Ernie O'Malley
Ernie O'Malley was born in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, in 1897, and was prominent
in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. His best known
works (On Another Man's Wound takes its title taken from an Ulster
proverb, It's easy to sleep on another man's wound) are the classic
accounts of the Irish period 1916-1924.
His books are On Another Man's Wound (Dublin & London, Rich & Cowan, 1936/
Boston, Houghton & Mifflin [published as Army Without Banners], 1937); The
Singing Flame (ed. Frances Mary Blake, Dublin, Anvil Books,
1978); and Raids and Rallies (Dublin, Anvil Books, 1982).
Biographical material includes Prisoners: The Civil War Letters of Ernie O'Malley
(eds.Richard England and Cormac , Dublin, Poolbeg Press,
1991); TheErnie O'Malley O'Malley Story, by Padraig O'Farrell (Cork, Mercier
Press, 1984); and a full-length biography,Ernie O'Malley O'Malley: IRA
Intellectual, by Richard England (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994/New York,
Oxford University Press, 1998).
He was for a time editor of The Bell, and was a close friend and supporter of Jack B. Yeats.
Ernie O'Malley was given a State funeral with full military honors when he
died in Dublin in March 1957.
