The Year of Liberty: a history of the great Irish rebellion of 1798, Thomas Pakenham (Weidenfeld, 1969 & 1997, £14.99, ISBN: 0297823868). Partners in Revolution: the United Irishmen and France, Marianne Elliott (Yale University Press, 1982 & 1998, £14.50, ISBN: 0300043023). Rebellion in Kildare, 1798-1803, Liam Chambers (Four Courts Press, 1998, pb £9.95, ISBN: 1851823638, … Read more
A.F. O’Brien lectures in medieval Irish history at NUI, Cork; Jim Smyth lectures in sociology at Queen’s University, Belfast; Patrick Maume lectures in Irish history at Queen’s University, Belfast; Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent of the London Independent.
Nicholas Mansergh was one of the last great historians of empire. He thus wrote with more elegance than Gibbon but with the dry wit of one who has witnessed folly amid the collapse of kings and princes. In a wonderful diary entry of 29 June 1937, the twenty-seven year old Mansergh cynically records a luncheon … Read more
Arthur Griffith has been overshadowed by more glamorous contemporaries. For many people the founder of Sinn Féin is the enemy of Larkin, the defender of anti-semitic pogroms, the opponent of Synge’s Playboy. Brian Maye has often defended Griffith’s memory; now he has produced this long-awaited biography. Maye adopts a thematic rather than a chronological format. … Read more
Among the various terms applied to works of reference, ‘atlas’ has now become the most user-friendly, more companionable than ‘companion’ and certainly less repellent than ‘dictionary’, ‘directory’ or ‘encyclopaedia’. To match its changing semantic context, the typical modern atlas has fewer and simpler maps than its mid-century predecessors; it also has more non-cartographic illustrations, especially … Read more