Children carrying firewood salvaged from the ruins of Sackville (now O'Connell) Street in the 1916 Rising.

Children carrying firewood salvaged from the ruins of Sackville (now O'Connell) Street in the 1916 Rising.

A NEW EXHIBITION and book will be launched tomorrow evening which will bring a decade of revolutionary turmoil in Ireland into sharp focus.

Many previously unpublished photographs are included in ‘Revolution: A photographic history of revolutionary Ireland 1913-1923′, by Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc (Mercier Press). The collection covers events from 1913 through the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence from 1919-21 and the bitter and bloody Civil War of 1922-23.

In that period, the author explains, photographs played an increasingly significant role, being used both as a propaganda tool for all parties and also as evidence and information in the intelligence war between British and Irish during the War of Indepdendence.

Mercier Press have provided us with a selection of striking images from the book for you to see here. To see the exhibition, visit Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Inchicore Road, Dublin 8. It runs until 26 February, 2012: