A Last Voice of the Irish Revolution

The Irish Civil War ended in 1923. Eighty years on, author and documentary-maker Tom Hurley wondered if there were many civilians and combatants left from across Ireland who had experienced the years 1919 to 1923, their prelude and their aftermath. What memories had they, what were their stories and how did they reflect on those turbulent times?

In early 2003, he recorded the experiences of 18 people, conducting two further interviews abroad in 2004. Tom spoke to a cross-section - Catholic, Protestant, Unionist and Nationalist - who were in their teens or early twenties during the civil war. The chronological approach he has taken to his book spans fifty years, beginning with the oldest interviewee's birth in 1899 and ending when the Free State became a republic in 1949.

Former Dunshaughlin NS principal, the late Gerry Smyth was among the people that Tom spoke to for his book in 2003. Aged 96, at the time, he was a mine of information on the 1919-23 revolutionary years and the things he experienced and witnessed.

The topics Gerry discussed include his early life, Irish Volunteers, National Volunteers, the 1916 Rising, World War I, a 1919 Feis in Navan, the Battle of Ballinalee, a British raid on his house, story behind bullets he showed the author, his cousin killed in 1922, destruction to roads and the 1923 election.

In later years, Stackallen native Gerry trained as a primary teacher, becoming principal of Dunshaughlin National School in 1932. He married Lucy Peppard, of the same profession, in 1934, and the couple went on to raise a family of eight children. Lucy was principal of Dunsany NS, and the family lived at the crossroads there. During World War II, Gerry served with the LSF and upon retirement from teaching in 1972 moved to Trim. He was a founding member of Muintir na Tíre and a member of the Knights of Columbanus. Gerry always maintained an active lifestyle, and in 2003 at the age of 96 won gold medals in walking events at both the European Senior Games in Belgium and the World Senior Games in Utah, America. He resided at Saint Elizabeth’s Nursing Home in Athboy at the time of his death in 2011, aged 104.

100 years after the Civil War ended, these 20 interviews recorded by Tom Hurley come together to create a unique oral account of the revolutionary period and the tensions that were brewing in the run-up and aftermath. Together, theirs are the Last Voices of the Irish Revolution. It is published by Gill Books.