Commemorating the Irish Civil War History and Memory, 1923–2000

This volume is about the commemoration of the Irish Civil War. Working from the perspective of the winners of a war no one wished to fight, it examines how the memory of the victor's dead is treated in public and private spheres. This is achieved through examination of the methods and rituals of commemoration. The book's importance, and its main difference from other books, lies in its close examination of the legacy of civil war bitterness in Ireland, a legacy which has, until now, been largely assumed and misunderstood.

After civil war, can the winners commemorate their victory, hailing their conquering heroes with the blood of their former comrades still fresh on their boots? Or should they cover themselves in shame and hope that the nation soon forgets? In this book, Anne Dolan explores the tensions between memory and forgetting in twentieth-century Ireland. By examining the memory of winning the Irish Civil War, she discusses the extent to which it has been used to serve party political ends, where private grief finds consolation when the dead have fallen from political favour, and how the dead are remembered when no one wanted to fight the war. The book addresses the Irish Civil War at its most public point: at the statues and crosses, and in the ritual and rhetoric of commemoration. It will be of central interest to all students and scholars of European history and politics.

Acknowledgements; Introduction: civil war and the politics of memory, 1923–2000; 1. The elephant on Leinster Lawn: a cenotaph to civil war; 2. 'History will record the greatness of Collins': Michael Collins and the politics of memory; 3. The forgotten president: the awkward memory of Arthur Griffith; 4. 'Who is the fool Pat?': soldiers and the selective memory of civil war; 5. 'Shows and stunts are all that is the thing now': ceremony and the collective memory of conflict; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

In this book, Anne Dolan explores the tensions between memory and forgetting in twentieth-century Ireland, by examining the methods and rituals of commemoration. The book's main difference from other books lies in its close examination of the legacy of civil war bitterness in Ireland.

Anne Dolan is Research Fellow in Contemporary Irish History at Trinity College Dublin.