The heroes' welcome

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Michael Foy & Brian Barton

More comprehensive and adhering more closely to the events than any account previously written, this important new treatment of the 1916 Easter Rising draws on an impressive range of hitherto unused primary sources- some closed to the public until recently, others long available but neglected by historians. Opening with an evaluation of the roots of the Rising, the authors present pen portraits of the leaders and a thorough analysis of their motives, plans and objectives. They challenge the traditional interpretation that these leaders expected military failure, motivated by a desire to provide a blood sacrifice and hoping thereby to rejuvenate Irish nationalist sentiment. A detailed chronological account of the Rising itself recaptures the action in the key locations, giving insights into the actual experience of Easter Week for the rebels, the military personnel who opposed them, and the civilian population. The authors conclude their narrative by reviewing the British government's reaction to the Rising, analyzing the background to the declaration of martial law, and assessing the British military response. It contains recently released transcripts of the court martial trials of the executed rebel leaders, plus the testimonies of the witnesses. It graphically describes the execution process and the justification given for imposing the death sentence in each case. -- Publisher description

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Lyn Andrews

Born at the turn of the 20th century, Mae Strickland is only a few days old when her mother suddenly dies. Her aunt Maggie brings Mae up together with her own children, Eddie and Alice, and the girls become like sisters. In spite of Mae's unhappy start, life feels full of promise. Then, as the First World War looms, everything changes. While the local men - including young Eddie - leave to fight, Mae and Alice train as field nurses. As they travel to the front line in the wake of family tragedy, nothing can prepare them for the hardship that lies ahead.

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Mitch Peeke, Kevin Walsh-Johnson and Steven Jones

RMS LUSITANIA is best remembered today for the controversy surrounding her loss as the result of a German submarine attack on Friday 7th May, 1915, during the First World War. But this book also tells of her life before that cataclysmic event: the ground-breaking advances in maritime engineering that she represented, her hitherto unheard-of degree of opulence, and her seven glorious years of peacetime service - including her capture of the coveted Blue Riband award for Great Britain. Here, three members of the Lusitania Historical Society take a close and authoritative look at the disaster which befell her, and attempt to determine why this magnificent vessel, together with over a thousand souls, was lost in a mere eighteen minutes ...

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Paul Fussell

In this classic work, Paul Fussell illuminates the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, focusing primarily on the literary means by which The Great War has been remembered, conventionalized, and mythologized. Drawing on the work of important wartime poets such as David Jones and Wilfred Owen, on the memoirs of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Edmund Blunden, and on numerous other personal records housed in the Imperial War Museum, this award-winning volume provides an intimate and intensely poetic account of the event that revolutionized the way we see the world. It has been hailed as "humanly wise and compassionate" (Saturday Review), "original and brilliant" (Lionel Trilling), "bright and sensitive" (The New Yorker), and "probing, sympathetic, and illuminating" (The New Republic). It is an undisputed classic of cultural criticism. (from Amazon)