The Forgotten Volunteers The Belfast IRA 1920-22 Vol 3 (eagrán úr / new edition)

This compact but highly informative book is the third in a trilogy of books by Sean Ó Coinn highlighting IRA and Cumann na mBan Volunteers in Belfast between 1920-1922.

Based on primary material drawn from the Military Archive in Dublin and the Belfast Cultural & Local History Group Archive, it relates the stories of Volunteers, previously untold, amid the turbulent events of that period.

Upwards of 500 people died in Belfast during this period as the IRA in the city struggled to maintain its role in participating in the war for Independence, while at the same time being drawn more toward a primary role of having to defend Nationalist Districts from prolonged attacks by regular and non-regular state forces.

The IRA’s defence of districts such as Carrick Hill in the north of the city, or Ballymacarrett in the east was crucial if these areas were to survive against state-controlled hostile attacks.
Offensive actions against Crown Forces often triggered vicious sectarian murders of innocent Catholics by murder gangs, some of whom were controlled by, or were serving Police officers.

The role of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade (3rd Northern Division) was for decades cast into the National Shadow by the southern establishment and historians in their attempts to deflect support for republicanism, especially in the north.

The 3rd Northern Division were never given the proper credit they deserved: nor was the hostile environment it was forced to fight in, fully appreciated. In recent times, revisionist historians have preferred to equate the IRA struggle in Belfast at the time as sectarian warfare, rather than an in-built part of the War of Independence.