Nick Maxwell A nation in medieval Ireland? Perspectives on Gaelic national identity in the Middle Ages (British Archaeological Reports, British Series, 367) Thomas Finan (Archaeopress, £29) ISBN 1841716006 The question of ‘identity’ in medieval Ireland is all the rage these days, and not simply in the sense of commanding a great deal of interest. For several decades … Read more
Marie Coleman (Irish Academic Press, E45) ISBN 0716527030 The War of Independence, 1919–21, was anything but a ‘national’ revolt; the areas of activity were in Munster (principally Cork and Tipperary), Dublin and, most interestingly, the small midlands county of Longford. Marie Coleman’s meticulously researched and thoughtful study has filled an important historical lacuna in explaining … Read more
The transformation of Ireland 1900–2000 Diarmaid Ferriter (Profile Books, £30) ISBN 1861973071 The blurb misleads by suggesting that these 759 pages (excluding the scholarly apparatus) are about the transformation of Ireland from an ‘impoverished . . . corner of the British Empire’ into ‘the “Celtic Tiger”’. In the first chapter, dealing with the years 1900–12, … Read more
Fearghal McGarry (Dundalgan Press, E6) ISBN 0852211430 This biography follows Fearghal McGarry’s first book, Irish politics and the Spanish Civil War (1999), a work of such comprehensive objectivity that it deserves much wider recognition as the definitive textbook on the subject. By contrast, the limitations of McGarry’s second book are only partly related to its … Read more
Brendan Bradshaw and Dáire Keogh (eds) (Columba Press, E30) ISBN 1856073505 This is a collection of 23 articles, all relating to the history of Christianity in Ireland, which aim to fill the need for a book for ‘the interested non-specialist as well as undergraduates . . . about the history of the church in Ireland … Read more