Nick Maxwell

A Century of Northern Life: The Irish News and 100 Years of Ulster History 1890s-1990s, Eamon Phoenix (ed.), (Ulster Historical Foundation, £10 .95). A History of The Belfast Telegraph, Malcolm Brodie, (Blackstaff Press, £14.99).

Both these books were commissioned and, like the newspapers they serve to commemorate, they are different in orientation. The one dedicated to The Irish News is a collection of twenty-six articles by academics, journalists and writers to honour its centenary in 1991, to pay tribute to the skill, courage and objectivity of its journalists during … Read more

Bookworm

They say that the only thing worse than a bad review is no review at all. Unfortunately, where History Ireland is concerned, this has been the case with many of the books sent to us for review by publishers. In 2003, for example, over 130 books were submitted but only 27 were reviewed. And that’s … Read more

Defenders of the Union: a survey of British and Irish unionism since 1801

D. George Boyce and Alan O’Day (eds) (Routledge, £17) ISBN 0415174228 The last decade has witnessed an increasing interest in the constitutional and political nature of the United Kingdom. More often than not this has taken the form of a critical assessment of the Union itself rather than an analysis of those who supported it. … Read more

The politics of Irish education, 1920-65, Sean Farren, (Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast, £16.50)

This is a thought provoking study. Sean Farren provides us not only with an insight into developments in the schools in both Northern Ireland and the Free State/Republic of Ireland, but shows the extent to which the schools were used by political and church powers to cultivate a particular, one-dimensional type of nationality, culture and … Read more