A Chronicle of Jails

The Centenary Classics series examines the fascinating time of change and evolution in the Ireland of 100 years ago during the 1916-23 revolutionary period. Each volume is introduced by Fearghal McGarry who sets the scene of this important period in Ireland’s history. A Chronicle of Jails is Darrell Figgis’s account of his arrest in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising and subsequent internment in Ireland and Britain. He was among a minority of internees identified as leadership material and held at Reading Gaol rather than at Frongoch Camp. This memoir was first published by the Talbot Press in 1917 and is fascinating in its propagandistic intent. It reveals much about political imprisonment in that era and much about Darrell Figgis. The introduction by William Murphy gives a contemporary analysis of this original text.