Nick Maxwell – Page 1114 – History Ireland

Orangeism: the Making of a Tradition, Kevin Haddick-Flynn. (Wolfhound Press, £30) ISBN 0863276598. The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions, Ruth Dudley Edwards. (Harper Collins, £17.99) ISBN 0002558637

Up until this year there had been a dearth of work on the Orange Order. This was bound to change as once again issues over the right to parade have gripped the north of Ireland. Both Orangeism: The Making of a Tradition by Kevin Haddick-Flynn and The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal … Read more

Buckingham in Ireland, Victor Treadwell. (Four Courts Press, £45) ISBN 1851822739

Victor Treadwell’s early works on Irish customs reform and the Irish Commission of 1622 have long been fundamental reading for anyone seeking to understand the inner workings of Irish administration during the early Stuart period. He has produced another major contribution to both Irish and English historical scholarship by concentrating on the political and social … Read more

Luxury and Austerity: Historical Studies XXI, Jacqueline Hill and Colm Lennon (eds.). (University College Dublin Press, £30) ISBN 1900621223

This volume in the Historical Studies series is a collection of thirteen papers from the twenty-third Conference of Historians held in Maynooth in May 1997. The choice of the theme of ‘Luxury and Austerity’ was inspired by the much-vaunted ‘Celtic Tiger’ phenomenon, but the themes covered by these papers stray beyond the concepts of the … Read more

A Star Called Henry, Roddy Doyle (Jonathan Cape, £16.99) ISBN 0224060198

Academic historians tend to be sceptical and at times begrudging about historical novels, suspiciously dissecting the text for sloppy research methods and pouncing on convenient writer’s licence, but also secretly envious, knowing that the book will reach much larger audiences than anything their own often narrowly trained minds could produce. Before historians balk at the … Read more