Robert Barton: A Remarkable Revolutionary

By Chris Lawlor

The enigmatic Robert Barton was a central figure in Irish Revolution. From an Anglo-Irish ascendancy background, he joined the British army in 1915. He was sent to Dublin to guard Republican prisoners after the 1916 Easter Rising. Within two years he underwent a political conversion and joined Sinn F in. He was elected to the D il and incarcerated during the War of Independence, but was released to help negotiate the truce which ended the conflict. He was a member of both Irish delegations to London in 1921, and was one of the plenipotentiaries who reluctantly signed the Anglo-Irish treaty in December. He voted for the treaty at Cabinet and D il level, but when he had done so, he switched his allegiance to the anti-treaty side in the Civil War, during which he was imprisoned again. After Irish independence, he enjoyed a long life of public service and died in 1975.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1803998164
• ISBN13: 9781803998169
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: History Press
• Length: 204 Pages