Guns for Ulster

Col. Fred Crawford's account of his audacious gun-running exploits in 1914 has lost none of its appeal with the passage of time. It is timelessly gripping. Crawford adamantly maintained that Home Rule for Ireland should be resisted in Ulster by force, if necessary, and set about the business of planning and preparing for that worst case scenario. Having purchased a large consignment of rifles and ammunition from a German arms dealer he undertook a circuitous and perilous journey which culminated in the landing of the cargo of weapons at Larne harbour on the night of April 24th.

The crisis was ultimately averted, largely due to the advent of the Great War, but the 'what ifs' of this story are still as tantalizing today as they ever were.

This second edition, with reset text, published to mark the centenary of the gun-running enterprise, includes a foreword by the author's grandson and contemporary newspaper reports of the mobilisation of the Ulster Volunteer Force to unload and distribute the munitions delivered by the S.S. "Clydevalley."