ABSTRACT
Although guerrilla warfare, in one form or another, is a phenomenon of great antiquity, only in recent generations has it moved dramatically into the public eye. Its status has changed; from the last resort of the defeated, or the anarchic resource of the bandit, it has become the most advanced method of political mobilization for revolution. The Anglo-Irish war is often seen as prototypal of the 'war of national liberation', and the Irish Republican Army as paradigmatic of the modern guerrilla organization. Until after the failure of the 1916 Rising, Irish separatists, with notable exceptions such as James Fintan Lalor, had little time for the guerrilla idea. From this standpoint, the significant thing about the Rising is not that it failed, but how it had envisaged succeeding. In 1916 the most elementary guerrilla methods were eschewed in favour of the seizure and static defence of a few big buildings.
