Freedom and the Fifth Commandment

Brian Heffernan is to be highly commended for this fine study which will be a standard work on this subject for many years to come. For those interested in the war of independence (1919-21), this is a pageturner. The author describes in considerable detail the role of priests and bishops during those revolutionary years. In so doing, he provides a valuable service. Apart from an article published more than forty years ago by Tomás Ó Fiaich, no-one has since written specifically on this subject. Brian Heffernan is to be highly commended for this fine study, which will be a standard work on the subject for many years to come. Meticulously using both archival and newspaper resources, this worthwhile study examines and classifies the response of Catholic clergy to the post - 1918 troubles in Ireland. '...hugely impressive, illuminating and excellently researched book ... Heffernan has vividly filled a large gap in historical knowledge about how priests navigated exceptionally difficult circumstances and volatile times, and the book deserves wide readership. Drawing on diocesan archives, newspapers, witness statements and contemporary correspondence, Heffernan skilfully weaves these sources together into a judicious, well-written overview.' - Dairmaid Ferriter, Irish Times review. January 2016 ‘A riveting publication’ Dublin Review of Books, December 2016, Thomas FitzGerald is an Irish research council scholar at Trinity College Dublin -- .