The Dead of the Irish Revolution

[JohnD66]

Interview podcast here with Professor Eunan O'Halpin of TCD on his project 'The Dead of the Irish Revolution', which establishes for the first time how many people were killed in the War of Independence.

Eunan O Halpin on the Dead of the Irish Revolution | The Irish Story

[Murph]

You mean from a particular period of the war for independence?

[JohnD66]

Yes, they also have a number from the Easter Rising, 486 deaths, but the figure they've just established for 1917-1921 is 2,140. They don't have a number for the civil war yet but it's a work in progress. They expect the final death toll for 1916-23 to be over 5,000.

Small in the scheme of things but quite a lot of deaths in an Irish context. (Though still much smaller than 27,000 or so Irishmen who died in WWI).

[Eire1976]

Yes, they also have a number from the Easter Rising, 486 deaths, but the figure they've just established for 1917-1921 is 2,140. They don't have a number for the civil war yet but it's a work in progress. They expect the final death toll for 1916-23 to be over 5,000.

Small in the scheme of things but quite a lot of deaths in an Irish context. (Though still much smaller than 27,000 or so Irishmen who died in WWI).

What a pure waste, 27,000 men who could of been fighting for their own country instead of throwing their lives away for British games with Germany.

[Schomberg]

What a pure waste, 27,000 men who could of been fighting for their own country instead of throwing their lives away for British games with Germany.

Their Name Liveth Forever more.... who are you again?

[jdaly]

Their Name Liveth Forever more.... who are you again?

"Their Name Liveth Forever more", the reality is that in most of Ireland the majority of us could not name one.

[Schomberg]

"Their Name Liveth Forever more", the reality is that in most of Ireland the majority of us could not name one.

I know. Isn't willful ignorance awful?

[JohnD66]

The numbers imprisoned were, very roughly, 1,500 for the Easter Rising, 4,500 during the War of indepndence and up to 16,000 in 1922-23 as both Northern Ireland and the Free State had wholesale internment of Republican activists - who were held until mid 1924.

Just to add perspective on the numbers, another thing to note is that some 23,000, mostly young people, died in Ireland from the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918. So it really was a very traumatic period.

[an modh coinniolach]

Yes, they also have a number from the Easter Rising, 486 deaths, but the figure they've just established for 1917-1921 is 2,140. They don't have a number for the civil war yet but it's a work in progress. They expect the final death toll for 1916-23 to be over 5,000.

Small in the scheme of things but quite a lot of deaths in an Irish context. (Though still much smaller than 27,000 or so Irishmen who died in WWI).

They're interesting figures on the site, especially the Dublin one. Would it be fair to say that Dublin as a conflict site has slipped off the research radar in recent years?

[JohnD66]

They're interesting figures on the site, especially the Dublin one. Would it be fair to say that Dublin as a conflict site has slipped off the research radar in recent years?

Yeah I think so. Apart from Bloody Sunday and the Custom House assault most of us wouldn't be aware of the conflict's events there. James Durney has done a bit of work on Dublin lately and we'll be talking to him shortly on the Irish Story. But the numbers in Dublin are surprisingly (for me) large, c. 320 killed and another 300 wounded - the vast majority in the first 6 months of 1921. Quite violent alright but the popular memory is nowhere near as strong as in Cork, for instance.