Left without a Handkerchief contains ten stories of destruction and loss during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War. Between 250 and 300 Irish country houses were burnt in the early 1920s during the course of the War of Independence and subsequent Civil War. The reasons behind their destruction were various, but because of their scale and prominence on the Irish landscape, setting fire to them was judged by perpetrators to be good propaganda.

Hitherto historians have concentrated on the actions and motivation of those responsible for carrying out the burnings. Left without a Handkerchief will tell the other side of the story, of history seen from the perspective of the losers.