Sir, —In the January/February issue (HI 13.1) Professor John Horne gives an illuminating account of the origins and rise to power of Fascism in Italy and of National Socialism in Germany. I have only two cavils with his article. After examining arguments for and against the notion that the two movements had enough in common … Read more
Sir, —I greatly enjoyed Helena Kelleher Kahn’s piece on ‘The Yelverton Affair’ of 1861 (HI 13.1, Jan./Feb. 2005). A cause célèbre can be like a time capsule, accurately preserving incidentally forgotten aspects of history, society and sensibility. Ms Kahn is certainly right in saying that the Yelvertons had an ambiguous reputation. The founder of the … Read more
Sir, —If Sir Henry Wilson (Henry Hughes Wilson, to give him his full name) is best remembered for the circumstances of his death, why then were we not told about his assassins—Reginald Dunn (known as ‘Reggie’ Dunn among the earliest group of Irish students at St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham) and Joseph O’Sullivan—both ex-British … Read more
Ireland and the Palestine question 1948–2004 Rory Miller (Irish Academic Press) €45 hardback ISBN 07165 28142 €25 paperback ISBN 07165 33499Rory Miller begins his story not in 1948 but in 1937, when Eamonn de Valera told the League of Nations that the Palestine question should not be solved by partition, ‘the cruelest wrong that could … Read more
Radical politics in modern Ireland: the Irish Socialist Republican Party, 1896–1904 David Lynch (Irish Academic Press, €39.50) ISBN 0716533561Written by a member of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP), this book belongs to a sub-genre of labour history that sees history-writing as instrumental and is at pains to draw lessons regarding present-day socialist politics and … Read more