This is the first comprehensive account of County Louth's experience of
the revolutionary period (1912-23), revealing a county with a strong
industrial and agricultural base that faced serious challenges stemming
from declining population, large-scale unemployment and extensive
poverty. Although overwhelmingly nationalist, Louth's political
activists were bitterly divided until the foundation of the Irish
Volunteers in 1913. The First World War split the Volunteers. The
majority sided with Redmond and, in late summer 1914, these volunteers,
with bands playing and flags flying, saw off many of their comrades to
fight in the First World War. The Irish Volunteers, which opposed the
war, remained few in number but took part in the 1916 Rising. As the
militancy of 1916 faded, the IRA in Louth was widely criticized for its
relative inactivity during the War of Independence while Sinn Fein
struggled to gain political control in the face of strong nationalist
opposition. By 1922, the county was central to the Provisional
government's campaign to destabilize Northern Ireland, which witnessed
many atrocities. During the Civil War, Louth experienced extensive
violence, including streetfighting, ambushes, assassinations, executions
and house burnings. When peace was restored, Louth emerged from a decade
of instability more divided than ever, cut off by partition from its
natural hinterland in Ulster, and facing an uncertain future.
