Of War and War's Alarms is a unique study of war and revolution and their impact on the writing lives of Irish poets and novelists from WWI and the Easter Rising through the War of Independence to the Spanish Civil War, WWII and the Northern "Troubles." These timely reflections on literature in wartime include such figures as W. B. Yeats, Thomas MacGreevy, Seamus Heaney along with Francis Ledwidge, Charles Donnelly and Padraic Fiacc, Benedict Kiely, William Trevor, John Hewitt and Christabel Bielenberg.

Gerald Dawe is Professor of English at Trinity College Dublin and has published nine volumes of poetry including Selected Poems and Mickey Finn's Air.