Seán Mac Eoin

30 August 2022
The conventional phase of the Irish Civil War

Dr John O’Callaghan, our latest guest contributor, provides an overview of the fighting during the early stages of the Civil War. The opening, conventional phase of the Civil War was characterised by large-scale confrontations between the anti-Treaty IRA and the pro-Treaty National Army in the summer of 1922, after which the National Army had established […]

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17 August 2022
A divided town: part two

Ian Kenneally In the previous article, we explored the circumstances that led to the shooting dead of George Adamson in April 1922. Here, we look in more detail at the subsequent propaganda battle in which both pro- and anti-Treaty forces blamed each other for Adamson’s death. That propaganda battle began with, as discussed in the […]

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11 August 2022
A divided town: part one

In an earlier edition of the blog we discussed the shooting dead of George Adamson in April 1922. In that article, Dr John Gibney described Adamson’s career and the local reaction to Adamson’s death. It was an event that shocked people in Westmeath and nationally. Here, we look in more detail at the subsequent propaganda battle in which both pro- and anti-Treaty forces blamed each other for Adamson’s death.

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2 August 2022
A Shooting in Custume Barracks

by Ian Kenneally During the Irish Civil War, Custume Barracks served both as a headquarters for the Provisional Government’s National Army and as a vast prison for captured members of the anti-Treaty IRA. Although Custume Barracks briefly housed prisoners in April 1922 following the shooting dead of George Adamson, it was not until the summer […]

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14 July 2022
The first week of the Irish Civil War in Westmeath: part two

by Dr. Paul Highes Athlone and south Westmeath Reports of the outbreak of civil war published by the Westmeath Independent were redolent of those sensational and bewildered paragraphs which appeared in the Westmeath Examiner in the wake of the 1916 rising. ‘No news and too much rumour’ read one headline, while another column carried eyewitness reports of the fighting […]

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