20
the
universit y
of
wisconsin
press
•
F
all
2013
HISTORY / IRISH STUDIES / POLITICS
“A major contribution to understanding the government of Ireland
from 1922 to 1932, demonstrating that it remained committed to the
revolutionary ideals of the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence.”
—John McCarthy, author of
Twenty-First Century Ireland: A View from America
Ascending to power after the Anglo-Irish Treaty and a violent revolution against
the United Kingdom, the political party Cumann na nGaedheal governed during
the first ten years of the Irish Free State (1922–32). Taking over from the fallen
Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, Cumann na nGaedheal leaders such as
W. T. Cosgrave and Kevin O’Higgins won a bloody civil war, created the institu-
tions of the new Free State, and attempted to project abroad the independence
of a new Ireland.
In response to the view that Cumann na nGaedheal was actually a reactionary
counterrevolutionary party,
Afterimage of the Revolution
contends that, in build-
ing the new Irish state, the government framed and promoted its policies in terms
of ideas inherited from the revolution. In particular, Cumann na nGaedheal
emphasized Irish sovereignty, the “Irishness” of the new state, and a strong sense
of anticolonialism, all key components of the Sinn Féin party platform during the
revolution. Jason Knirck argues that the 1920s must be understood as part of a
continuing Irish revolution that led to an eventual independent republic. Draw-
ing on state documents, newspapers, and private papers—including the recently
released papers of Kevin O’ Higgins—he offers a fresh view of Irish politics in the
1920s and integrates this period more closely with the Irish Revolution.
Jason Knirck
is associate professor of history at
Central Washington University and is the author
of
Women of the Dáil: Gender, Republicanism and
the Anglo-Irish Treaty
and
Imagining Ireland’s
Independence
.
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
JANUARY
LC: 2013015049 DA
304 PP. 6 × 9
E-BOOK $24.95 S ISBN 978-0-299-29583-7
History of Ireland and the
Irish Diaspora
James S. Donnelly, Jr., and Thomas
Archdeacon, Series Editors
Of re l at ed int e re s t
James S. Donnelly, Jr.
“Donnelly’s knowledge of Irish rural
society is both broad and deep, and this
is by far the most thorough and insight-
ful study of this tragic, complex, and very
important episode in pre-famine Irish his-
tory.”—Kerby Miller, author of
Emigrants
and Exiles
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2009
LC: 2009009443 DA 512 PP. 6 × 9
22 B/W ILLUS., 5 MAPS
E-BOOK $19.95 T ISBN 978-0-299-23313-6
History of Ireland and the
Irish Diaspora
