Ireland is a small country

Six degrees of separation are often shrunk to two or three. A chance remark can rapidly become national news. Those who took part in the #EasterRising and the #WarofIndependence as brothers in arms all too quickly became sworn enemies in the #CivilWar that followed. In this context, historians who wanted to capture the memories of those who took part in these historic events were faced with a particular dilemma. How to encourage combatants to speak freely, in the late 1940s, without reopening old wounds? The solution was ingenious: witness statements would be taken, and all would be kept under lock and key until the last witness had passed away. These statements – a unique historical record, held at the Bureau of Military History – were then made available for historians to pore over.

The first person to do so – and to bring the fruits of their labour to public view – was Annie Ryan. Fitting, given the important (and too often overlooked) role played by women in the revolutionary period, that it should be a woman who would be the first off the mark, andinto print. The result is WITNESSES: INSIDE THE EASTER RISING, our book of the day.

https://thirdagebooks.ie/product/witnesses-inside-the-easter-rising/