Sir, —In Colonel J.P. Duggan’s review of my recent Ireland, Germany and the Nazis 1919–1939 (HI 12.3, Autumn 2004) he courteously suggests that it is a ‘positive contribution’. Nonetheless the review is curious: he reviews a book I might consider writing on Ireland, Germany and the Second World War in the future rather than the … Read more
A chara —I am writing to highlight some discrepancies in Sinead ní Shuinéar’s article, ‘Apocrypha to canon: inventing Irish Traveller history’, in the last (Winter 2004) issue. Ní Shuinéar points to the lack of research in the area of the history of Irish Travellers but is evidently unaware of recent developments in the field. With … Read more
Reds and the Green: Ireland, Russia and the Communist Internationals 1919–43 Emmet O’Connor (UCD Press, €25) ISBN 1904558208With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the archives of the Communist International (Comintern), comprising some 55 million pages of documents, long closed to all but a very few trusted scholars, were finally opened to all. … Read more
The Crimean journals of the Sisters of Mercy 1854–56 Maria Luddy (ed.) (Four Courts Press, €55) ISBN 1851827560 Nuns have been getting such bad publicity recently that we are inclined to forget how much they contributed to education and medicine in Ireland at a time when such services were not provided by government. We also … Read more
Charles Trevelyan and the great Irish Famine Robin Haines (Four Courts Press, 285) ISBN 1851827552 In tackling Charles Trevelyan’s role in the Great Famine, Robin Haines has entered something of a historiographical minefield. The Famine, as a subject of academic research, has consistently exposed the polemics of Irish history-writing, from John Mitchel’s overtly nationalist verdict … Read more