D. George Boyce and Alan O’Day (eds) (Routledge, £17) ISBN 0415174228 The last decade has witnessed an increasing interest in the constitutional and political nature of the United Kingdom. More often than not this has taken the form of a critical assessment of the Union itself rather than an analysis of those who supported it. … Read more
It is well known that Irish emigrants to the United States played a significant role in the American Civil War of 1861-65. Individuals such as Patrick Cleburne for the Confederacy, and Philip Sheridan for the North, played important roles in military operations. Even more significant were the tens of thousands of Irish-Americans who fought, plus … Read more
There could be no more suitable venue for a seminar on the Act of Union than the Irish House of Lords chamber rendered redundant by the votes of its members in 1800. Preserved intact when the Bank of Ireland bought the parliament building in 1802 (and proceeded to gut the Commons), the Lords chamber is … Read more
The object of the disaffected in Ireland is the repeal of the Act of Union. (Report of Sir Arthur Wellesey’s agent, May 1808) The passing of the Act of Union (1800) was one of the most controversial and contested events in modern Irish history. The historiography has reflected this with interpretations divided on key elements … Read more
When I was a student in London in the late 1940s I was much impressed by Harold Laski’s love of Seeley’s dictum which he worked into nearly every lecture—‘History without politics has no fruit. Politics without history has no root’. So to read twenty years later the Irish revisionist historians was not so much a … Read more