A masterly account of Ireland's descent into civil war

The Battle of the Four Courts
By Michael Fewer,
Head of Zeus, 320pp, £20/$30

Michael Fewer’s The Battle of the Four Courts is an account of the first three days of the Irish Civil War in June 1922. For over two months the judicial buildings in the centre of Dublin had been occupied by around 180 soldiers of the Irish Republican Army opposed to the Treaty partitioning the island. They now came under assault from the new National Army of the Irish Free State, using artillery loaned by the British.