SHERRA MURPHY Cork University Press €39 ISBN 9781782054559 Reviewed by Tony Canavan Tony Canavan is Consultant Editor of Books Ireland. Ireland’s Natural History Museum—or the ‘Dead Zoo’, as it is called in popular tradition—is well known to most Irish people, from school visits if nothing else. In this interesting book, Sherra Murphy traces the history … Read more
STEVEN ELLIS Boydell £75 ISBN 9781783276608 Reviewed by Ruth Canning Ruth Canning is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at Liverpool Hope University. Ireland’s English Pale is a region frequently discussed but very rarely defined. James Lydon’s 1967 article, ‘The problem of the frontier in medieval Ireland’, had, it seemed, settled the issue for many … Read more
ROBERT DEVOY, VAL CUMMIN, BARRY BRUNT, DARIUS BARTLETT and SARAH KANDROT (eds) Cork University Press €59 ISBN 9781782054511 Reviewed by David Murphy The late John de Courcy Ireland (d. 2006), the Irish maritime historian, often lamented the fact that, despite being an island nation, we had seemingly turned our back on the sea. In his … Read more
By Joe Culley @TheRealCulls Boston-based Professor Emerita of History Catherine Shannon was one of History Ireland’s founding patrons, and Navigating historical crosscurrents in the Irish Atlantic—her Festschrift (as we say in the trade)—is packed with genuinely interesting essays from some heavy hitters. But what jumped out was Kerby A. Miller’s impassioned and—dare I say it—angry … Read more
ANNE BORAN Geography Publications €35 ISBN 9780906602973 Reviewed by John Cunningham John Cunningham lectures in History at NUI Galway. The subject of this biography was a mineworker and union leader in Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny. It is written by his daughter, who brings scholarly insights to the task drawn from a working life as a sociologist, … Read more