The only leader of the 1916 Rising to be killed in action, Michael O’Rahilly died in a Dublin laneway after leading a charge against a British barricade in Moore Street. A letter to his wife, written during his last moments and pierced by the fatal bullet, was found in his breast pocket.

The O’Rahilly, as Michael O’Rahilly became known, was the prime mover in the formation of the Irish Volunteers and its director of arms, organizing the purchase and delivery of the Howth rifles in July 1914. He was Pearse’s aide-de-camp in the General Post Office during Easter Week and became commander of the garrison after Connolly was wounded.

The O’Rahilly: A Secret History of the Rebellion of 1916 is the last personal account of 1916. It honours the founding of the Irish state and salutes one of the individuals who made it possible. Poignant sketches of other key figures in the Rising — Casement, MacNeill, Redmond, Devoy, Hobson, Plunkett, Markievicz, Childers, Griffith, Pearse, Connolly — are woven together with unpublished documents and family letters, clothing the skeleton of history.

Revised edition (Previously published as Winding the Clock)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aodogan O’Rahilly was born in 1904 in Brighton. His family then moved to the US, returning to Ireland in 1909. His father was The O’Rahilly, co-founder of the Irish Volunteers. Aodogan was educated in UCD and was the chairman of Bord na Mona from 1959 to 1974. The O’Rahilly was first published as Winding the Clock. Aodogan O’Rahilly died in 2000.