Peter's Key: Peter Deloughry and the Fight for Irish Independence

In February 1919 three Irish republican prisoners, most notably Éamon de Valera, broke out of Lincoln jail without having to dig a tunnel or fire a shot. The escape was the culmination of months of planning, but it would have been impossible without one man - Peter DeLoughry, who fashioned the key that allowed these men to simply walk out of jail. In Peter's Key DeLoughry emerges from the shadow of his more famous fellow inmate. The book also sheds new light on the bitter disagreements involving members of the Kilkenny Brigade and Ernie O'Malley, as well as revealing the fractious relationship that developed between DeLoughry on one side and de Valera and Harry Boland on the other. A fervent supporter of the republican movement in Kilkenny, DeLoughry was also mayor of Kilkenny for six consecutive years, served in the first Seanad, where he became embroiled in issues such as divorce and film censorship, and was a Cumann na nGaedheal TD. Relying on previously unpublished material, Declan Dunne, DeLoughry's grandson, tells the story of a man who played a critical role in the story of Ireland's independence.