All Too Seldom

Commandant General Tom Barry tells here how he trained and operated the Flying Column of the Irish Republican Army in West Cork, which was perhaps the most successful unit in that victorious Army.

Right triumphs over Might all too seldom in modern history. In the last two centuries, however, British Regular armies have been trounced and routed at least four times by civilian militia: the Spanish Carlists, the Gauchos, the Boers in the first Boer War and finally and most triumphantly by the I.R.A. When it happens the details deserve to be cherished in our memories, the more since there is nothing in the world more beautiful than the gaiety of men fighting against overwhelming odds but convinced of the rightness of their cause and illuminated, from within, by fiery patriotism and invincible religious faith. These shine forth from every page of Commandant General Barry’s rare and glorious book. The only comparable book I know is the autobiography of our Boer General, DeWet, who gave such a headache to the British that, as in Ireland, they could only retaliate on the women and children and by the unsoldierly burning of farms.

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Roy Campbell

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Commandant General Tom Barry tells here how he trained and operated the Flying Column of the Irish Republican Army in West Cork, which was perhaps the most successful unit in that victorious Army.

Right triumphs over Might all too seldom in modern history. In the last two centuries, however, British Regular armies have been trounced and routed at least four times by civilian militia: the Spanish Carlists, the Gauchos, the Boers in the first Boer War and finally and most triumphantly by the I.R.A. When it happens the details deserve to be cherished in our memories, the more since there is nothing in the world more beautiful than the gaiety of men fighting against overwhelming odds but convinced of the rightness of their cause and illuminated, from within, by fiery patriotism and invincible religious faith. These shine forth from every page of Commandant General Barry’s rare and glorious book. The only comparable book I know is the autobiography of our Boer General, DeWet, who gave such a headache to the British that, as in Ireland, they could only retaliate on the women and children and by the unsoldierly burning of farms.