Kevin Barry – An Irish Rebel in Life and Death by Eunan O’Halpin
100 years ago, on 1 November 1920, eighteen-year-old UCD medical student Kevin Barry was hanged in Dublin’s Mountjoy Jail for his role in a bungled IRA operation in which three British soldiers were killed.
To this day, he remains a celebrated icon of patriotic, idealistic death and his name is synonymous with youthful republican sacrifice. His life and early death is commemorated in the popular ballad performed for decades by artists such as The Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners – even Leonard Cohen.
His life was short, but Kevin was more than a hapless teen swept away in
the revolutionary maelstrom of the time. He joined the IRA at the age of 15,
first acting as a messenger, then later in operations, acquiring munitions
and weapons.
It was in one such operation in September 1920 – a raid
on a British Army truck that went terribly wrong – that he was captured,
subjected to violent interrogation, and ultimately sentenced to hang by a
military court martial.
His sentence and execution attracted international attention; American and Vatican officials sought a reprieve, but their efforts were in vain. Kevin Barry was hanged on 1 November, and instantly became a republican martyr.
In this book, Professor Eunan O’Halpin, a grand-nephew of Barry, accesses exclusive family records and other archives to explore Kevin’s republicanism and the endurance of his memory, one hundred years on.
From his unique vantage point and with unrivalled access, O’Halpin also considers Barry’s death in parallel with those other Irishmen who died for the republican cause within days of his own, how his background challenged assumptions about those who fought for Irish independence, and the lasting impact of having ‘a martyr in the family’.
Kevin Barry – An Irish Rebel in Life and Death is available from MerrionPress.ie, Waterstones, Easons, Kennys and all good booksellers. Paperback 250pp €16.95/£14.99 ISBN: 9781785373497.
Eunan O’Halpin is Bank of Ireland Professor of Contemporary Irish History at Trinity College Dublin, specialising in Twentieth-Century Irish and British History. He has published seven books on Irish history and intelligence, including Spying on Ireland: British Intelligence and Irish Neutrality during the Second World War (2008) and The Dead of the Irish Revolution, 1916-1921 (2020).
