Tim Pat Coogan

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Tim Pat Coogan and Charlie Bird at the Press Delete Launch.

Timothy Patrick Coogan (born 1935) is an Irish historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He served as editor of the Irish Press newspaper from 1968 to 1987.

Coogan, son of an IRA Volunteer of the 1919-1922 period, is a former student of Blackrock College in Dublin, and has written controversial but popular books such as The IRA, Ireland Since the Rising, On the Blanket, Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera.

His first book, Ireland Since The Rising, was published in 1966. His most recent book is Ireland in the Twentieth Century which was published in 2003.

His biography of Éamon de Valera proved the most controversial, taking issue with the former Irish president's reputation and achievements, in favor of those of Collins, whom he regards as indispensable to the creation of the new State.

His books are written from a nationalist perspective. Coogan blames the Troubles in Northern Ireland on "Paisleyism". Sean O'Callaghan, a former IRA paramilitary, has been critical of Coogan's material stating that his books were required reading for jailed IRA prisoners ^[1].

1 Comments by Coogan re the 90th Anniversary of Easter Rising
2 Publications
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Comments by Coogan re the 90th Anniversary of Easter Rising

Excerpt from the 4/12/2006-4/18/2006 edition of the New York-based Irish Voice (page 11) entitled

The Lessons of 1916:

Questions like [sic] should 1916 be commemorated? Should there be a military parade? These questions are in reality irritating diversionary tactics utilized by those whose real mental posture is the colonial cringe and whose political philosophy is crypto unionism.

The basic importance of 1916 is that it formed a substantive, motivating role in the securing of independence, one of the three great turning points of Ireland in the 20th century ... [w]ithout the foregoing the Republic today would be on the same handout level as the six counties, and to a lesser degree Scotland and Wales ([1]).

[edit] Publications

The IRA, first written in 1970, has been republished with updated information several times.

Ireland Since the Rising, 1966.
The I.R.A., 1970.
The Irish : a personal view, 1975.
On the Blanket : the H Block story, 1980.
Ireland and the Arts, 1986.
Disillusioned Decades : Ireland 1966-87, 1987.
Michael Collins : a biography, 1990. ISBN 0-09-968580-9.
De Valera : long fellow, long shadow, 1993.
The Troubles : Ireland's ordeal 1966-1995 and the Search for Peace, 1995. ISBN 0-09-946571-X.
The Irish Civil War - with George Morrison, 1998.
Wherever Green is Worn : the Story of the Irish Diaspora, 2000.
1916: The Easter Rising, 2001. ISBN 0-00-653155-5
Ireland in the Twentieth Century, 2004. ISBN 1-4039-6842-X