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

'Best book ever written about the Rising.'

Neil Richardson, from Dublin, lives in Westmeath. His first book, A Coward If I Return, A Hero If I Fall: Stories of Irishmen in WWI, won the Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year award in 2010, and was followed by Dark Times, Decent Men: Stories of Irishmen in WWII (2012). He lectures on military topics in Ireland and abroad and features on national radio and television. Neil is in the Reserve Defence Forces and his family has a military tradition stretching over 150 years.