Eoin O'Duffy was one of the most controversial figures of modern Irish history. A leader of the Irish revolution, and protégé of Michael Collins, he commanded the Irish police and defence forces, before emerging as Ireland's leading fascist politician in the 1930s. A crusading moralist, obsessed with the need to counter public immorality, and a closet homosexual and alcoholic, O'Duffy's remarkable life was characterised by self-aggrandisement, fantasy, andcontradiction.

Most of the prominent figures from Ireland's revolutionary generation have been endlessly profiled and commemorated but the controversial General Eoin O'Duffy remains a pariah. Despite reaching the heights of leadership in the republican movement during the Irish revolutionary period--and subsequently becoming a key state-builder in early independent Ireland as head of the national police force--O'Duffy's legacy retains a whiff of sulphur. It has been tarnished by his controversial political career in the 1930s, including his leadership of the fascistic Blueshirts and his pro-Franco involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Using a blend of well-charted and previously overlooked or unavailable material, this book examines the tumultuous periods of Ireland's struggle for independence and the early Irish Free State. It foregrounds O'Duffy's place within pro-treaty Irish nationalism. A militarist and supporter of Michael Collins, he became a safe pair of hands relied upon to rescue the pro-treaty regime during crises.The book offers new interpretations on his involvement with international fascism and provides a much needed nuance on the prevalence of crypto-fascist outlooks in the 1930s. It seeks to blow away the cobwebs of mythology and recalibrate our understanding of this most controversial Irishman.

During the Spanish Civil War many groups on the European right were galvanised by the Nationalist cause. This book recounts the experiences of a number of foreign volunteers, all of whom saw their engagement in Spain as a means of promoting their own political causes at home.

On the morning of 15th May, 1922, over 1,000 recruits of the newly established Civic Guard suddenly broke ranks during Commissioner Michael Staines' TD address at Morning Parade in the training depot at Kildare Barracks. The recruits immediately set about raiding the armoury while Staines and his senior officers withdrew under armed protection and evacuated the barracks much to the annoyance of Michael Collins, the Chairman of the fledgling Provisional Government. For almost seven weeks, Collins and the mutineers struggled to reconcile their differences in the midst of the Irish Civil War. Both sides were unaware that their efforts to resolve the dispute were thwarted by a group of anti-Treaty Civic Guards intent on destroying the new force. This book investigates the reasons why the earliest recruits of the Civic Guard took up arms against their own masters and brought about a significant security risk that had direct implications for both the civil war and the future structure of the its successor, An Garda Síochána.

Introduction / McLoughlin and O'Connor -- Ireland and the SCW: the setting, Spain and Europe in 1936, clericalism and anti-clericalism in Spain and Ireland, politics in Ireland / O'Connor -- Northern Ireland and the SCW: contrasting perspectives of Unionists and nationalists on Spain / O'Connor -- First actions: Madrid, Lopera, and the defection of the Irish from the British battalion to the Lincoln battalion in January 1936 / O'Connor -- Blood and Boredom at the Jarama: February-June 1937 / McLoughlin -- Frank Ryan and the politics of the SCW in Ireland / O'Connor -- Republican offensives (I): Pozoblanco, Brunete / McLoughlin -- Republican Offensives (II): Aragón, Teruel / McLoughlin -- Retreat and Capture, March 1938: Irish POWs / McLoughlin -- Frank Ryan's trial and imprisonment, 1938-1939 / McLoughlin -- Attempts to Frank Ryan Released, 1939-1940 / McLoughlin -- The Irish volunteers: discipline, desertion and punishment / McLoughlin and O'Connor -- Over the Ebro: Last battle of the Internationals, July-September 1938 / McLoughlin -- Withdrawal, homecoming, and the politics of commemoration / O'Connor -- Conclusion / McLoughlin and O'Connor.

When Fine Gael entered a coalition government with Fianna Fáil in 2020 the party did what would have been unthinkable for its forefathers, who had fought and won a bitter civil war to establish the institutions of an independent Irish state almost a century earlier. Saving the State is the remarkable story of Fine Gael from its origins in the fraught days of civil war to the political convulsions of 2020. Written by political journalist Stephen Collins and historian Ciara Meehan, Saving the State draws on a wealth of original historical research and a range of interviews with key political figures to chart the evolution of the party through the lens of its successive leaders. From the special place occupied by Michael Collins in the party's pantheon of heroes to the dark era of the Blueshirts, and from its role as the founder of the state to its claim to be the defender of the state, the ways that members perceive their own history is also explored. Saving the State is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how Fine Gael came to be the party it is today, the ways in which it interprets and presents its own history, and the role that it played in shaping modern Ireland.