According to their Lights

By Neil Richardson

e eclectic scientist and inventor Prof. John Joly from Co. Offaly who, at fifty-eight, helped to defend Trinity College Dublin throughout the Rising. Many enlisted to fight for Irish Home Rule or Ulster Unionism, to find adventure or escape from poverty. None imagined they would find themselves on the streets of Dublin, killing – and being killed by – fellow Irishmen. Forty-one Irishmen in the British army died in action during the Rising, 106 were wounded. These men became a forgotten part of their country’s history. • Also available: 'Blackpool to the Front: A Cork Suburb and Ireland's Great War 1914–1918' by Mark Cronin and 'When the Clock Struck in 1916: Close-Quarter Combat in the Easter Rising' by Derek Molyneux & Darren Kelly

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Collins Press
• Release date: Sep 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781848894952

Neil Richardson

Neil Richardson studied Philosophy in University College, Dublin, before writing his first book, A Coward If I Return, A Hero If I Fall: Stories of Irishmen in World War I, which won the Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year award at the 2010 Irish Book Awards. This was followed by Dark Times, Decent Men: Stories of Irishmen in World War II in 2012, and According to Their Lights: Stories of Irishmen in the British Army, Easter 1916 in 2015. A member of the Reserve Defence Forces, Neil has also written and produced plays with a Great War theme and has made several national television and radio appearances, including as consultant historian on RTÉ television’s centenary programme ‘My Great War’. He recently completed an MA in Military History and Strategic Studies (Maynooth University) and is currently studying for a PhD in History.