Someone got me this book for my last birthday; I first read this book twenty years ago when divisions in Ireland were still raw due to the violence in the north.
This is a very personal account of Tom Barry's role fighting the British army in the Irish rebellion. A leader of one of the 'flying columns', he recounts the guerilla campaign in the Cork and Kerry countryside, that eventually led to the withdrawal of British forces from the South of the country, and the creation of the Irish Free State, later the Irish Republic. It's a fascinating David v Goliath story, of how a small band of untrained and poorly equipped Irish volunteers, took on 'the might of the British Army.' In military terms, what Barry and his comrades achieved was a remarkable example of guerilla warfare at his most effective.
The book itself is well written and easy to read, but the only real reason to read it is if you have an interest in Irish nationalism. If you are looking for a St Patrick's day book present for someone who is interested in 20th century Irish history, then this could be a good choice.

One of the best accounts I have ever read about this period of Irish history.

When I first started to learn about Irish history and the IRA, one of the things that I found most interesting was the practical aspect to how they were carried out operations so effectively. Everything I learned about the overall strategy of the flying columns made me more curious about what that looked like in practice. Barry provides plenty of information in this aspect, going into detail about why different operations were carried out, what considerations were made in planning, how it played out in practice, and reflections after the fact. Exactly what I was curious about.

While most of the book focused on this aspect, the parts that were more personal were touching and interesting in their own way, particularly when talking about certain comrades. While he clearly has a lot of respect the other men fighting alongside him, and while he is very sincere in this respect as well as in his conviction for Irish freedom, unfortunately the writing can be dry and impersonal. The whole book isn't like this, but he writes in a very technical way that comes across more as a history book than a memoir.

While he criticises certain members of the IRA and certain divisions where applicable, overall there is such emphasis on the righteousness of the IRA's cause that the information provided comes across only as filtered through this lens that will not show his people in anything but the brightest light. The same criticism applies to the way that he talks about the British soldiers - the facts speak for themselves, but Barry doesn't allow them to do so, likely because to provide such details of British attrocities would contradict how he wants to present his people. While I don't believe that all sides are owed the same weight or perspective, particularly in a personal memoir, this weakness in the writing colours the way that everything else is written.

Despite this, Barry's account of the courage of his people, particularly the men he knew, who were so committed to their cause as to fight and die for it, was quite moving. The respect he had for courage as an attribute came through very clearly, in a way that led me to consider certain things in a different light.

If you are interested in the history of Irish nationalism or have a broader interest in the history of guerrilla warfare, then this book is a must read. It's an easy reading autobiography of Tom Barry's days as part of a "Flying Column" in West Cork, Ireland, and follows his exploits against the British forces supporting British rule in Ireland.
The basic strategy of the guerrilla is to hit and run, using surprise and avoiding at all costs set piece engagements when the superior firepower of a conventional army can be brought to bear. The guerilla wins by avoiding direct confrontation, and by outlasting the will of the enemy to bear losses and to pursue him. So we see that in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, conventional forces fight a losing battle because they are unable to sustain the will to fight a more determined enemy. This was the strategy successfully followed by Tom Barry and his small band of lightly armed and untrained volunteers, who saw off the much larger and much better armed British army.
In case you are interested, as far as I know I have no direct bloodline connection with the author, though my family is from the same part of Ireland.

The overwhelming impression here, at first, is that Tom Barry is not a man given to great self-reflection. Only in particularly fraught recollections does he describe the fears and doubts he faced in incredible circumstances. His men, apparently, respected and followed his orders without question or complaint. This is particularly important, Barry is not a man with any patience for complaints. The greatest mark of decency to him is to bear great suffering without complaint. A man is good if he is competent and does his duty above all else. For an experienced soldier with what seems like a good military mind such as himself, the task at hand was clear and there were few probing questions to be asked. This is seemingly true almost from the moment he learned of the 1916 rising, thousands of miles away fighting for the British army in Mesopotamia. How did Barry feel about fighting for the British in a bloody war of imperialism for years? Who knows!

He often seems easily impressed. "X was the greatest Quartermaster in Ireland". "If there was a finer battalion leader than Z I'd never met him". Eventually this extends to all the more famous Irish republican figures as well. DeValera, Collins, Mellows, Mulcahy and so on all are subject to glowing reviews. The one figure that comes in for any sort of criticism is Cathal Brugha, who is described as less than a genius and terse in person. But even here Barry makes it clear that he was a man of undoubtable conviction and courage who died a hero. This last applies to many figures he encounters. It becomes almost impossible to recall the differences between many of the people Barry meets and fights alongside, so frequently are they described as fine dashing men. By contrast, out of a sense of honour and to spare the victims families, those Irish who are the subject of open contempt (a man who panics and almost wrecks a mission, informants and traitors) aren't so much as named.

