EPISODE · Jan 9, 2026 · 54 MIN
Episode 222 with Gerald O’Hara, author of Breaking the Mauser Rifle
from Floyd Memorial Library Podcast · host Floyd Memorial Library Podcast
Today I’m joined by Gerald O’Hara, author of Breaking the Mauser Rifle. What began with a week spent with his grandparents in Ireland in 1985 grew into a thirty-year journey to record and preserve a family history shaped by the Irish War of Independence and the divisions of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.Drawing on family memory, inherited stories, and recorded voices, Gerald traces not only his own family’s past, but a pivotal moment in Ireland’s story, one shaped by two grandfathers who stood on opposite sides of history.In our conversation, we talk about turning oral memory into written history, blending family stories with archival research, the meaning behind the book’s title, and what it meant to bring the book home to Charlestown and share it with readers on both sides of the Atlantic.
What this episode covers
Today I’m joined by Gerald O’Hara, author of Breaking the Mauser Rifle. What began with a week spent with his grandparents in Ireland in 1985 grew into a thirty-year journey to record and preserve a family history shaped by the Irish War of Independence and the divisions of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.Drawing on family memory, inherited stories, and recorded voices, Gerald traces not only his own family’s past, but a pivotal moment in Ireland’s story, one shaped by two grandfathers who stood on opposite sides of history.In our conversation, we talk about turning oral memory into written history, blending family stories with archival research, the meaning behind the book’s title, and what it meant to bring the book home to Charlestown and share it with readers on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Episode 222 with Gerald O’Hara, author of Breaking the Mauser Rifle
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