Peter Hart’s The I.R.A. and its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916-1923

Canadian historian Peter Hart has gained notoriety both in Ireland and abroad in recent years, with a number of fellow historians and academics accusing him of being one of the chief ‘apologist historians’ for British rule in Ireland, and the Irish Revolutionary period in particular, and this book (undoubtedly his most controversial work) does little to dispel those accusations. Despite the detailed use of data on the background of Irish Republican Army Volunteers and Irish Republican activists in general, as well as other occasionally worthwhile research presented in the pages of this book, Hart’s all too clear political and national biases unfortunately swamp everything else and leave many question marks over both his facts and figures and the conclusions he draws from them. Anyone who is familiar with the pages of the noted `Irish History’ magazine as well several new books on the history of the Irish Revolution, will know that `The IRA and its Enemies’ has been subject to careful analysis by a long line of academics and has been found to be severely wanting.

Unfortunately inaccuracies, distortions, misinformation and an absence of crucial facts seem to abound, and thorough examinations and documentation of these in various printed publications as well as online have left what should have been a very interesting work with a bad reputation for academic neutrality. The numerous accusations that Hart falsified or invented false testimonies in relation to IRA `atrocities’ he claimed occurred or his allegations of a `sectarian’ element to the IRA’s war in the south-west of Ireland remain unanswered both by him and his supporters. The sheer weight of evidence against Hart, and the allegations in this book in particular, have grown enormously in recent years and so far seem irrefutable. All those who suffered and died in Ireland’s struggle for freedom and independence, from all sides and all nationalities and loyalties, deserved better.

Those seeking a more honest and reflective account along fairly similar lines are far better directed to the much praised “Spies, Informers and the ‘Anti-Sinn Fein Society’: The Intelligence War in Cork City 1919-1921″ by American historian John Borgonovo.

Spies, Informers and the ‘Anti-Sinn Fein Society’: The Intelligence War in Cork City, 1919-1921