Jim Maher is a native of Kilkenny City. He qualified as a teacher in St. Patrick’s Training College, Dublin. His first book was The Flying Column West Kilkenny 1916-1921 (1987). His second book was Harry Boland A Biography (1998) and he followed up with The Oath is Dead and Gone (2011). In 2015 his first book was extended, updated and re-issued under the title, In the Shade of Slievenamon. Jim researched the Civil War for a long period and focused on Harry Boland’s efforts to avert that war.