Author Description

This is the first account of the formation of the Irish Citizen Army during the Dublin strike of 1913-1914, and the part it played in the subsequent history of Ireland. The author, who was himself a leading figure in the movement, writes with vigor and conviction on the role of labor in Ireland, and expresses a very definite opinion on the relations of the workers to the Nationalist movement. The book contains character portraits of Larkin, Connolly and the Countess Markiewicz; and facts bearing on the relations between the Citizen Army and the Volunteers emerge here for the first time.This dramatic account of the Irish Citizen Army also has its special importance in literary history as the first published work by Sean O'Casey (under the pseudonym of P. O. Cathasaigh). Sean O'Casey went on to become Ireland's greatest playwright as well as the author of one of the most fascinating autobiographies in the history of literature.