Donegal

The Irish Revolution, 1912-23

Pauric Travers

"Both books are excellent additions to the series. They are characterised by extensive research, a fine selection of illustrations and very good presentation. The authors have done their native counties proud and have given us authoritative narratives and analyses of the period. They will be of interest not just to natives of Donegal and Roscommon but to all students of the Irish Revolution." Patrick McCarthy, The Irish Sword, vol. 34, no. 135. 

“Consisting of ten chapters, Pauric Travers’ work is the most extensive and balanced study of Donegal’s role in the Irish Revolution to date. The author has made good use of a wide range of local, provincial and national sources to demonstrate that while Donegal was not to the forefront of revolutionary events, it was also not a passive bystander. This book is an important contribution to the historiography of the Irish Revolution and to that of Donegal itself, and it is well illustrated with photographs and maps. It adds greatly to previous academic work on the subject by Desmond Murphy and is set to become the standard work of reference in regard to Donegal’s place in the Irish Revolution, and it offers a comparative case study for other areas of how these years were played out in one of Ireland’s most peripherally located counties.” Conor Curran, Irish Studies Review. October 2022

“Donegal, the Irish Revolution, 1912-23 provides a fascinating study of the political events of the period which Travers sets firmly in the context of the underlying social and economic background ... This book is highly recommended reading for all students of the Irish revolutionary period, but also for local and social historians, genealogists and, indeed, for all with ancestral links to this stunningly beautiful county on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way.” Ireland’s Genealogical Gazette, June 2022  

“Pauric Travers’s study of Donegal during the years of upheaval from 1912-1923 plots a course from a politics dominated before the Great War by the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) and the remaining patrician unionist elements to one overtaken in 1917-18 by the separatist Sinn Féin party ... Sinn Féin rapidly overtook the Redmondites and trounced them in the general election of 1918. The declining enthusiasm for the war and the postponement of Home Rule, combined with conscription, helped to sink the IPP and cleared the way for the political/military republican campaign of 1919-21. This is, so far, a very similar pattern to that in other counties. Where Donegal was different, as this book stresses, was in its unique geographical and sectarian situation ... This is an engaging summary of events in Donegal in those years and a good addition to the series.” John Dorney, History Ireland, November-December 2022


“[The author] chooses to stick firmly to his historical brief, and there is much to appreciate in his detailed dissection of the shifting and conflicting loyalties of the various groups, unionist and nationalist, over the period ...  Travers, a native of Ballyshannon, has served his county well through his research.” Roy Greenslade, Belfastmedia.com