Sligo features among Last Voices of the Irish Revolution

THE Irish Civil War ended in 1923. Eighty years on, author and documentary-maker Tom Hurley wondered if there were many civilians and combatants left from across Ireland who had experienced the years 1919 to 1923, their prelude and their aftermath. What memories had they, what were their stories and how did they reflect on those turbulent times?

In early 2003, he recorded the experiences of 18 people, conducting two further interviews abroad in 2004. Tom spoke to a cross-section (Catholic, Protestant, Unionist and Nationalist) who were in their teens or early twenties during the civil war. The chronological approach he has taken to his book spans fifty years, beginning with the oldest interviewee's birth in 1899 and ending when the Free State became a republic in 1949.

One of the interviewees is George Carpenter, born in 1908. His father was a native of Sligo, who had been a member of the RIC for 28 years. His record shows that he had a poor disciplinary record in the force, having been fined on no fewer than five occasions in addition to being reprimanded and cautioned on two others. Another interviewee named Patsy Holmes, born in 1902, discusses the popularity from 1920 of a song entitled 'On Ashtown Road' concerning the death of Martin Savage from Ballisodare who was killed in 1919. Interviewee Daniel O'Donovan, born in 1903, joined the Gardaí in 1925 and talks about his first posting which was to Sligo.

100 years after the Civil War ended, these 20 interviews recorded by Tom Hurley come together to create a unique oral account of the revolutionary period and the tensions that were brewing in the run-up and aftermath. Together, theirs are the Last Voices of the Irish Revolution.

Last Voices of the Irish Revolution by Tom Hurley is available in bookshops throughout the country and can also be ordered online. It is published by Gill Books.