Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in the First World War by Richard S. Grayson

Richard S. Grayson follows the volunteers of the 36th and 16th divisions who fought on the Somme and side-by-side at Messines, recovering the forgotten West Belfast men throughout the armed forces, from the retreat at Mons to the defeat of Germany and life post-war.  In so doing, he tells a new story which challenges popular perceptions of the war and explains why remembrance remains so controversial in Belfast today.

Product details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Continuum; Revised edition (12 July 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1441105190
• ISBN-13: 978-1441105196

Product Description

Review

'Provocative, meticulously researched and referenced.' --Irish Times

'[Grayson] provides a new form of social-military history... [A] painstaking study... This book provides an invaluable service to both sides in their bid to evaluate individual and shared histories.' --Times Higher Education

'A highly considered work of careful and scholarly reclamation, and a vivid evocation of a divided city' - Sunday Business Post 'Highly readable' - Myles Dungan, Today with Pat Kenny, RTE Radio 1 'A brilliant book' - Dr Patrick Geoghegan, Talking History, Newstalk 106-108FM - --Dr Patrick Geoghegan, Talking History, Newstalk 106-108FM

Gives a valuable insight into the men who held different views across the political and religious divides, how some of them volunteered regardless of divisions, simply because they were unemployed. --Stand To!

'A highly considered work of careful and scholarly reclamation, and a vivid evocation of a divided city' - Sunday Business Post 'Highly readable' - Myles Dungan, Today with Pat Kenny, RTE Radio 1 'A brilliant book' --Dr Patrick Geoghegan, Talking History, Newstalk 106-108FM

'Richard Grayson paints his picture of religious co-operation from a human perspective - focusing on the young squaddies who fought and died together.' --Tribune

'A highly considered work of careful and scholarly reclamation, and a vivid evocation of a divided city' - Sunday Business Post 'Highly readable' - Myles Dungan, Today with Pat Kenny, RTE Radio 1 'A brilliant book' --- Dr Patrick Geoghegan, Talking History, Newstalk 106-108FM -

'Richard Grayson paints his picture of religious co-operation from a human perspective - focusing on the young squaddies who fought and died together.' --Tribune

'A highly considered work of careful and scholarly reclamation, and a vivid evocation of a divided city' - Sunday Business Post 'Highly readable' - Myles Dungan, Today with Pat Kenny, RTE Radio 1 'A brilliant book' - Dr Patrick Geoghegan, Talking History, Newstalk 106-108FM ---

About the Author

Dr. Richard S. Grayson is Head of the Politics Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, where he is also Senior Lecturer in British and Irish Politics. A former Director of Policy of the Liberal Democrats, he has written two books on interwar British political history. His great-uncle, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, served and died (in September 1915) on the Western Front in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.