Early Modern History (1500–1700)

British Consciousness and Identity: the making of Britain, 1533-1707, Brendan Bradshaw and Peter Roberts (eds.). (Cambridge University Press, £45) ISBN O521433835

Although about the making of Britain, this volume also has a disproportionately large Irish content, reflecting the growing interest among Irish historians in viewing Ireland’s ties with England, Scotland, and Wales in a comparative, British context. Yet the volume’s contents also expose the latent tensions in Irish historical circles between writers of conventional history and … Read more

Driving a Wedge within Gaeldom

From earliest times Gaelic Ireland and Scotland, united by the sea, formed part of the same cultural, linguistic, religious, economic and political ethos. The cultural and linguistic homogeneity, together with the political instability of this North Channel World, alarmed central government. For the monarchs and their ministers—whether in Dublin, Edinburgh or London—regarded the economic, political … Read more

Vol. 1: The Origins of Empire, Nicholas Canny (ed.). (Oxford University Press, £30) ISBN 0198205627 Vol. 2: The Eighteenth Century, Peter Marshall (ed.). (Oxford University Press, £30) ISBN 0198205635

The first two volumes of the Oxford History of the British Empire survey ground last comprehensively covered in the Cambridge History of the British Empire, now over half a century old. As such they take their place among a growing number of attempts, ranging from the new Oxford History of England to the new Dictionary … Read more

Poetry and Politics: reaction & continuity in Irish poetry, 1558-1625, Marc Caball. (Cork University Press, £16.95) ISBN 1859181627

In her acclaimed introduction to the poems of Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn, published in 1922, Eleanor Knott describes his attitude to the contemporary political scene in the following terms: He shows in most of his poems a calm acceptation of the contemporary strife, as though it were the natural order. Poetry flourished in it, and … Read more