The violence and divisions of the Civil War in County Kerry were more vicious, bitter and prolonged than anywhere else in Ireland. For generations, the fratricide, murder and executions, and the widespread trauma in Kerry have been synonymous with the worst excesses of the brutality and mayhem which followed the split over the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.
In a newly published analysis of the conflict in his native county, historian and author, Owen O’Shea offers new insights into the misery and mayhem of 1922-23, from the perspectives not only of the combatants who were involved in the fighting but also their families and the wider civilian population. Based on newly researched archive accounts and testimonies, the immense trauma, hardship, poverty, ill-health and psychological scars of the families of those killed and injured is explored for the first time.
Owen O’Shea, from Milltown, Co Kerry, is an author, historian and researcher with a passionate interest in the history of his own county in particular. He has been writing and researching history for many years and his main areas of interest include politics, elections, the War of Independence and the Civil War and related events in Kerry. A graduate of University College Dublin, where he studied history and politics, Owen is currently a PhD student with the School of History at UCD. His topic, under the supervision of Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, is political culture and communication in Kerry in the decade after the Civil War (1923-1933).