By Joe Culley @TheRealCulls About halfway through his superb new biography of St Patrick, Roy Flechner, while referring to an earlier standard work, writes: ‘The present study, it is hoped, is just as successful in attaining the coveted status of “least improbable”’. Saint Patrick retold is that rare amalgam of academic rigour married to stylish … Read more
C.J. WOODS Four Courts Press €45 ISBN 9781846827389 Reviewed by Aengus Ó Snodaigh Aengus Ó Snodaigh is an author, historian and Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South-Central. C.J. Woods’s imposition of the ‘thirty-year rule … to distinguish between history and mere contemporary studies’ leaves many of my connections with Wolfe Tone’s grave and commemoration outside … Read more
ARNOLD HORNER Wordwell Books €30 ISBN 9781999790 Reviewed by Matthew Stout Matthew Stout lectures in the School of History and Geography, Dublin City University. Arnold Horner is a giant in the field of Irish historical geography and he is revered by two generations of geography students at UCD as an inspirational teacher. In recent years … Read more
KEVIN WHELAN Four Courts Press €45 ISBN 9781846827563 Reviewed by David Dickson David Dickson is Professor Emeritus of Modern History, Trinity College Dublin. Kevin Whelan is a unique figure in the Irish literary ecosystem: historical geographer, social historian, critic and public intellectual, he has been the central player in many collaborative projects over the last … Read more
DONNACHA Ó BEACHÁIN Manchester University Press £22.99 ISBN 9781526132956 Reviewed by Seán Donlon Seán Donlon is a former diplomat, participating in the 1973 Sunningdale conference and in the negotiation of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, and was Irish ambassador to the United States, 1978–81. When in 1949 Germany was partitioned and the Federal (West) German government … Read more