The Irish Republic (book) 3352494 220987601 2008-06-22T15:08:30Z SmackBot 433328 Date the maintenance tags or general fixes <!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Eamondv.jpg|thumb|Éamon de Valera<br><small>De Valera inherited the royalties from the book.</small>]] -->'''''The Irish Republic''''' is a history book written by [[Dorothy Macardle]], first published in 1937, which covers the formation and existence of the [[Irish Republic]], the [[Irish War of Independence]], the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] and the [[Irish Civil War]], a period which covered from 1919–1923. The book, which was first published in 1937, analyses the period from an [[Irish republican]], pro-[[Éamon de Valera]] perspective. Though sometimes disputing aspects of its analysis, the book, along with [[Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford|Frank Pakenham]]'s ''[[Peace by Ordeal (book)|Peace by Ordeal]]'', is regarded within universities as elementary reading for students studying the period and features on most course reading lists.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} Among the reasons are:{{Fact|date=June 2008}} * The author personally knew, and was friendly with, many of the people she was writing about; among those who she thanked in the acknowledgements were [[Seán T. O'Kelly]], [[Oscar Traynor]], [[Tomás Ó Deirg]], [[Seán MacBride]], and the widows of [[Austin Stack]] and [[Robert Erskine Childers]]. As a result she knew from personal experience their private views and opinions, not just those expressed publicly. * She had been an activist with the republican movement during the period, serving in [[Cumann na mBan]], being held in [[Mountjoy Gaol|Mountjoy]] and [[Kilmainham Gaol]]s during the Civil War. Thus she had an insider's perspective on the movement. * It reflects the perspective of Anti-Treaty republicans. Later books were less sympathetic to the Anti-Treaty side, given the widespread belief, even expressed by de Valera at the end of his life, that opposition to the Treaty was in retrospect a mistake. Macardle willed the royalties from the book, which has regularly been reprinted, to her close friend Éamon de Valera, who wrote the book's foreword. The book's political allegiances were demonstrated unmistakably when a studio portrait of de Valera featured on the front page of some editions. ==Additional reading== * Dorothy Macardle, ''The Irish Republic'' (Corgi edition, 1968) * Tim Pat Coogan, ''Éamon de Valera'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Irish Republic}} [[Category:Irish history books]]