An economic history of Ireland since independence

ANDY BIELENBERG and RAYMOND RYAN Routledge £85 ISBN 9780415566940 This is a very comprehensive and hugely satisfying survey of its subject-matter. It begins with British prime minister Lloyd George’s last-minute offer of full fiscal autonomy during the Treaty negotiations that led to independence in 1922 and takes us right up to the bank guarantee of … Read more

EVERYDAY VIOLENCE IN THE IRISH CIVIL WAR

GEMMA CLARK Cambridge University Press £72 ISBN 9781107036895 In this decade of commemorations, it is interesting but not surprising that the Irish Civil War has been excluded from the events chosen as suitable to remember. The Civil War remains one of the most divisive and controversial periods in Irish history: a short military confrontation followed … Read more

Rebellion: Britain’s first Stuart kings, 1567–1642

Tim Harris Oxford University Press £30 ISBN 9780199209002 This book is an ambitious attempt to investigate the problems faced by the Stuart monarchs of Britain and Ireland in the early seventeenth century. After James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I of England, the Stuarts became rulers of multiple kingdoms that had different political, religious and … Read more

The second coming of Paisley: militant fundamentalism and Ulster politics

Richard Lawrence Jordan Syracuse University Press $39.95 ISBN 9780815633136 Reviewed by Brian Kennaway In The second coming of Paisley, the American historian Richard Lawrence Jordan claims to provide us with some theological insights into the nature of Ian Paisley’s politics. The title may cause confusion. Some may think that ‘the second coming’ is a reference … Read more