Nick Maxwell Joseph Starr In Europe the eighteenth century was known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. Intellectuals firmly believed that men were perfectible and that having achieved that state an era of harmony, peace and progress would emerge. Armed with these ideas they set out to reform every … Read more
Hiram Morgan The palpable and enduring effect of the Reformation on Irish history should not be allowed to obscure the impact also made by the Renaissance. The rationale behind the Tudor attempt to ‘reform’ the Irish polity and the Gaelic section of its population was provided by humanists variously inspired by classical ideas of … Read more
James Lydon In a parliament which met at Dublin in 1460 a famous statute was passed in which it was stated that the land of Ireland is, and at all times has been, corporate of itself by the ancient laws and customs used in the same, freed of the burden of any … Read more
Sir,—I feel I should step in between Mr Bowman and Professor Boyce, if only to declare a ‘no contest’ (HI Winter 1994). As I said in my book on the 16th (Irish) Division (Ireland’s unknown soldiers), the formation’s infantry (as distinct from its supporting arms) was always largely Catholic Irish. Bowman should not cite my … Read more
(Beyond the Pale Publications, £12.95) (3:1) Reviewed by Tony Canavan In the wake of the revisionist/anti-revisionist debate in Irish history, one approaches any book with a title like The Cause of Ireland with a certain trepidation, especially when the author’s previous works include Ireland: the Propaganda War. What one is afraid of is a romanticised … Read more