GREGORY A. SCHIRMER Lilliput Press €40 ISBN 9781843516392 Reviewed by Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha Brian Merriman’s poem Cúirt an Mheon-Oíche, composed in or around 1780, is often described as the best narrative poem in Modern Irish, and even as the finest Modern Irish poem tout court. The definitive edition, by Liam P. Ó Murchú, based on … Read more
Owen McGee Merrion Press €25.19 ISBN 9781785370090 Reviewed by Patrick Maume This fascinating and exasperating book attempts two tasks: to produce a professional study of Arthur Griffith—filling one of the major gaps in our understanding of twentieth-century Ireland—and to offer a wholesale reconceptualisation of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Irish history. McGee approaches Griffith as … Read more
The Journal of the Old Athlone Society, Vol. III, No. 10 (2015) (Athlone, €22 pb, 194pp). Diarmuid Ferriter and Susannah Riordan (eds), Years of turbulence: the Irish Revolution and its aftermath, in honour of Michael Laffan (UCD Press, €36 hb, 302pp, ISBN 987910820070). UCD Press Centenary Classics Series box set, with a series introduction by … Read more
PAUL ROUSE Oxford University Press £30 ISBN 9780198745907 Reviewed by Kevin McCarthy Firstly, let’s be straight about it: this is a really good book, and one which should appeal in equal measure to both sports fans and students of Irish history. Paul Rouse has won significant acclaim over the years as a social and sporting … Read more
PATRICK FITZGERALD, CHRISTINE KINEALY & GERARD MORAN (EDS) Quinnipiac University Press $35/€30/£25 ISBN 9780990945406 Reviewed by Liam Kennedy Ten million people emigrated from the small island of Ireland to other parts of the world between 1700 and the present. Some were adventurers, some were social outcasts, some were missionaries and some were fleeing war and … Read more