‘Schizophrenia of aspiration’? In his thought-provoking address to the Merriman Summer School recently, speculating on the possibility of Irish unity, former Stormont civil service mandarin Sir Kenneth Bloomfield remarked on the ‘schizophrenia of aspiration’ of newly independent Ireland. While aspiring to unity, the new state asserted its independence by policies that he described as ‘non-Britishness’, … Read more
Michael Davitt: freelance radical and frondeur Laurence Marley (Four Courts Press, €45) ISBN 9781846820663 Michael Davitt once took the sort of questionnaire that would now be found in a glossy magazine. We learn from it that his heroes were ‘those who minimise suffering’; his favourite food was ‘anything purchased by my own energy’; his favourite … Read more
The Irish Labour Party 1922–73 Niamh Puirseil (University College Dublin Press, €28) William O’Brien 1881–1968 Thomas J. Morrissey SJ (Four Courts Press, €55) In the introduction to her history of the Labour Party, Niamh Puirseil remarks that her subject ‘seems more than a little ashamed of its past’. This is true enough, though this reviewer … Read more
Dublin Nazi No. 1: the life of Adolf Mahr Gerry Mullins (Liberties Press, €25 hb, €16.99 pb) ISBN 9781905483198 In 1927 the Austrian Adolph Mahr became Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum in Kildare Street, Dublin, one of a diverse group of European professionals recruited by the fledgling Irish Free State. Made director … Read more
After a short break occasioned by last issue’s ‘special’ on the Flight of the Earls, Bookworm is back. The ‘Flight’ continues to stimulate the public imagination throughout the country, with conferences, seminars, re-enactments, music recitals and publications. A useful starting-point for the uninitiated is Liam Swords’s The Flight of the Earls: a popular history (Columba … Read more