Book Reviews

Irish Ringforts, Matthew Stout. (Four Courts Press/Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement, £19.95) ISBN 1-85182-300-X

This very welcome study by Matthew Stout represents surprisingly the first ever book devoted to the most common field monument of Irish archaeology. During the Early Medieval Period—the Early Christian Period of less secular-minded archaeologists and historical geographers—according to Stout, whose figures must be regarded as authoritative, about 45,000 examples of this homestead-type monument were … Read more

Donegal: History and Society, William Nolan, Liam Ronayne and Máiread Dunlevy (eds.). (Geography Publications, £40) ISBN: 0906602459

The editors have set out to place County Donegal in its local, national and European contexts by combining the work of archaeologists, medievalists, Celtic scholars, geographers, place name scholars and historians of economics, culture and politics. The result is the most comprehensive interdisciplinary study ever undertaken of Donegal. The geographical entity we know today as … Read more

Europe: A History, Norman Davies, (Oxford University Press, £25). ISBN: 0198201710

Eight years after the fall of the Berlin Wall seems an appropriate time for the arrival of new European histories which attempt to give East and West parity of esteem. Such histories are now wending their way to the bookstores. Europe: a History has garnered the most headlines (and sales). The layout is innovative. The … Read more

Reviewers

Thomas O’Loughlin lectures in theology at the University of Wales,Lampeter. Caoimhghin Ó Murchadha is a postgraduate history student at the University of Ulster, Coleraine. Kenneth Nicholls lectures in Irish history at University College Cork. Bernard Crick is Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh. Peter Gray lectures in history at the University of Southampton.

The End of Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine and Emigration, Robert J. Scally (Oxford University Press, £21.50)

Ralahine, Prosperous, Kingwilliamstown, Dolly’s Brae, Ceim an Fhia, Carrickshock: small, insignificant places, yet places with strong resonances in Irish history. Is Ballykilcline, an obscure Roscommon townland containing fewer than five hundred souls on the eve of the Famine, now about to join them? Probably not, for a few reasons. Part of the problem is that … Read more