Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society (CHAS) will hold its next lecture in the Milford Room at the Seven Oaks Hotel on Wednesday 19 February at 8 pm.
Economic and social historian Andy Bielenberg will give this month’s talk on the Irish Civil War.
The talk will discuss conflict-related deaths from the beginning of the Civil War on the 28th of June 1922 (when the National Army opened the attack on anti-treaty forces occupying the Four Courts in Dublin) until the ‘Dump arms order’ by the anti-treaty IRA on 24 May 1923.
A total of 1485 fatalities were identified across the 32 counties of which 371 were civilians, 638 were National Army and 429 were IRA. Dublin was the county with the highest number of fatalities accounting for 260 in total, while Cork was the second highest with 215. But these counties had particularly large populations relative to the rest of the country; when we adjust for population it transpires that Kerry was by far the most violent county, and it was this county which witnessed the most significant anti-treaty resistance, in addition to many of the worst atrocities of the conflict.
The Irish Civil War as an intra-nationalist conflict and as such it focused to a greater degree on the twenty-six counties which became the Irish Free State.
Andy Bielenberg has a wide-ranging interest in Irish economic and social history in the 19th and 20th centuries and has published several books and articles, including international journals. He was the lead on a project to record fatalities in the Irish Civil War, which has been published in the Atlas of the Irish Civil War. Originally from near Tullow, and recently retired from working in UCC Department of History, he has a wide range of interests in historical demography, the Irish Civil War and War of Independence, and in industrial history.
CHAS lectures are free and all are very welcome to attend.
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