Bookworm

Not since Karl Marx planned to write a short pamphlet on the nature of capital, which eventually became his multi-volume opus, has a publication project expanded so spectacularly. Billy Colfer’s The Hook Peninsula (Cork University Press, pp260, €40 hb, ISBN 1859183786) started life in 1997 as one of six short case-studies in CUP’s The atlas … Read more

Catholic Reformation in Ireland: The Mission of Rinuccini 1645–1649

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

Robert Emmet: the making of a legend

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

The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Volumes IV and V: Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions

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

Sir Roger Casement’s Heart of Darkness: the 1911 documents

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