O’MALLEY, Ernie. On Another Man’s Wound

Dublin: Printed by Colm O Lochlainn at the Sign of the Three Candles for Rich & Cowan, London: Reprinted, 1936. First edition second state. pp. 336. Green cloth, titled in green on spine. Occasional light spotting to prelims. Wear to spine ends. New endpapers. A good copy. The title is taken from the Gaelic proverb “It is easy to sleep on another man’s wound”. Written in autobiographical form it provides an insight of life in Ireland from 1916 to 1920. It is stark, truthful and dispassionate in its statement of facts. It tells of shootings and reprisals, jailings and escapes; and introduces well-known figures of the day including De Valera, Michael Collins, Count Plunkett and Countess Markievicz. “Many things have been written round the war between the English forces and the Irish Republican Army, the best of them being, I think, On Another Man’s Wound” - Sean O’Casey.

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