The formation and function of the Flying Columns in the Tan War, 1919-2`1

The Flying Column has acquired something of a romantic image, for many the trench coated, bandoliered, and gator booted Volunteer personifies that period in Irish revolutionary history during the War of Independence 1919-21. The column, emerging from the hills to take on the forces of the British Empire, facing the Tans and infamous and feared Auxiliaries and then disappearing back into the mists of the Irish hills or countryside as quickly as they had emerged. This is a vision of the Volunteer depicted in monuments to the republican fallen of that period the length and breadth of Ireland. This lecture scratches beneath that surface and looks a little closer at the origin of the Flying Column as the army of the newly proclaimed Irish Republic reacted to the demands of an intensified guerrilla war. The talk looks at the column in action, its effectiveness and otherwise as a fighting force, and it place within the structure of the army and the network of activists and sympathisers it required to remain in the field. Finally, the lecture will briefly examine the role the column played in legitimising Óglaigh na hÉireann as the army of the legitimate government of the Irish Republic rather than the “rabble army” it was depicted as in official British army histories of the conflict

The speaker is historian, Des Dalton, who has a BA (Hons) in English and History from Carlow College and has an MPhil in Modern Irish History (1st) from Trinity College Dublin.

Jointly organised by the 1916 Rising Centenary Committee (Scotland)and the Glasgow St Patrick’s Festival Committee

Host or Publisher 1916 Rising Centenary Committee (Scotland) and Conradh na Gaeilge