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
Michael Hopkinson (Gill & Macmillan, €30) ISBN 071713010X The Irish Revolution, 1913–1923 Joost Augusteijn (ed.) (Palgrave, €25) ISBN 0333982266 Given its pivotal role in the shaping of modern Irish society and its long grip on the popular imagination, it is astonishing that until recently there was no single monograph about the War of Independence. Michael … Read more
Hidden History RTÉ1 Family Fortune: de Valera’s Irish Press, 2 Nov 2004 Directed by Gerry Nelson for Mint Productions Joe Cahill, IRA man, 7 Dec 2004 Directed by Jonathon Golden for DoubleBand Films by Eamon O’Flaherty RTÉ’s Hidden History series offered an impressive collection of documentaries before Christmas. The focus was heavily biographical—Women of the … Read more
Our neglect and ignorance of some important figures in early twentieth-century Ireland were highlighted recently during the transcription and publication of the Heads of Household Index to the 1851 census of Ireland for Dublin City compiled by D.A. Chart. In the light of the destruction of nineteenth-century Irish census returns housed in the Public Records … Read more