Battles Fought on Irish Soil

Sean McMahon

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Book
€14.99

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Publication date: 2010

ISBN: 978-1-907535-03-1

Category: History

Type: Paperback

Price: €14.99

A clear, lively, account of all the significant battles in Irish history, from pre-history to the Normans to the Black and Tans in 1920-1, concluding with the Battle of the Bogside in 1969.

The first battle described in this book is the mythological Moytura, in which the Tuatha Dé Danann were victorious; the last is the modern-day Battle of the Bogside, in August 1969, which brought British soldiers on to the streets of Derry, where they stayed for nearly forty years.  No battle is without significance but some are surely more significant than others: Clontarf  in 1014; Hugh O’Neill’s Yellow (Blackwater) Ford in 1599, the sheer efficiency and slaughter of which shook Tudor rule in Ireland to its foundations; Kinsale in 1601 and Aughrim in 1691, lamented by generations of Irish poets as the death-knell of Gaelic Ireland. It will be clear to the most casual observer that from the Irish viewpoint far more battles were lost than won but the heroism of moral victories – such as those of Tone, Emmet and Pearse – went some way to compensate. Battles Fought on Irish Soil gives a clear, lively, non-partisan account of all the affrays, mostly between the Irish and the English, from the Normans in 1169 to the Black and Tans in 1920-1, but also between Irish and Irish in the Civil War of 1922-3.

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About the author

Sean McMahon (1931-2020) was born in Derry and educated at the Queen’s University, Belfast, and worked for many years as a teacher of Mathematics in St Columb’s College, Derry. He published scores of books in the areas of history, literary criticism and biography, including biographies of Ulster writers Robert Lynd and Sam Hanna Bell. He was a gifted writer of popular history and among his bestselling titles are A Short History of Ireland (Mercier Press).