Tom Barry on Guerilla Warfare

 I don't like going off-topic, but this was simply too good to not post. A 1 hour talk by Tom Barry on guerrilla warfare and the strategy and tactics of the West Cork Brigade:

(A hundred thousand thank you's to youtuber TomBarry1921 for uploading this! Maith thu.)

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM0RsCHkQfo&sns=em

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25O8MkLxBWc&sns=em

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQHVGqtHcvc&sns=em

Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZPnk2HA3d8&sns=em

Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaI4_hlDO20&sns=em

Sad to say but military men of his caliber in
the struggle are as rare as honest bankers...

   Operation Harvest was actually the first
return to active republicanism he had since the 30's. He had disagreed with the "S Plan" (the 40's campaign) for strategic and moral reasons, in addition to reservations about the connections to Germany. He returned as an advisor and helped run training camps in the run up to 1956. Sean Cronin* is said to have been one of his admirers and based his strategy on that which Barry used during the Tan War and proposed for use afterwards in liberating the north. Unfortunately, Cronin did not have at his disposal the manpower and resources Barry did, or the political power the "old IRA" wielded.

 The rest, as they say, is history....


*Both Cronin and Barry were in the Free State Army during "The Emergency" aka WW2.