Speaking to a crowd of 30,000 people gathered in College Green to welcome the release of convicted IRA prisoners by the recently elected Fianna Fail Government in March 1932, Peadar O'Donnell said of the defeated Cumann na nGaedhael Government that he was "glad the murder Government was put out of power, but these men must be put finally out of public life", and he added they "must never be allowed to come on a public platform".

On taking office, Fianna Fail had not only released IRA prisoners, it had also suspended the Public Safety Act and thus legalized the IRA, Saor Eire and the Irish Communist Party. These elements proceeded to disrupt opposition meetings, as Peadar O'Donnell had suggested. A number of acts of violence were committed against supporters of the former government.

Real fear was prevalent among all classes in Ireland in the early 1930s. The memories of the outrages of the 1920-23 period were fresh and painful. Poverty was rampant, and the established order was being overturned throughout Europe. The verdict of the Civil War and of the elections of the 1920s had been reversed, and a tariff war with Britain had been initiated which was destroying the livelihoods of the once comfortable section of society, whose prosperity depended on exports to Britain.

This new edition of Maurice Manning's highly regarded book shows that the fear that all this created was aggravated by Cumann na nGaedhael leaders and their supporters believing their own propaganda. They really believed that De Valera and the IRA were almost indistinguishable. They lost confidence in themselves and temporarily gave support to methods and leaders that were out of character for people who had recently founded the State on such a solid and restrained constitutional base.

Unjustified fear was not confined to one side. Many in Fianna Fail believed there was a real possibility of a Blueshirt coup d'etat with the support of the Army. This was believed even though numerous searches and arrests of Blueshirts had uncovered no evidence of subversion and the army had proved its loyalty at the time of the change of Government in 1932.

Maurice Manning's history of the Blueshirts, first published in 1970, is now reissued with a new foreword which takes account of findings from newly released national archives. It is a well written story, told with pace and style and, unlike more recent writers, Manning interviewed many of the protagonists. It covers a very short period - just three years - three years in which political attitudes which survive today were formed.

Many historians credit W.T. Cosgrave with helping Fianna Fail into constitutional politics by introducing legislation in 1927 which forced them to choose between taking their seats in the Dail and being disallowed from standing for election at all. It could perhaps, also be argued that de Valera in return, helped constitutionalise the Blueshirt movement by banning it on 22nd August 1933.

That ban forced it to merge with Cumann na nGaedhael and the Centre Party and form a new party - Fine Gael - in order to continue in existence. On merging into Fine Gael, the Blueshirts also had to drop Fascist sounding ideas for remodelling the Dail and, as was subsequently demonstrated, Eoin O'Duffy, the Blueshirt Leader, was eventually to be brought under control by his new associates.

But, having read and reread Maurice Manning's account of the formation of Fine Gael in September 1933, I still cannot fully understand why experienced senior people in the new party, like W.T. Cosgrave, Frank McDermott, Paddy McGilligan, Paddy Hogan and James Dillon allowed Eoin O'Duffy actually to become the first leader of Fine Gael.

O'Duffy was talented, affable, energetic and a great organiser. But he had no political experience, was not a deep thinker, and had been insubordinate to the Cumann na nGaedhael Government in his previous position as Garda Commissioner. One can only assume that, after two election defeats and ten hard years in Government, the old leaders were suffering a deep fatigue which allowed them to make a mistake, which they later rectified after much damage had been done.

This is a gripping account of an exciting time in Irish history and Gill and Macmillan are well justified in their decision to reissue it.