IRA Internments and the Irish Government: Subversives and the State, 1939-1962

This book examines a neglected period in the history of the IRA and looks at the acceptability and success of internment as an expedient in the Irish government’s ongoing struggle with republican subversive organisations during both the Second World War and the border campaign. The book looks at the reasons for the subsequent drift away from the use of this measure, despite its previous successes in containing the IRA threat to the Irish State. It draws extensively on previously unavailable primary source material in various archives in both Ireland and Britain. The oral testimony of many surviving contemporaries is supplemented by an in-depth examination of the files of the Irish government, thereby presenting a detailed political assessment of the events under consideration.In addition, the voluminous records relating to the Lawless Case held in the Attorney General’s Office have been particularly valuable in documenting, for the first time, the unprecedented domestic legal proceedings in this landmark action. The book considers the overall impact of the Lawless Case in influencing the future direction of Irish counter-insurgency policy and the subsequent drift away from the use of internment as an acceptable expedient in the State’s ongoing struggle with subversives.