Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in the First World War

New
Paperback
2010
$47.54

This is the compelling story of West Belfast's involvement fighting on the Western Front throughout the First World War. This is the story of men from either side of West Belfast's sectarian divide during the Great War. This dramatic book tells the story of the volunteers of the 36th and 16th divisions who fought on the Somme and side-by-side at Messines. Grayson also brings in forgotten West Belfast men from throughout the armed forces, from the retreat at Mons to the defeat of Germany and life post-war. In so doing, he tells a new story which challenges popular perceptions of the war and explains why remembrance remains so controversial in Belfast today.

Synopsis

This is the compelling story of West Belfast's involvement fighting on the Western Front throughout the First World War. This is the story of men from either side of West Belfast's sectarian divide during the Great War. This dramatic book tells the story of the volunteers of the 36th and 16th divisions who fought on the Somme and side-by-side at Messines. Grayson also brings in forgotten West Belfast men from throughout the armed forces, from the retreat at Mons to the defeat of Germany and life post-war. In so doing, he tells a new story which challenges popular perceptions of the war and explains why remembrance remains so controversial in Belfast today.

$47.54

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Publisher: Continuum Publishing Corporation
Published: 12 Jul 2010
ISBN 10: 1441105190
ISBN 13: 9781441105196

Media Reviews

'Provocative, meticulously researched and referenced.' - Irish Times 'A highly considered work of careful and scholarly reclamation, and a vivid evocation of a divided city' - Sunday Business Post '[Grayson] provides a new form of social-military history... [A] painstaking study... This book provides an invaluable service to both sides in their bid to evaluate individual and shared histories.' - Times Higher Education 'Highly readable' - Myles Dungan, Today with Pat Kenny, RTE Radio 1 'A brilliant book' - Dr Patrick Geoghegan, Talking History, Newstalk 106-108FM

Author Bio

Dr. Richard S. Grayson is Head of the Politics Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, where he is also Senior Lecturer in British and Irish Politics. A former Director of Policy of the Liberal Democrats, he has written two books on interwar British political history. His great-uncle, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, served and died (in September 1915) on the Western Front in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.