Refiguring Ireland: essays in honour of L.M. Cullen David Dickson and Cormac Ó Gráda (eds) (Lilliput Press, €60) ISBN 1901866 84X It is said that you can judge a man by the company he keeps. It certainly applies in the case of this volume of essays published to honour the work of Louis Cullen, one … Read more
Docwra’s Derry: a narration of events in north-west Ulster 1600–1604 William Kelly (ed.), edited in 1849 by John O’Donovan (Ulster Historical Foundation, £6.99) ISBN 1903688221 On 9 October 2003 this edition of Sir Henry Docwra’s tract was given a notable launch in the Tower Museum in Derry City. In the generous spirit of a shared … Read more
Wicklow and Dublin Mountains in 1812: Richard Griffith’s map for the Bogs Commissioners With extracts from his report and a commentary Arnold Horner (Glen Maps, €12.50) ISBN 0954303423 The extensive mountain range south of Dublin was once regarded with apprehension by the settlers of the surrounding lowlands, fearful of attack by the ‘wild Irish’, the … Read more
The purpose of Peoples, nations and cultures: an A–Z of the peoples of the world, past and present (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 672pp, hb £30, ISBN 0304365505) is, according to its dust-jacket, to present a ‘readable, fascinating and informative guide to no fewer than 1500 peoples, both extant and extinct’, quite an ambitious claim for a … Read more
Mary Cullen and Maria Luddy (eds) (Woodfield Press, €18.50) ISBN 095342930X Since the 1980s, historians of women in Ireland have focused largely on the early years of the twentieth century and the apparent bitter split between first-wave feminists who fought for the vote and nationalists who concentrated their efforts on the fight for Irish independence. … Read more