The term ‘revisionist’, now a slur, has been used in recent years to attack historians and their works, and is frequently, although not exclusively, used by non-academics to assail ideas with which they disagree. Jeremy Smith traced the revisionism of War of Independence historiography to the 1940s, when academic historians began to study the war … Read more
In this book—number 4 in the Studia Traditionis Theologiae: Explorations in Early and Medieval Theology series edited by Thomas O’Loughlin—David Jenkins explores the layout of religious settlements in Ireland (from the sixth to the ninth century AD), arguing that a discernible pattern exists consisting of (a) an exterior enclosure, (b) tripartite zoning of the enclosed … Read more
The very title of this beautiful monumental book reflects attitudes of different scholars regarding the story of Hugh O’Neill and Rory O’Donnell. Was it a departure, a logical planned stratagem that envisaged a comeback and victory ahead with Spanish help? That would have been the attitude of Micheline Kerney Walsh and Tomás Ó Fiaich, shining … Read more
In a previous life, when Bookworm drove a leaky antique BSA 350, the bible of all do-it-yourself motorcycle mechanics was the Haynes manual. With the Haynes, a screwdriver and vice-grips, you could strip down and rebuild almost any machine. Now Richard P. de Kerbrech and David Hutchings have applied the same formula—cutaway diagrams, detailed drawings, … Read more
The National Museum of Ireland in Kildare Street could be viewed as a collection of smaller themed museums rather than one large one, as the permanent collections on various aspects of Irish history are self-contained. It can be a rewarding experience to concentrate on just one of these instead of attempting to take in the … Read more