Often in history, and in politics, plans are overtaken by events. This could be said of the execution by two IRA Volunteers of Henry Wilson, the British military advisor to James Craig's Stormont parliament in 1922. Shot dead on the steps of his home, his death has been associated with the Free State's decision to attack the republican garrison in the Four Courts, thus setting the Civil War in train in earnest. Free article

Thomas McElwee, at the age of 23, was the tenth man to join the 1981 Hunger Strike. From Bellaghy in south Derry, he was imprisoned in 1976 after a premature bomb explosion in which he lost an eye. Free article

Síle Darragh’s ground breaking account of her imprisonment in Armagh Gaol has been republished with a new foreword by Rita O’Hare who writes of Síle’s moving and powerfully evocative story. You can read it exclusively here. Free article

Mairéad Farrell reviews the republished ‘John Lennon’s Dead’ by Síle Darragh Free article

At the Prisoners Day book launch of ‘The Armagh Women’ in the Felons Club, Richard McAuley referred to the question every author asks of themselves. “Where to start?” So, they started at the beginning, with a brief history of the jail itself from its construction in 1780 to its closure in 1988. Female political prisoners were moved to Maghaberry prison in 1986 before they were eventually released as part of the Good Friday Agreement. Free article

On the evening of 6 May 1882, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and Permanent Under Secretary Thomas Burke were assassinated by seven men wielding surgical knives. Free article

2022 is benchmarking two critical events in Sinn Féin’s electoral history. This October marks the 40th anniversary of the Prior Assembly elections where Sinn Fein won five seats and 10.1% of the poll. 17 May was the 20th anniversary of the party’s major leap in representation in Leinster House. The party won five seats in the 26 County general election. Free article

The death of Harry Boland, coming less than a month after that of Cathal Brugha, was a major blow to the Republican cause. He was fatally wounded in Skerries, Co. Dublin, 100 years ago and died in hospital on 1 August 1922. Free article

IRA Volunteer Kieran Doherty, TD for Cavan/Monaghan, died at 7:15pm on Sunday 2 August 1981, the day after Kevin Lynch’s death. Kieran had joined the hunger strike one day before Kevin Lynch and survived one day longer. Free article

He spent 71 days on hunger strike from 23 May 1981. He died on 1 August 1981. Free article

THE death of IRA Volunteer Martin Hurson on 13 July 1981, after 46 days on the Hunger Strike, was unexpected. The suddenness of his death, coming only five days after that of Joe McDonnell, came as a shock since two other Hunger Strikers – Kieran Doherty and Kevin Lynch – had been almost a week on hunger strike ahead of Martin. Free article

ONE of the first leaders of the Irish people to lose his life in the Civil War in 1922 was Cathal Brugha TD who for many years had been a key figure in the IRA, Sinn Féin and Conradh na Gaeilge. Free article

Republicans in Antrim recently marked the centenaries of volunteers killed in Cushendall and Glenariffe. Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan was the speaker and told those assembled that the executed volunteers and “all their comrades 100 years ago opposed the undemocratic, unjust, and sectarian partitioning of our country”. Free article

The threat of renewed war made by the British government at the end of the Treaty negotiations was finally carried out on 28 June 1922 but it was the Provisional Government of the Free State that started the threatened war using borrowed British guns. Free article

This Sunday 19 June 2022 Irish Republicans gather at Wolfe Tone’s grave at Bodenstown as we we have done for many decades. Almost exactly 100 years ago on Tuesday 20 June 1922 Republicans were at Bodenstown just a few days before the Civil War began with the Free State bombardment of the Four Courts. Free article