Wow! eBook
The News from Ireland: Foreign Correspondents and the Irish Revolution
Author(s): Maurice Walsh (Author)
- Publisher: I.B. Tauris
- Publication Date: 30 Sept. 2008
- Language: English
- Print length: 272 pages
- ISBN-10: 184511714X
- ISBN-13: 9781845117146
Book Description
The Anglo-Irish war of 1919-1921 was an international historical landmark: the first successful revolution against British rule and the beginning of the end of the Empire. But the Irish revolutionaries did not win their struggle on the battlefield – their key victory was in mobilising public opinion in Britain and the rest of the world. Journalists and writers flocked to Ireland, where the increasingly brutal conflict was seen as the crucible for settling some of the key issues of the new world order emerging from the ruins of the First World War. On trial was the British Empire’s claim to be the champion of civilisation as well as the principle of self-determination proclaimed by the American president Woodrow Wilson.”The News from Ireland” vividly explores the work of British and American correspondents in Ireland as well as other foreign journalists and literary figures. It offers a penetrating and persuasive assessment of the Irish revolution’s place in a key moment of world history as well as the role of the press and journalism in the conflict. This important book will be essential reading for anyone interested in Irish history and how our understanding of history generally is shaped by the media.
Editorial Reviews
Review
”The News from Ireland’ fills an important gap in our understanding of the Irish revolutionary period during which the battle for public opinion was essential. It provides the context in which journalists, both British and American, worked, and provides an extraordinary insight into how the Irish managed and the British mis-managed the press. The close study of the personalities involved and the intimate knowledge of how foreign correspondents saw their role in the period after the First World War make this an invaluable book.’ –Colm Tóibín
‘a suggestive, original and elegantly written study… It is also a marvellous portrait of journalists at work, deftly deploying a star cast and providing a thoughtful analysis of the politics of publicity.’ –Roy Foster, TLS ‘Books of the Year’
‘Maurice Walsh has written a fascinating and thoughtful book. His story of the relationship between journalists and government during a guerrilla war more than 80 years ago is one that few of us know and that has much relevance to understanding the parallel issues during the wars in Vietnam and Iraq.’ –Adam Hochschild, author of ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’
About the Author
Maurice Walsh grew up in Co.Tipperary and has been a foreign correspondent in Central and South America. An award-winning documentary maker, he has reported for the BBC from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the United States and Europe. His essays, reviews and reportage have appeared in The Dublin Review, the London Review of Books, the New Statesman, the TLS and many other newspapers and magazines. He holds a PhD from the University of London and in 2001 was a Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan.
