The Friends Of Irish Freedom

The Friends of Irish Freedom has been described as one of the most effective propaganda machines in Irish-American history. The author describes the factors that led to the establishment of the Friends and those that coloured its nationalist outlook. He examines the motives behind the Friends' campaign to prevent American entry into the First World War on Britain's side. One might have expected a close working relationship, based on mutual self-interest, between the Friends and the main nationalist organization in Ireland, Sinn Féin. Yet significant divisions soon emerged between both organizations and an explanation for this feud forms the core of this work; it reached such a pass that Bishop Michael Gallagher, the president of the Friends, denounced de Valera as a 'foreign potentate'.

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This book tells the story of Ireland's struggle for freedom which was waged by political and financial means in the United States as well as by force of arms and politics in Ireland. It gives the whole background of the generations of Irish revolt and the powerful roles played in America by the Clan-na-Gael and other groups, which eventually led to the Easter Week Rebellion of 1916. -- Publisher description.

Described by Padraig Pearse as the “greatest of the Fenians”, John Devoy was born before the Famine and lived to see the Irish tricolour flying from Dublin Castle. The descendent of a rebel family, he was an avowed Fenian who went into exile in New York in 1871. Over the next half-century he was the most-prominent leader of the Irish-American nationalist movement. Every Irish leader from Parnell to Pearse sought his counsel. He organised a dramatic rescue of Fenian prisoners from Australia, rallied Irish America behind the Land War, served as a middle man between the Easter rebels and the German government, and helped move Irish-American opinion in favour of the Treaty. When he died in 1928, Devoy was accorded a state funeral and a hero’s burial in Ireland. This new revised edition of the acclaimed biography of this overlooked architect of the Irish independence movement is also the story of Ireland, and of Irish-America, from the Famine to Freedom, examining the extraordinary cloak-and-dagger planning of the Easter Rising and the critical role of America in its outcome. “The Devoy story, in Terry Golway’s hands, combines wide scholarship and adventure: it reads like a novel. Get a comfortable chair when you read this book: you won’t be able to put it down.” – Frank McCourt “Terry Golway tells the story of this exceptional man with affection and deft narrative sense…this book will charm and enlighten readers.” – Thomas Keneally