Harry Boland
By Denise hoey
Harry Boland was born 27th
of april 1887.He lived with his mother Cathrine his father Jim his two brothers
Gerry and Edmund and his two sisters Nellie and Kathleen in Daly Mount Terrace
,Phisborough.His mother and father met
in Manchester while he was working, laying the Manchester Tramways .They got
married in 1882 at st.kevins church ,harrington street .A few years later in
1895 his father Jim suffered from a blow
to the head with a leg of a chair he
spent 5 months in the matter hospital he died on the 11th of march .
When his father died he
became a member of the Christian brothers School and at the De La Salle
College,Castletown,County Laois .He was a member of the GAA and a reowned
hurler who played for Dublin in the
1908 All-Ireland Senior
Championship.He the became of an Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1904 and was
responsible for having Michael Collins, his close friend,initiated into the
organisation in London.He was imprisioned for his role in the 1916 Easter
Rising,and after his release from prision ,he helped reorganise the Irish
Volunteers and was elected secretary of Sinn Fein in 1917.
He combined his underground
irish republican brotherhood work with political activity and was TD for south
Roscommon in the first dail.In 1919 he went to US as a representitave of the
dail ,but failed in his efforts to heal the rift amoung american supporters of
the irish cause.
A member of the First Dail
and part of the irish envoy to during
the War of independence ,
Harry fell under the inflence
of the charismatic Eamon de .He opposed the Anglo-irish Treaty in 1921 and
Worked tirelessly to prevent
the civil war,
Harry Boland:A Biography - Jim
Maher
Paperback 288 pages (October
1998 ).
Publisher:Mercier Press.
An account of the part played
by Harry Boland during the 1916 Rising and the Irish Civil War.It was through his
involvement with Sinn Fein as secretary and his work in the 1918 general
election and the GAA that Boland came to national prominence.He was killed by
Free State soldiers.
This is an easy to read
biography with lots of details on Harry Boland’s life that are quiet
interesting to know ,if you are intrested in the history of Ireland from 1916
to 1922.The description of the 1918 election results is one example of a well
written account with great details,directly relevant to his life.However,if you
are intrested,as I am, you want to know:
Why he was more loyal to Dev
than to Michael Collins; why he kept visiting Kitty’s home after her engagement
was announced; why he thought he could hang on to his job in the
States when he didn’t support
the Treaty; what he thought of Dev’s three days of “Rivers of Blood” speeches;
why Michael Collins thought his dying words were ‘have they got Mick Collins
yet?---this book answers none of those questions so this reviewer found it a
bit frustrating. It’s probably not fair to expect this book to answer those questions as the
material to back up any assertion is unlikely to be available .But I would have
loved the author to have a go!
SKILLS:
Two Skills that we learnt
doing this project were:
1.Computer Skills; I learnt
how to use Microsoft Word, how to use the Intrernet to find information and how
to print out documents.
2.I learned how write Leaving
certificate essays properly using footnotes,and bibliiography at the end (a
list of books)
HARRY BOLAND:A Biography
Jim Maher
SYNOPSIS:
An Account of the part played
by Harry Boland during the 1916
Rising and the Irish Civil
War . It was through his involvement with Sinn Fein as secretary and his work
in the 1918 general election and the GAA that Boland came to national
prominence.He was killed by Free State soldiers.
Reviewer: A reader from
Ireland
Well researched, tragic story
,superbly wrtten This book docments for the first time the life of Harry Boland
and the role he played in Ireland’s quest for independence ,Long time friend of
Micheal Collins, this book charts their close relationship,begun through mutual
dedecation towards the achievement of an Irish Republic. The friendship suffers
the difficulty of shared admiration for
a woman from Co.Longford which ends in victory for Collins. They choose
different sides in the Irish Civil War and die within three weeks of each
other in enemy camps. Both “served their country in the way they new
best”. This