On a colour-coded map, Kerry’s grim ratio of deaths is represented by a shade that looks like dried blood
Among the revelations of the Atlas of the Irish Civil War, the latest in a sumptuously illustrated series from Cork University Press, is the extent to which the conflict was concentrated in Kerry.
Limerick and Tipperary, meanwhile, are a vivid red. Other surprises of the map are that, joining them with that colour, are Sligo, Louth, and Kildare. Then there is the survey of broken bridges, a metaphor for civil war but also a measure of the practical difficulties of Irish rural life after a troubled decade.
But one night before the 1922 general election, three anti-Treaty IRA men including Bob Briscoe broke into Figgis’s house and gave him an enforced shave. As befits a production of such visual quality, the Atlas devotes space to one of the gorgeous designs from Art O’Murnaghan’s extraordinary Leabhar na hAiséirighe/Book of the Resurrection.
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