The Unknown Commandant: The Life and Times of Denis Barry 1883-1923

In size and tone, Denis Barry's funeral cortege in the midst of a bloody civil war was similar to those that marked the burials of Tomás MacCurtain and Terence McSwiney and, in more peaceful times, of Christy Ring and Jack Lynch. But who was "the Unknown Commandant"? A martyr and a hero to his countrymen, Denis Barry is overlooked today. This book seeks to rescue this hugely respected Cork man from relative anonymity. Denis Barry toiled in the shadows of McSwiney and MacCurtain in the tumultuous period of the Irish War of Independence. A brave soldier, patriot and sportsman, he died on hunger strike at the Curragh Military Prison in 1923 for the cause in which he believed.