Sir,—Antipodean lauds on your last issue! In the best spirit (whatever about the taste) I offer some notes on Sighle Bhreathnach-Lynch’s report on ‘The Chequered Fate of a Queen’ (Winter 2001). Sydney’s very own ‘Irish Mile’ of inner-city Irish icons begins inspirationally with the Book of Kells motifs in stained glass at the State Library … Read more
R.F. Foster (Allen Lane, £20) ISBN 0713994975Roy Foster has already made an enormous contribution to the writing of Irish history. He has inspired, encouraged, and provoked many of us to engage in/with the reassessment of Irish historical writing and thinking that has marked the last two decades as among the most fruitful in Irish historical … Read more
Christine Kinealy (Palgrave, £15.50 pb, £47.50 hb) ISBN 0333677722 The Great Irish Potato Famine James S. Donnelly, Jr (Sutton Publishing, £20) ISBN 0750926325 These are two books which, at first sight, bear certain similarities. Both are surveys of the Great Famine by established scholars in the field, which combine elements of the author’s previous work … Read more
Dáire Keogh and Kevin Whelan (eds.) (Four Courts Press, E50) ISBN 1851825304 This book contains the proceedings of two conferences held in Newman House, St Stephen’s Green, and at the Byrne-Perry Summer School in Gorey to mark the bicentenary of the Act of Union. This was the latest in a series of voluntarily organised but … Read more
John Tyrrell, (Collins Press, E12.68) ISBN 1898256047 In the last few decades research has revealed factors from the fifth century to the present day which have enriched our understanding and appreciation of our history. One in particular brought forth astonishment on the one hand but no jolt whatever to soil users. When Gardiner and Ryan’s … Read more