Uncommon Valour: Easter 1916 & the battle for the South Dublin Union

The story of the fierce battle at the South Dublin Union during the 1916 Rising by the author of Blood On The Streets. Easter Monday, 1916: Éamonn Ceannt and 120 men of the 4th Battalion of the Irish Volunteers occupied the South Dublin Union, a workhouse and hospital spread over fifty-two acres near James’s Street, Dublin. This was the beginning of a week-long bloody engagement with British crown forces as part of the 1916 Rising.

Uncommon Valour is a detailed account of the events that took place within the South Dublin Union which resulted in two major battles and a number of violent skirmishes. Attacked by troops of the Royal Irish Regiment and the Sherwood Foresters, the beleaguered Irish Volunteers fought a desperate campaign against overwhelming odds to defend their newly declared Republic. The action occurred in the complex now known as St James’s Hospital, where Éamonn Ceannt, Cathal Brugha and William T. Cosgrave led the small group of Irish Volunteers who held off the might of the British army, surrendering only when ordered to by the Rising’s leaders. ��