Famine: a short history Cormac Ó Gráda (Princeton, $27.95) ISBN 9780691122373 Some time ago, before I went to Tanzania, I asked a class of adults who had returned to education whether they thought that the Great Irish Famine contributed to a particular empathy with the plight of Africa in Ireland. Spontaneously, they replied that … Read more
Bulmer Hobson and the nationalist movement in twentieth-century Ireland Marnie Hay (Manchester University Press, £55) ISBN 9780719079870 Marnie Hay begins her study of Bulmer Hobson (1883–1969) by claiming him to be one of ‘the losers of Irish history’. Despite Hobson’s tireless work as a republican propagandist and as a grassroots organiser for the IRB … Read more
The Fenian problem: insurgency and terrorism in a liberal state Brian Jenkins (Liverpool University Press, £65) ISBN 9781846311758 Some contemporary writers on terrorism argue that the British government’s response to Fenianism set a pattern of moral panic and the repression of civil liberties that has characterised state responses to such challenges down to the … Read more
Sir Walter Ralegh in Ireland Sir John Pope Hennessy Classics of Irish History series, with introduction by Thomas Herron (University College Dublin Press, €24. Originally published by Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1883) ISBN 9781906359188 Tom Herron has delivered an enhanced version of this short book by a nineteenth-century Irish politician on a … Read more
The Gaelic Athletic Association 1884–2009 Mike Cronin, Paul Rouse and William Murphy (eds) (Irish Academic Press, E29.95) ISBN 9780716530282 This collection of fourteen articles spanning the history of Gaelic games from the medieval period onwards has been issued to mark the 125th anniversary of the GAA, a pivotal force in Irish life about which … Read more