Book review: an intimate portrayal of the War of Independence

In her latest book, Valerie Cox has collected family memories from the time of Ireland’s Independence and Civil War, and she spoke too with a living witness to 1922. The veteran journalist and broadcaster talks with Donal O’Keeffe

A British soldier searches a cyclist on a Dublin street, ca.1921.

“The whole thing here is I’m not an historian, I’m not trying to re-tell the history, there’s plenty people doing that,” says Valerie Cox of her new book, Independence Memories: A People’s Portrait of the Early Days of the Irish Nation.

“I’m talking about the human stories, the ordinary, everyday stories of the people who lived through momentous events and who may not even have realised they were living through them at the time, as told through their children and their grandchildren, and even their great- grandchildren.”