Emmet Dalton

This is the first-ever biography of Emmet Dalton, an American-born Dubliner, Home Ruler and later Republican, whose extraordinary military career as a British officer, IRA leader and General in the Free State army brought him from Flanders to Beal na Bláth. A decorated hero of the Battle of the Somme, he returned from the war with the rank of Captain and transferred his military expertise to the now rampant IRA, serving as Director of Training, and greatly impressing Michael Collins with his extraordinary daring and nerve. Soon befriending Collins and becoming his close confidante, he accompanied him to the Treaty talks in London in 1921, and in the Civil War that followed Dalton oversaw the bombardment of the Four Courts, personally manning an 18-pounder artillery gun. He then masterminded and led the audacious seaborne landings and successful recapture of Cork City and Munster Republic from Anti-Treaty forces, but was ultimately traumatised when Collins died in his arms at Beal na Bláith. In his expansive biography, Sean Boyne vividly portrays Dalton's experiences and the vital role he played in the politics and wars that created the independent Irish state. Dalton was the first Senate Clerk and he became a pioneer of the Irish film world, founding Ardmore film studios and establishing the Irish Film industry. An attractive and high-achieving figure in Irish life in war and peace, Dalton's heroism allowed him to live his many lives to the full, and this compelling biography does justice to a figure who will captivate all those interested in modern Irish history and the birth of the state.

Train robbers, horse thieves, murderers. These are only a few of the accusations leveled against the Dalton Gang, the fraternal band of Western lawmen turned outlaws in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Daring in their exploits, the gang members turned their backs on laws they found to be criminally flawed and stole horses, bootlegged whiskey into Indian Territory, and committed the first American train robbery. A rare firsthand account originally published in 1918, this volume details the time when sheriffs were paid for each man they hanged, law enforcement rode under the banner of "Smith & Wesson" rather than "To Serve and Protect," and outlaws ruled the rails.

The story of the Dubliners who served in the British military and in republican forces during the First World War and the Irish Revolution.

A collection of stories and poems by Chris Dalton. "The Messenger's Falling" is a story told across one day seen through the eyes of a bicycle messenger in London's wintry streets in the mid 1980s.

Aged 65, Emmett Dalton is the last survivor of the legendary Dalton gang. Now he lives off his memories in Hollywood. Combining fact and fiction, Ron Hansen depicts the outlaw past of the Daltons and the West they travelled. The Dalton brothers turn from being peace officers in the Indian territories to a life of rustling. When their leader, Bob, meets Eugenia Moore, a schoolteacher who begins to plan their robberies, they become the most notorious outlaws of their time. As their raids, on trains and banks, become more daring and successful the price on their heads and the pursuit of the law increase. Then they ride into Coffeyville, intending to rob both the town's banks. Ron Hansen was the first writer to approach the mythology of the West with the intent of rewriting history, to show the mixed motives and dubious intentions of heroes and outlaws alike. In Hansen's carefully styled authentic voice (drawing on contemporary newspapers and accounts) his novels would pave the way for Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy. Combining historical research with his novelist's imagination and ability to evoke character, Ron Hansen rewrites the history of the American West, and revises the romanticised mythology of violence created by Hollywood.

Being an outlaw in the Old West was a dangerous, grisly business—twenty-three gunshot wounds and living to tell the tale, falling out of a moving train, decapitation due to a hanging gone wrong, life on the lam, horse thievery, illegal alcohol trade, and more. This new volume collects two long out-of-print classic works—The Dalton Brothers and Their Astounding Career of Crime (first published in 1892 featuring “numerous illustrations reproduced from photographs taken on the spot”), about the incredible criminal exploits of the Dalton Gang as told by an anonymous “Eye Witness,” and Black Jack Ketchum: Last of the Hold Up Kings (first published in 1955), about Thomas Edward “Black Jack” Ketchum of the infamous Hole-in-the-Wall Gang as told by Ed Bartholomew. These notorious outlaws of the Old West gained their infamy robbing trains, and all, except for one, died as violently as they lived—two of the Daltons during a bank robbery in 1892, a third in 1894, and Black Jack Ketchum in 1901 by hanging. These two classic accounts are brought together for the first time in this paperback collection of colorful stories about the two gangs. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the true stories of the Old West and nineteenth-century criminals.