Nick Maxwell ‘Women of ‘98’ is the theme of this year’s Byrne-Perry Summer School. Now in its second year the school, directed by Dáire Keogh and under the efficient and capable auspices of chairman Walter Forde and the local committee, should provide invigorating and stimulating debate. It runs from Friday 28 June to Sunday 30 June. Enquiries: … Read more
An exhibition on the history of the Irish in New York, due to open in March 1996 at the Museum of the City of New York, has been dogged by controversy before it has even opened. The row was sparked last year when a respected Irish-American scholar Marion Casey was replaced as guest curator. But … Read more
Radical politics in modern Ireland: the Irish Socialist Republican Party, 1896–1904 David Lynch (Irish Academic Press, €39.50) ISBN 0716533561Written by a member of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP), this book belongs to a sub-genre of labour history that sees history-writing as instrumental and is at pains to draw lessons regarding present-day socialist politics and … Read more
The Connolly Column: the story of the Irishmen who fought for the Spanish Republic 1936–1939 Michael O’Riordan (Warren and Pell, €22.50) ISBN 0954890426 How do we now see the Spanish Civil War of 70 years ago? What do we now think of its origins and the forces involved? The world—particularly Europe—has greatly changed. Fascism, as … Read more
The Three Richards: Richard I, Richard II and Richard III Nigel Saul (Hambledon and London, £19.99) ISBN 1852852860It is probably just as well that the present prince of Wales is called Charles and that the son likely to succeed him is called William. Anything but Richard, for of the three King Richards so far—Richard I, … Read more