More than any other book of the period, On Another Man's Wound captures the feel of Ireland—the way people lived, their attitudes and beliefs—and paints brilliant cameo sketches of the great personalities of the Rising and the War. Like many of the Irish, O'Malley was largely indifferent to the attempts to establish an independent Ireland—until the Easter Rising of 1916. As the fight progressed his feelings changed and he joined the Irish Republican Army.

On Another Man's Wound, its title taken from an old Ulster proverb, 'it's easy to sleep on another mans wound', was first published in 1936 and has become the classic account of the years 1916-21. It captures the essence of Ireland at the time, the way people lived, their attitudes, their beliefs, the songs they sang, the legends they knew. O'Malley pictures the Irish landscape magnificently, and his cameo sketches of the great personalities of the Rising and the war that followed bring them into instant focus.