Historian and IRA leader Florence O'Donoghue describes his experiences as head of intelligence in Cork city during the Irish War of Independence. He candidly assesses the leaders of this period, including Tomas MacCurtain, Sean O'Hegarty, Terence MacSwiney, and Michael Collins, and critically examines the evolution of the Irish Volunteer citizen soldiers. He also details his wife's role as the top IRA spy in Cork's British Army headquarters, working for the rebels in exchange for the return of her eldest son, lost in a bitter custody battle. After O'Donoghue kidnapped the child, the two collaborators eventually fell in love and were secretly married in the spring of 1921.  Forty years later, the couple presented their story to their children to explain the family secret that had haunted their domestic lives. The first part of the book is Florence and Josephine's account of their activities in the Anglo-Irish War, written in 1961; the second part is composed of 47 letters in diary form, written by O'Donoghue to his wife while he was 'on the run' during the final ten weeks of the war, from May to July 1921. They provide a rare snapshot of the daily life of fugitive IRA guerrillas, and an insight into two people who followed their hearts to find 'a destiny that shapes our ends'.  'Among the many rewards of this engrossing account is the increased understanding it conveys of the importance of the contribution of 'ordinary' women, as well as of the 'ordinary' men, to the struggle'. PROFESSOR J.J. LEE, New York University 'A riveting mixture of autobiography, narrative history and personal correspondence.This book is of great value for the historian, and as a highly entertaining read for a wide audience. O'Donoghue was a hugely important figure during the Irish revolutionary period and a formidable writer and historian. The story of his courtship and marriage is particularly dramatic and compelling, John Borgonovo has proved an extremely sympathetic and scholarly editor'.  R  MICHAEL  HOPKINSON  JOHN BORGONOVO is a writer currently living in San Francisco. His articles have appeared in various American publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle. He received a BA in History from the University of Oregon and a Master of Arts from University College, Cork. His forthcoming book is Spies, Informers and the Anti-Sinn Fein Society: The Intelligence War in Cork City 1920-1921 (also published by IrishAcademic Press).