Cogadh Faoi Cheilt: Scéal an IRB is an exploration of the personalities, activities and philosophy of the Irish revolutionary organisation The Irish Republican Brotherhood over the almost six decades of its existence, shedding new light on this secretive group which has been previously relegated to the shadows.

Thanks to the IRB’s policy of entryism the origins of The Land League, the GAA, Sinn Féin, The Irish Volunteers and The Gaelic League are bound up in the story of this secret organisation. IRB initiatives in land reform, cultural revivalism, military strategy and popular political protest inspired characters as diverse as Lenin and Gandhi, and influenced the most progressive elements in Britain and the US – trade unions, Labour and left organisations and other broadly democratic forces. IRB activities in Britain also led to the creation of the British Special Branch and the British secret service, it generated prison reform, unprecedented land redistribution in Ireland and Scotland, it sundered the most powerful Empire in the world, and inspired countless revolutionaries across the globe in the process.

Cogadh Faoi Cheilt draws on contributions from the foremost authorities on the IRB, Fenianism, Irish Republicanism, The Irish Revolution, and nineteenth and twentieth century Gaelic Revival and Irish nationalist culture and literature.

Producer & director: Deaglán Ó Mocháin

Camera: Mark McCauley

Editor: Sarah Kivlehan