Westmeath society to host lecture on Wilson assassination

Irish Times journalist and historian, Ronan McGreevy, will give a lecture based on his best-selling book Great Hatred: The Assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson MP, in the Greville Arms Hotel, Mullingar this coming Wednesday October 26 at 8pm.

This assassination caused turmoil in Britain as it happened immediately after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921. It also led to the outbreak of civil war in Ireland as the British government demanded swift action against the anti-Treaty insurgents in the Four Courts.

The outrage which followed the killing of the field marshal, whose family home was in Currygrane House near Newtownforbes in Longford, raised many questions. Why did two English born Irish veterans of the First World War turn IRA assassins? Who ordered the killing? Why would Michael Collins, who risked his life to sign a peace treaty with Great Britain, want Wilson dead? And how did Wilson’s murder lead to Collins tragic death just two months later?

These and other questions will be addressed by Ronan in an important lecture in the Decade of Centenaries lecture series supported by Westmeath County Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society are delighted to facilitate the lecture, and all are welcome.