amazing detail what happened in Cork during the revolutionary period and how it was experienced at the time. Nowhere else can such a balanced and detailed picture be found of what the revolution was ultimately about.' Joost Augusteijn, SAOTHAR 23

'magnificent first book ... Combining rigorous statistical research with passionate and beautiful writing, Peter Hart has produced a superb book which deserves nothing but the highest praise.' Ben Novick, Christ Church College, University of Oxford, History, Vol 84 no 275, July 1999

'Peter Hart has produced a study which, for exploitation of sources and for disciplined and multifaceted analysis, stands comparison with Charles Townshend's The British Campaign in Ireland 1919-1921 (1975) ... he has set a standard of forensic documentary research which other historians, whether those preparing local studies of the Irish revolution, or those rushing to the defence of the good name of Cork Republicanism, may conceivably emulate but will surely not surpass.' Eunan O'Halpin, Times Literary Supplement

'Hart writes with sensitivity, sociological insight and, when necessary, controlled passion ... And instant classic.' Roy Foster, Spectator

Hart draws the reader into a world of quite sickening violence. Hart begins as he means to go on, exploring the creation of isolated communities of killers who detach themselves from human sympathy for their victims. - Adrian Gregory. - Journal of Contemporary History. Vol. 34 No. 3 July 1999

'remarkable and frightening book ... This is a work of meticulous scholarship based on detailed examination of original sources, as well as oral testimony from survivors. But it is also one of those books that illuminate a much wider area than their seemingly narrow confines ... eye-opening for anyone who still believes in "cossetting" - or in non-sectarian republicanism.' Geoffrey Wheatcroft, New Statesman and Society

'outstanding piece of forensic scholarship' Journal of Modern History, June 2001

'a superb, multi-layered history of the "intimate war" of this dark, iconic period in Cork ... a vivid deeply affecting book' Mic Moroney, The Irish Times, 25/3/00

'Irish historians have written extensively about the "Troubles" of 1916-23, but few have done so as masterfully or with as much originality as Hart. ... an illuminating, often gripping account that students of modern history, politics, and sociology will find immensely useful.' G. Owens, CHOICE

Hart is intrigued by the menacing networks of loyalty and disloyalty and ideas of community in a time of violence. He works in detail, emphasizing the personal and the local. He has written, I think, an important sourcebook./Colm Toibin/ TLS 4/12/98