The Insurrection in Dublin - Softcover

Stephens, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0861403584 ISBN 13: 9780861403585

Publisher: Colin Smythe Ltd, 1992

Synopsis

"This hour-by-hour account of the Easter Rising as seen by a non-participant writer and poet is absolutely fascinating. Helps one think straighter about 1916 than all the recent revisionist and anti-revisionist scribblings...a marvelously vivid account"-

About this title

From the Back Cover:

The Insurrection in Dublin was first published in October 1916, barely six months after the Irish Volunteers' Easter Rising took place. The text was never revised so that it has retained the sense of immediacy that makes it one of the classic works of the period. James Stephens is best known as the author of The Crock of Gold and The Demi Gods as well as for his poetry, but as AE wrote in his review of this work: 'he has the most vivid senses of any Irishman now writing. He kept a journal day by day, writing down what he saw with those keen eyes of his. They are the eyes of the poet and storyteller interested a thousand times more in the character of life, in studying behaviour under abnormal circumstances, than in any other aspects of the rising.' These qualities have kept this book recurrently in print. John A. Murphy, Professor of Irish History at University College, Cork, has contributed an Introduction and Afterword, which set the Rising in its historical context, and assess the impact that it had on Ireland at the time and the subsequent events that led up to the foundation of the Irish Free State.

About the Author:

ames Stephens (9 February 1882 – 26 December 1950) was an Irish novelist and poet. James' mother worked in the home of the Collins family of Dublin and was adopted by them. He attended school with his adopted brothers Thomas and Richard (Tom and Dick) before graduating as a solicitor's clerk. They competed and won several athletic competitions despite James' slight stature (he stood 4'10" in his socks). He was known affectionately as 'Tiny Tim'. He was much enthralled by tales of military valour of his adoptive family and would have been a soldier except for his height. By the early 1900s James was increasingly inclined to socialism and the Irish language and by 1912 was a dedicated Irish Republican. He spoke and wrote Irish. This brought a schism with his adopted family. James Stephens produced many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales. His retellings are marked by a rare combination of humor and lyricism (Deirdre, and Irish Fairy Tales are often especially praised). He also wrote several original novels (Crock of Gold, Etched in Moonlight, Demi-Gods) based loosely on Irish fairy tales. "Crock of Gold," in particular, achieved enduring popularity and was reprinted frequently throughout the author's lifetime. Stephens began his career as a poet with the tutelage of "Æ" (George William Russell). His first book of poems, "Insurrections," was published in 1909. His last book, "Kings and the Moon" (1938), was also a volume of verse. During the 1930s, Stephens had some acquaintance with James Joyce, who found that they shared a birth year (and, Joyce mistakenly believed, a birthday). Joyce, who was concerned with his ability to finish what later became Finnegans Wake, proposed that Stephens assist him, with the authorship credited to JJ & S (James Joyce & Stephens, also a pun for the popular Irish whiskey made by John Jameson & Sons). The plan, however, was never implemented, as Joyce was able to complete the work on his own. During the last decade of his life, Stephens found a new audience through a series of broadcasts on the BBC.

About this edition

• Publisher: Colin Smythe Ltd
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0861403584
• ISBN 13: 9780861403585
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 120