W.A. Maguire (Keele University Press, £10.95) Belfast, being the political and sectarian cockpit that it is, has been well served by histories of one kind or another or has featured in many general Irish histories. This most recent offering from W.A. Maguire provides us with an accessible account of all facets of its history over … Read more
Patrick J. Duffy (Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, £45) Clogher Historical Society is arguably the most successful of all the Irish diocesan societies established in the early 1950s. It has the largest membership and for forty years has published an unbroken sequence of the Clogher Record, a journal that has served as a model for … Read more
Brian Mac Cuarta (ed.) (Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, £15) The Irish Rising of 1641 is one of the landmark events in our history both because it produced unprecedented sectarian atrocities that have never been forgotten on either side of the denominational divide, and because it exacerbated existing tensions between different political groupings in Scotland … Read more
James Connolly’s relationship with Catholicism has been much debated. During his lifetime he argued extensively (against both Catholic and socialist opponents) that there was not necessarily a conflict between Catholicism and socialism. While Connolly demolished the cruder assertions of his adversaries, commentators then and since have pointed out that he evaded some obvious difficulties, such … Read more
Professor L.M. Cullen of Trinity College, Dublin is among the most prolific and wide-ranging of Irish historians, and one of the most highly regarded internationally. His earlier work defined the mainstream of Irish economic history. More recently he has been active in cultural history, and in particular in re-interpreting the 1798 rebellion. Kevin Whelan … Read more