It's only by the time we get a chapter towards in which our hero meets both DeValera AND Collins and bestows upon them the expected effusive praise, that the political intent behind the book comes out most clearly. Pointedly, he argues against the image of Dev as a scheming cold man, and provides his only real memory of the civil war to follow when he recounts how the IRA prisoners in Mountjoy said the rosary for Collins upon his death. It emerges Barry's goal here is to try to heal the wounds of the civil war by harking back to a simpler and more noble time. By heaping praise on all of those involved in the struggle, and withholding scorn for or ignoring those he clearly disdained by avoiding names and details in those cases, he makes the case for Ireland as a united and noble country whose noble warriors were merely momentarily led astray. And that may be a fine sentiment, but it makes this frustrating as a historical document. Did he truly think all of these men were the finest Ireland had to offer? Did he at no point suffer real doubts about their capabilities and leadership? I suppose it's admirable that his recollections aren't clouded by the bitterness of what follows. And of course, he manages to dodge that bitterness rather neatly by not including any of the guerrilla days he spent fighting the Free State government. This just compounded my own disappointment that Barry avoids the more difficult questions of the time by nostalgically appealing to the old days, when they all fought together against the true enemy.

Where the book truly excels is in describing the military terms. Barry is a military man above all else, and perfectly outlines the tactics used in specific engagements, the failures and successes of particular decisions, the constant fears of encirclement. Over and over he emphasises the importance of working with and for and being supported by the people, swimming in the sea as does a fish as Mao would say. This is the bulk of the book, and the primary reason to read it. All by itself it makes Guerrilla Days a fine book. But those looking for serious depth should look elsewhere.

Well written, with clear and concise reasoning about why they were fighting and how they were able to overcome a far superior force. Barry's recollection of every engagement and operation against the enemy is flawless and their part in the bigger picture explained. A superb book on one man's part in a fight for freedom against a brutal and merciless enemy told without any embellishment or nostalgia attached the greater goal of freedom is always foremost in the author's mind.

This was very interesting and informative book concerning the obstacles that the Irish people faced during the years of occupation by the British Military during the time period of around 1918 to 1921. It centered around the author's experiences during the war in which he was a major contributor. His straightforward approach to the telling of his brave comrades who gave their lives to be free from the oppressive rule of Britain. One of the facts I learned was that Britain has gone to war 77 times in the last 450 years in which they 90% of those victories were the slaughter of unarmed tribesman from Africa to China.

I loved some passages but overall aired heavily on military strategy/formation which just isn’t my passion. If you are into that kind of thing then this would be a great book. Also fascinating and so mature that he’s all “in the dark of war the lights are civilians and British people fighting diplomatically against British colonialism” the USA could never.

"There can be no doubt as to why the death roll of the West Cork I.R.A. dropped so amazingly. It was solely because British terror was met by a not less effective I.R.A. counter-terror. We were now hard and ruthless as our enemy had been since hostilities began. The British were met with their own weapons. They had gone down in the mire to destroy us and our nation, and down after them we had to go to stop them."

She's slow, a day by day kind of format, a diary. But loved it. Hard men in a hard time. Very intimate and personal, feels like you're in it.

It's not often that one finds a well-written book about guerrilla warfare written by one of the main participants. During the hostilities with England in the period 1919-1921, the most active IRA fighting group was the West Cork Flying Column headed by Tom Barry. In his Guerilla Days in Ireland, Barry discusses the movements of his IRA fighters against the British regulars, the mercenary Black & Tans, and the Auxiliaries who were pitted against him in a vain attempt to hold onto Ireland for the British.

One thing that distinguished Barry from other, more self-involved military leaders is the tribute he pays in the book to each and every one of his fighters who died at the hands of the enemy. He memorializes them in place, when discussing the individual battles, and reserves an appendix in the back summarizing their names and origins. Barry would have been a good man to fight for: He cared for his men.

Reading this book, I was surprised how little I knew about recent Irish history. There have ben a couple of John Ford Films (most notably The Informer and The Rising of the Moon that popularized the conflict) and a biopic of Michael Collins. Other than that, this is all new material for me.

A great leader, I imagine, but not a great writer. Ernie O'Malley's books are much much better.