Paul O'Brien
With only two years to go to the centenary of the 1916 Rising, the shelves of bookshops are already packed to the brim full of a wide selection of titles about that momentous and defining week in Ireland's history.
Having already written two books on 1916 - and with more in the pipeline - Paul O'Brien's expertise on the period and fascination with it shines through in Crossfire: The Battle of the Four Courts, 1916. The first in a series of books about the rebellion called 1916 In Focus, Crossfire is an on-the-ground, nerve-wracking, detailed account of the rising in the Four Courts and its environs day by day from Easter Monday 1916, the day the Proclamation of the Irish Republic was read by Pádraig Pearse, to five days later when the order was given to cease fire.