20th-century / Contemporary History

Unionism in Modern Ireland: new perspectives on politics and culture Richard English and Graham Walker (eds.) (Gill and Macmillan, £12.99) ISB: 0-7171-2465-7 Rethinking Unionism: an alternative vision for Ireland Norman Porter (Blackstaff, £10.

When I was a student in London in the late 1940s I was much impressed by Harold Laski’s love of Seeley’s dictum which he worked into nearly every lecture—‘History without politics has no fruit. Politics without history has no root’. So to read twenty years later the Irish revisionist historians was not so much a … Read more

Presbyterians and the Irish Language Roger Blaney (Ulster Historical Foundation/The Ultach Trust, £6.50) ISBN 0-901905-75-5

The events of last summer raised many questions about the nature and exercise of certain aspects of unionist cultural traditions in the North. Whilst historically it is the case that only a minority of the Protestant population there has, at any time, ever had actual membership of organisations such as the Orange Order, the Royal … Read more

Maynooth College: 1795-1995 Patrick J. Corish (Gill and Macmillan, £40) ISBN: 0-7171-2241-7

For the two centuries of its existence Maynooth has been close to the centre of Irish life and controversy. There is not a corner of the island which has not felt the effects of its alumni, or of decisions taken within its walls. Loved or viewed with suspicion, there is no seminary anywhere which has … Read more

Corkery remembered

The restless energies of Daniel Corkery (1878-1964), author of TheHidden Ireland, friend of Terence MacSwiney, scourge of Sean Ó Faoláinand Frank O’Connor, and champion of the Gael, the Church, the language,and the land, seem a little unfashionable in the Ireland of today. So,too, do the charms of the village of Inchigeelagh, County Cork. ButCorkery loved … Read more