O’BRIEN, William. The Irish Revolution and How it Came About (IN ORIGINAL VERY RARE DUST JACKET)

London: Allen & Unwin, 1923. First edition. Octavo. pp. vi, 462. Green cloth, title in gilt on spine and in blind on upper cover. Ex lib Dalgan Park, with neat oval stamp. A fine copy in original very rare dust jacket, printed in red. Scarce.
A major and controversial political memoir by William O’Brien, former leader of the All-for-Ireland League and one of the most formidable parliamentary figures of the Home Rule era. Written with the authority of a central participant, the work traces the decline of constitutional nationalism and the decisive shift toward revolutionary republicanism. O’Brien argues that the growing dominance of the Hibernian (Board of Erin) Order over the Irish Parliamentary Party fatally weakened Home Rule politics, exacerbated the Ulster crisis, and helped commit Ireland to Partition, bringing the Liberal Home Rule project of Asquith’s two ministries to collapse.
Drawing on extensive correspondence, interviews, and first-hand knowledge of leading figures on both sides, O’Brien reveals, often for the first time, the internal manoeuvres by which attempts to save the parliamentary movement were frustrated, and how political initiative passed to Sinn Féin and the Republican movement.

[CAT 163]