New Release Books by David Patrick Brian Fitzpatrick

Harry Boland was a key figure in the Irish r epublican movement between 1916 and 1922. David Fitzpatrick'' s biography draws upon thousands of letters to and from Bola nd, as well as diaries, police reports, memoirs and other do cuments. '

"Irish emigration to America is one of the clichés of modern Irish history; much less familiar is the reverse process. Who were the people who chose to return to Ireland? What motivated them? And what effect did this have on Irish society? While many European countries were more or less Americanised in this period, the Irish case was unique as so many Irish families had members in America. The most powerful agency for Americanisation, therefore, was not popular culture but circumstantial knowledge and personal contact. David Fitzpatrick demonstrates the often unexpected ways in which the reverse effects of emigration remoulded Irish society, balancing ground-breaking demographic research with fascinating accounts of individual experiences to assemble a vivid picture of this changing Irish society. He explores the transformative impact of reverse migration from America to post-Famine Ireland, and offers many and surprising insights into Ireland's growing population of American-born residents"--

Ernest Blythe (1889-1975) was a central figure in the Irish revolution and the first decade of the Irish Free State. He was a leading republican organiser before 1916, a Dáil minister from 1919, and a controversial member of Cosgrave's executive council, becoming vice-president after the murder of O'Higgins. He was widely regarded with interest and sometimes suspicion because of his Protestant and unionist background, a rarity in modern Irish republicanism. His judgements and opinions were typically intelligent and well-informed as well as unconventional. This project originated in David Fitzpatrick's discovery that Blythe, already a leading member of the IRB, joined the Orange Order while reporting for a unionist newspaper in County Down (1909-13). Had that fact become known, Blythe's political ambitions would have been dashed. Nowhere in his writings does he allude to this episode, though he indicated clearly his need to lead 'a double life' in the sense of appearing all things to all men. Blythe's account of his 'double life' is utterly inadequate. This book unveils the reality of his double life in Ulster, explains how it may have originated, and relates this episode to his subsequent views on partition, Ulster, and Fascism. Blythe may be regarded as a double agent, who sought to enlighten republicans about unionism, and unionists about Irish nationality. More broadly, the book uncovers important affinities between militant republicanism and unionism, especially during the pre-war crisis over Home Rule, when Ulster loyalists seemed the group best prepared and most likely to initiate an armed revolution in Ireland.