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

This book explores the tensions between memory and forgetting in twentieth-century Ireland.

Anne Dolan (Author)

9780521026987, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 April 2006

256 pages, 8 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.4 cm, 0.395 kg

'There is much in Dolan's book that is important …' Field Day Review

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.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]