The War of the World: History’s Age of Hatred Niall Ferguson (Allen Lane, £25) ISBN 9780713997088This book is a tremendous read, thoroughly researched and presented in a style easily followed. Despite often sickening subject-matter, the author holds the reader’s attention. Yet the text raises serious questions that it never answers. It gives facts that do … Read more
Trials of Irish history: genesis and evolution of a reappraisal, 1938–2000 Evi Gkotzaridis (Routledge, £75) ISBN 0415329183 This is the oddest yet most engaging examination so far of the so-called ‘revisionist school’ of Irish historians, whose precepts, motives and performance have been subjected to an often rancorous but largely sterile debate over the past two … Read more
Aiken: gunman and statesman RTÉ 1, Tuesday 12 December, 10.15pm Hidden Histories Directed by Steve Carson by Eamon O’Flaherty RTÉ’s Hidden Histories series is currently concentrating on a ‘founding fathers’ theme, looking at the lives of major figures in the formation of the independent Irish state. The latest offering—focusing on Frank Aiken—illustrates some of the … Read more
Among the various ‘ghosts’ invoked in the build-up to 1916 the name of Robert Emmet was central to the imagining of a ‘New Ireland’. As important was the influence of the Emmet family in America, where sympathy for the advanced nationalist cause in terms of both funds and propaganda was vital to any potential political … Read more
Sir, —I am researching the story of fires, firefighting and firefighters in Cork city over the centuries, and I wonder if some among your readers may be able to help me over a few hurdles. During the greater part of the nineteenth century, private fire brigades known as ‘fire engine establishments’ were maintained by … Read more