Mary Cullen and Maria Luddy (eds) (Woodfield Press, €18.50) ISBN 095342930X Since the 1980s, historians of women in Ireland have focused largely on the early years of the twentieth century and the apparent bitter split between first-wave feminists who fought for the vote and nationalists who concentrated their efforts on the fight for Irish independence. … Read more
Nicholas Allen (Four Courts Press, E45) ISBN 18518269 George Russell (Æ) is an elusive figure. He is acknowledged as one of the great names of the Irish Literary Revival, but scholars have found it hard to recapture his contemporary impact. Russell is remembered primarily as the ‘saint’ who failed to develop artistically, who through his … Read more
Brian Hanley (Four Courts Press, ™29.95) ISBN 1851827218 This is the most important study of the IRA to be published in recent years. It is based on a treasure trove of papers retained by Maurice Twomey, Chief of Staff of the IRA between 1926 and 1936. Brian Hanley has analysed this archive in depth and … Read more
Allan I. MacInnes and Jane Ohlmeyer (eds). (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2002, E55.) ISBN 1851825320 ‘British’ history tends to come in books of essays. The notion that the kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland (and Wales) interacted to various degrees might seem obvious, but the tendency to look at relationships between the two islands and … Read more