Crimes of loyalty: a history of the UDA

Crimes of loyalty: a history of the UDA Ian S. Wood (Edinburgh University Press, £15.99) ISBN 9780748624270 Lord, oh lord, what a depressing book! Militant loyalism is one of the truly awful traditions that has blighted this island, and Ian Wood’s history of the Ulster Defence Association illustrates that point in almost all of its … Read more

The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1763–1798, Volume III: France, the Rhine, Lough Swilly and death of Tone, January 1797 to November 1798

The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1763–1798, Volume III: France, the Rhine, Lough Swilly and death of Tone, January 1797 to November 1798 T. W. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods (eds) (Clarendon Press, £125)    ISBN 9780198208808The recent publication of the final volume of his Writings seems an appropriate moment to consider the … Read more

Bookworm

Is nothing sacred? Apparantly the Blarney Stone kissed at considerable risk to life and limb by over 300,000 visitors every year is not the stone. Most of the legends refer to a stone ‘high up in the tower’, a reference to a date-stone that was once visible on the north-east angle of Blarney Castle, with … Read more

Museum Eye

Strangers to citizens: the Irish in Europe 1600–1800 National Library of Ireland 2–3 Kildare Street Dublin 2 www.nli.ie Mon.–Wed. 9.30am–8.30pm Thur.–Fri. 9.30am–4.30pm Sun. 9.30am–12.30pm by Tony Canavan This new exhibition staged by the National Library of Ireland is situated in the former Genealogical and Heraldic Museum (and I wonder what happened to that?) a few … Read more