Sir,—Toby Joyce neatly describes (HI 11.2, Summer 2003) the battles of the famous draft riots of 1863, but he fails, I think, to deal candidly with the dynamics of the Irish scene in New York. The Irish working-class realised that many Americans regarded it as ‘papist scum’, one step below the ‘niggers’. Nevertheless the Democratic … Read more
Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin (Oxford University Press, £48) ISBN 0 19820891X The last 30 years have been exciting ones in the religioushistoriography of Ireland. After a century or more of a highlypolemical approach to religious history, Irish scholars have beenquestioning the interpretation of the past and offering a revisionistapproach to many aspects of this topic. There … Read more
Marianne Elliott (Profile, £20) ISBN 1861976437 Remember Emmet: images of the life and legacy of Robert Emmet Ruán O’Donnell (Wordwell Books, E15) ISBN 1869857593 The publication of Marianne Elliott’s Partners in Revolution, in 1982, not only established her reputation as a fine historian but also changed the way in which all subsequent histories would examine … Read more
Angela Bourke, Siobhán Kilfeather, Maria Luddy, Margaret Mac Curtain, Gerardine Meaney, Mairín Ní Dhonnchadha, Mary O’Dowd and Clair Wills (eds) (Cork University Press, E299) ISBN 185918281X It must be rare for a reviewer to admit at the beginning of a review that she has not read all of the material to be assessed. Weighing in … Read more
Angus Mitchell (Irish Manuscripts Commission, E24.50) ISBN 1874280983 Casement Angus Mitchell (Haus, £8.99) ISBN 1904341411 Roger Casement: the Black Diaries with a study of his background, sexuality and Irish political life Jeffrey Dudgeon (Belfast Press, £25) ISBN 0953928721 Most of the documents—official and unofficial letters, extended accounts for the Foreign Office supplemented by notes, annotations … Read more