The All for Ireland League

The launch of the All for Ireland League in 1910 sent shock waves through Irish nationalism and led to widespread rioting and violence in Cork City and County. It represented the first breakaway from John Redmond’s Irish parliamentary party but, more importantly, challenged one of the central weaknesses of nationalism itself: the failure to build an inclusive vision of an independent nation and the belief that it could ignore the wishes of unionists.

Drawing on a wide range of primary source material, this is the first detailed account of the All for Ireland League. The study explores the history of the League and its charismatic founder William O’Brien who attempted to build a new type of non-sectarian politics during Ireland’s most turbulent era and argued that a failure to do so would condemn Ireland to unending strife, what he called The Banshee’s Kiss. This book unearths a forgotten piece of history with an important echo from the past as Ireland faces new dilemmas and challenges.