Issue 1(Jan/Feb 2012)

The Black and Tans: British Police and Auxiliaries in the Irish War of The Black and Tans: British Police and Auxiliaries in the Irish War of Independence

This book promises to give the inside story of the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division of the RIC, based on the official records. Unfortunately, over-reliance on those records provides a stilted and incomplete portrait of ‘the most notorious police force in the history of the British Isles’, instead of a historical roller-coaster. The records … Read more

Faith under fire: Anglican army chaplains and the Great War

The focus of Edward Madigan’s book on the conduct of Anglican chaplains in the First World War is provided by something akin to a post-war literary consensus castigating army chaplains, and more specifically Church of England chaplains, for being ineffective at best, commanding little respect in the ranks, as having nothing more to offer than … Read more

Society and manners in early nineteenth-century Ireland

Travel writings comprise a marvellous if problematic source for Irish scholars—especially for historians of pre-Famine Ireland. Arguably, these accounts can be grouped broadly into at least three categories. First are those, often written by foreign visitors, which focus on Irish poverty and ‘backwardness’, and frequently attribute them to English or landlord oppression. Historians sympathetic to … Read more