Supply is so critical to warfighting that armies win and lose wars over it. In Arming the Irish Revolution, W.H. Kautt uses the complicated history of Ireland's revolution as a backdrop to examine in detail how the Irish rebels acquired their weapons to fight the most powerful army in the world and, ultimately, to obtain their independence. While there are studies that examine various elements of issues and topics surrounding arms acquisition during this period, none has done so comprehensively, or as more than just a backdrop to another topic. As a result, there has been no assessment of these activities or their influences on the outcomes of the war. The republican movement in Ireland created and kept a considerable number of documents, which have survived and are now available to researchers.

Arming before the War of Independence --Arms acquisition in the early part of the War for Independence -- Rebel arms manufacturing and bomb making -- IRB arms centers : buying and moving the "stuff" -- "Sweet Mauser Music" : overseas suppliers & rebel operations to the close of the Revolutionary Era -- The Northern Divisions : from truce and treaty to civil war -- The costs, the dangers, and the counters : accident, arrest, imprisonment, death -- Assessment of the Republican arms procurement campaigns, 1918-1921.