Gerry White

This book concerns the night of violence in December 1920 ,when British forces went on an orgy of destruction in the business centre of Cork city as a reprisal for attacks on soldiers and policemen by Irish Volunteers of the I.R.A. during the preceding weeks in the second year of the Irish War of Independence. The authors catalogue the increasing spiral of attacks and reprisals in the city and surrounding districts, leading up to the burning of Cork city on the night of 11th December. A very good read which increases our knowledge of what is called the "Anglo-Irish War" and how the policy of reprisals by the British Government ended in defeat and only accelerated Irish Independence due to the growing disquiet and political uproar in the United Kingdom.… (meer)