Irish drama and wars in the twentieth century

intriguing and illuminating work has been published in the liminal space between fiction and non-fiction (e.g. Anna Burns’ Milkman). Aiken makes the compelling case that, whilst much of this writing has been neglected by scholars, partly because it has slipped though disciplinary cracks, nonetheless it was influential in helping to shape the intellectual climate in which the civil war was discussed and interpreted. However, although the opening of the Bureau of Military History and Military Service Pensions Collection archives have proven a boon to historical research on the revolutionary period, “such strong focus on ‘new’ sources has occluded earlier underappreciated material” (117). In terms of the complex legacies of violence and forms of testimony, Aiken argues that certain narratives become deeply embedded in the collective psyche in the aftermath of civil war; they may have a profound influence on subsequent (re-)constructions of these experiences. She makes the case that Frank O’Connor’s short story, Guests of the Nation (first published in 1931, less than a decade after the revolutionary period ended) is “arguably the most influential Irish text of the twentieth century” (202). This might be considered something of an overstatement, but there is no doubt that memoirists of the revolution have often drawn on the “empathy-between-foes motif” that is epitomised in O’Connor’s story (17). Moreover, this fundamental trope has been evoked regularly in plays, novels and films, as well as testimonies. Aiken skilfully examines Ernie O’Malley’s memoir of the War of Independence, On Another Man’s Wound, in which he recounts his involvement in the execution of three British officers near Clonmel, Co. Tipperary in June 1921. O’Malley’s account, published in 1936, “shares many of the features of O’Connor’s fictional story” (204). This interweaving of diverse genres has made for a complex politics of remembrance of the Irish civil war; one of the great strengths of Spiritual Wounds is the sure-footed fashion in which the book navigates this potentially difficult terrain. Of all the many works which have been produced during the centenary of the civil war, Aiken’s book is certainly among the most original contributions. For the writers considered here, the impact of the civil war on their subsequent lives was often profound: the “desire to remain silent had to contend with the urge to tell” (232). Aiken is surely correct when she states that “these testimonies demonstrate the absolute necessity of broadening historical scholarship to include less conventional forms of life writing” (230). Her book is a fine example of this process of opening up the field for future researchers. It is worth noting also that, even as a hardback, it is reasonably priced by Irish Academic Press; it certainly deserves to be widely read and its insights absorbed by historians of the Irish revolutionary era.