Over the past forty years, historians of medicine have explored the global impact of the 1918–19 influenza pandemic. Yet, it is only within the past decade that the subject has attracted a similar level of scholarly interest in Ireland. Timing is everything. The arrival of the ‘Spanish Flu’ in 1918–19 facilitated its long-standing neglect within Irish historiography, wedged as it was between the final months of the First World War and the turbulence preceding political independence. In Stacking the coffins: influenza, war and revolution in Ireland 1918–19, Ida Milne provides an account of this pandemic in the early twentieth century, which tells the story of Ireland's black flu with considerable acuity and empathy.

Writing about any disease requires a balance between the universal and the specific. An infectious outbreak is an inherently macro phenomenon, affecting communities, regions, and even nations. The first chapters provide a broad outline of the ‘mysterious malady’ that was the influenza pandemic, as well as its emergence into the tempestuous political climate of Ireland in 1918–19. Newspaper coverage is particularly well deployed to demonstrate how the disease arrived to an island that was still concerned by the threat of German u-boats. It then grapples with the distinctive geographic and demographic profile taken by the pandemic, revealing the challenges associated with the use of contemporary statistics to chart the spread of infection. Subsequent chapters on statutory (in)action, medical management, and institutional responses provide a broad view of the disease's impact in Ireland. Readers learn of the thousands incapacitated by influenza nationwide, with disruptions to businesses, schools, sporting events, and religious services. The book's evocative title captures the often haphazard response to a pandemic that medical authorities could do little to assuage, leaving local communities to address the disease's aftermath.

In tracing this broad impact Milne does not neglect the specific, as Stacking the coffins extensively explores how the ‘Spanish’ flu affected individuals and their families. Spread throughout the text are fascinating insights into the personal impact of the disease. These include the extensive body of interviews conducted with flu survivors, which give a visceral insight into their experience of the pandemic; accounts like those of Nellie O'Toole, who described how her local community was sustained by the philanthropy of a local landlord, help that proved vital in her area as ‘someone from every house was sick with the flu’ (p. 188). Such accounts contextualise the pandemic experience and help to reveal the networks of local support that sustained communities throughout the outbreak. While consistently critical, these accounts are dealt with empathetically, allowing the reader an insight into the interviewee's personal experiences that does not discount the vagaries of memory. Spread throughout the text, these interviews enliven what is already a pleasingly accessible scholarly study.

If easy reading is difficult writing, considerable labour was required to present this narrative, which clearly shows the salience of illness to Irish society during a peak period of political agitation. Stacking the coffins persuasively demonstrates how influenza had an impact across Irish society, from the individual to the societal level. It offers a richly textured narrative that represents a significant contribution to the history of medicine in Ireland.