During the Civil War, when Ernie O'Malley lay under sentence of death in Mountjoy prison hospital, some of his notes were smuggled out. 'Most of all, ' he wrote, 'I would have liked to talk about the rank and file where I found solace. '
Raids and Rallies, an account of various offensives against the British in 1920- 21, is his tribute to that rank and file. 'It was a people's war. That is why we fought so well from November 1920.'
'What helps to make these memoirs notable ... is that O'Malley writes more than a documentary in his constant awareness of nature in the background. ' - Sunday Press;
'Entrancing reading ... for those who seek an insight into the mentality of the men who took on the might of the British Empire. ' - Sunday Independent;
'Where O'Malley differs from virtually all others who have published their recollections of those years is that he was a writer and an intellectual who was constantly weighing and analysing all that was happening. ' - The Irish Post
Part of the trilogy that inspired the movie 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley'.