[Signed] [First Edition] The Last Invasion Of Ireland: When Connacht Rose Hayes, Richard [Used - Very Good] [Hardcover]

Octavo, 341pp., illustrated. A very good copy in the publisher's green cloth, lacking the dust jacket. Spine cocked, light rubbing to the boards, and a touch of foxing to the edges, but a sound, clean copy. A pleasing association copy, SIGNED and INSCRIBED by Hayes on the front free endpaper to fellow Irish politician Ernest Blythe, and his wife Anne: "To Ernest and Annie Blythe, from Richard Hayes with best wishes." The flyleaves are offset from the binder's glue. Hayes and Blythe were both elected as Sinn Fein TD's in the historic election of 1918; the last to occur with the whole of Ireland as part of the United Kingdom, and which was a landslide victory for their party. Later in life, each of them served at different times as Managing Director of the Abbey Theatre. This book is Hayes's history of the 1798 rebellion in Ireland against British rule, which failed, but was yet another brave episode in the long struggle for self-determination. The book is scarce signed, and certainly desirable with such a pleasing association between two of the first Sinn Fein politicians to hold office in Ireland, and who would go on to form part of the first Home Rule Irish government, following the partition of 1921.