Reviewed by Trevor Parkhill The Irish Diaspora: A Primer, Donald Harman Akenson (Meany & Co., Toronto; Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, £22.50) ‘The Irish Diaspora’ L.M Cullen in Europeans on the Move: Studies on European Migration 1500-1800 Nicholas Canny (ed.) (Clarendon Press, £35) Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia, David Fitzpatrick … Read more
Niamh O’Sullivan Speaking in the Houses of Parliament in 1886 T.P. O’Connor, one of Parnell’s closest associates, forecast what Ireland would look like under Home Rule. He described ‘a nation of small farmers—one vast universal petite bourgeoisie’. In support of his characterisation he goes on to exhort his listeners to Go to the Royal … Read more
Jim Smyth We’ll fight to the last in the honest old cause,And guard our religion, our freedom and laws.We’ll fight for our country, our king and his crown,And make all the traitors and croppies lie down.As the television documentaries, radio programmes and newspaper features marking the bicentennary of the French … Read more
Dáire Keogh The foundation of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in 1795 represented a revolution in the history of Irish Catholicism. The penal era was drawing to a close, but the French Revolution and the loss of the continental colleges threatened the supply of priests to Ireland; of 478 seminary places in Europe before the revolution, … Read more
A Companion Guide to Architecture in Ireland, 1837-1921 Jeremy Williams(Irish Academic Press, £35) Reviewed by Christine Casey In his foreword to this book Mark Girouard recalls schoolboy holidays in Ireland and a youthful appreciation of Irish nineteenth-century classicism gained through the seat of his trousers on sliding down the staircase balustrade of an aunt’s Greek-revival … Read more