Great Hatred by Ronan McGreevy
Synopsis
A gripping investigation into one of Irish history's greatest mysteries, Great Hatred reveals the true story behind one of the most significant political assassinations to ever have been committed on British soil.
On 22 June 1922, Sir Henry Wilson - the former head of the British army and one of those credited with winning the First World War - was shot and killed by two veterans of that war turned IRA members in what was the most significant political murder to have taken place on British soil for more than a century.
His assassins were well-educated and pious men. One had lost a leg during the Battle of Passchendaele. Shocking British society to the core, the shooting caused consternation in the government and almost restarted the conflict between Britain and Ireland that had ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty just five months earlier.
Wilson's assassination triggered the Irish Civil War, which cast the darkest of shadows over the new Irish State. Who ordered the killing? Why did two English-born Irish nationalists kill an Irish-born British imperialist? What was Wilson's role in the Northern Ireland government and the violence which matched the intensity of the Troubles fifty years later? Why would Michael Collins, who risked his life to sign a peace treaty with Great Britain, want one of its most famous soldiers dead, and how did the Wilson assassination lead to Collins' tragic death in an ambush two months later?
Drawing upon newly released archival material and never-before-seen documentation, Great Hatred is a revelatory work that sheds light on a moment that changed the course of Irish and British history for ever.
Reviews
'Heart-stopping . . . The book is both forensic and a page-turner, and ultimately deeply tragic, for Ireland as much as for the murder victim.' Michael Portillo
'Gripping from start to finish. McGreevy turns a forensic mind to a political assassination that changed the course of history, uncovering a trove of unseen evidence in the process.' Anita Anand, author of The Patient Assassin
'McGreevy provides more than the anatomy of a political murder; in reconstructing this era of blood, poverty and wartime trauma, he also gives full expression to the terrible forces that WB Yeats once called the ""fanatic heart"" and the ""great hatred".' The Times
'Thoughtful and well-researched . . . an important and valuable addition to the library of the Irish Revolution.' Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, University College Dublin
About the Author
Ronan McGreevy is a journalist and videographer. He has worked for The Times, the BBC and Sky News. He is currently a journalist and videographer with The Irish Times. His first book is Wherever the Firing Line Extends: Ireland and the Western Front. He has also edited two books, 'Twas Better to Die: The Irish Times and Gallipoli 1915-2015 and Was it for This? Reflections on the Easter Rising. Was it for This? is a joint venture between Ireland 2016, the State commemoration programme for the Easter Rising centenary and The Irish Times. The book includes contributions from John Redmond, John Dillon, Roger Casement, Vladimir Lenin, Sean O'Casey, John McGahern, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Diarmaid Ferriter. Wherever The Firing Line Extends is the first book he has exclusively authored.