OFFICER’S WIFE: Experiences of an Officer’s Wife in Ireland. [EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF BLOODY SUNDAY]

Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1921. pp. [2], 135, [3]. Printed wrappers. A very good copy. A highly-coloured description of a tour of duty in Ireland during the Troubles, including an eye-witness description of the IRA’s Bloody Sunday operation of 21 November 1920, when the lady’s husband was one of those shot by Michael Collins’ ‘Twelve Apostles’: “In the distance I hear the sound of church bells. ... My husband had hurried over his dressing, as he was to take a Church Parade at the Commander-in-Chief’s. I was wearing a blouse with a lot of tiresome little buttons. Had it not been for those silly little buttons I should have gone down to breakfast with my husband, and should have had the agony of seeing him and others killed or wounded before my eyes, and should probably have been shot myself. I was standing at my bedroom window struggling with the cuff of my blouse, when I saw a man get over the garden wall. I watched him idly; in spite of five months in Dublin and constant alarms and excitements I felt no fear, and not much anxiety. I thought he had come to see one of the maids. But directly I saw him take a revolver out of his pocket my fears were aroused, and I rushed to the door, and shouted to my husband, who had left the room a few minutes before. It is a bitter thought now that if I had raised the alarm directly I saw the man get over the wall I might have roused some of the officers, though I believe from the evidence collected that it is fairly clear that several of the murderers were already in the house when this man got into the garden. Their organisation was perfect.” Her husband received two bullet wounds but survived. Scarce and interesting description of the events of that terrible day as seen from the ‘other side’.

[Cat 148 Porch]