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
In spite of our best intentions to review as many Africa-related books as possible in the special Africa issue (HI 14.4, July/Aug. 2006), some important titles only came to our attention after we had gone to press. One of these, Rose Doyle’s Heroes of Jadotville: the soldiers’ story (New Island, 383pp, ?19.95, ISBN 1905494319)—featured in … Read more
Controversial issues in Anglo-Irish relations 1910–21 Cornelius O’Leary and Patrick Maume (Four Courts Press, ?45) ISBN 1851826572 The last two decades have witnessed a dramatic thaw in Anglo-Irish relations following the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985—giving Dublin an entrenched role in the North—and the intense cooperation between the two governments that underlay the 1998 Good Friday … Read more
Kevin O’Higgins: builder of the Irish state John McCarthy (Irish Academic Press, E27.50) ISBN 0716534142 It is a sad fact that the spot where Ireland’s first minister for justice lay after he was fatally wounded by three IRA men in 1927 is marked by a ridiculously small cross made by a spade in setting concrete. … Read more
An Dúchas agus an domhan Diarmuid Ó Giolláin (Cork University Press, E39) ISBN Ina leabhar ceannródaíoch Locating Irish Culture (2000), thóg Diarmuid Ó Giolláin chun léire na tuiscintí idé-eolaíochtúla a mhair laistiar d’fhorbairt choincheap an bhéaloidis ar mhór-roinn na hEorpa ó tosaíodh ag plé go comhfhiosach leis mar choincheap agus an t-ochtú haois déag ag … Read more