Sir, —Angus Mitchell, reviewing Marnie Hay’s excellent biography of Bulmer Hobson (HI 17.5, Sept./Oct. 2009), remarked that ‘Towards the end of his life Hobson devoted much energy to defending Roger Casement, a fellow warrior in his “moral insurrection”. But in the malicious and confusing media debate that raged over his reputation in the 1950s … Read more
In 1990 British Tory politician Norman Tebbitt coined his controversial ‘cricket test’: irrespective of whether they held UK passports, which team did Asian and Caribbean immigrants to Britain support? The equivalent ‘loyalty test’ in Ireland must surely be the name you use for the ‘Maiden City’ and its surrounding county: Derry or Londonderry? That this … Read more
Scotland and the Ulster plantations: explorations in the British settlements of Stuart Ireland W. P. Kelly and J. R. Young (eds) (Four Courts Press, Ä49.50) ISBN 9781846820762 Has the edited volume of papers had its day? These are all individually very interesting essays but they do not add up to a treatment of the … Read more
The natural history of Ireland Philip O’Sullivan Beare, translated and edited by Denis C. O’Sullivan (Cork University Press, Ä39) ISBN 9781859184394 Cork University Press is to be congratulated for publishing this never-before-translated work on the place-names, animals, plants and wonders of Ireland by Philip O’Sullivan Beare, author of the first published narrative history of … Read more
The queen’s last map-maker: Richard Bartlett in Ireland, 1600–3 J. H. Andrews (Geography Publications, Ä40) ISBN 9780996602430 In the late 1990s I moved to Belfast, and on a visit to the Tower Museum in L/Derry I came across a bearded statue holding rolls of maps while looking dramatically into the distance. Ulster maps and … Read more