Beyond the Twelve Bens

By Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill

The book tracks the social changes taking place in Connemara in the years from the Great Famine to the Free State. Years that saw the breakup of the old landed estates and the rise of a well-educated middle class that would shape the social and political thinking of the day.

Clifden was branded as a pro-British town offering little support to Sinn Fein and the Volunteers. The actions of the Black and Tans, their raids, their looting and eventual burning of fourteen houses on 17 March 1921, would cause all that to change.