Seán O’Casey was secretary of the Irish Citizen Army and wrote ‘ICA Notes’ in The Worker and the Irish Worker. While James Connolly attacked the British, O’Casey attacked the Volunteers week after week. He continually argued that the workers of Ireland were not served by the intent of the Volunteers, that the Volunteers were in … Read more
GAVIN M. FOSTER Palgrave Macmillan £60 In this latest addition to the historiography of the Civil War, Gavin Foster essentially offers a reconceptualising of class debates. He sets out to explore the social dimensions of the conflict ‘from fresh angles that highlight the rival social outlooks, interests and conflicts that ruptured nationalist solidarity’ at the … Read more
JAMES CURRY AND CIARÁN WALLACE Dublin City Council/Four Courts Press €19.95 Thomas Fitzpatrick was an artist of the Cultural Revival, although he is seldom cited in that respect. His name is not listed alongside some giants such as Jack B. Yeats, but his graphic skill and his interpretations of an imagined Celtic cultured island mark … Read more
TOM O’DONOGHUE Palgrave Macmillan £61 Catholic teaching brothers is part of an interdisciplinary series, Historical Studies in Education, which features new scholarship on key historical developments in education. Offering a wide-ranging and insightful account of its subject, the narrative highlights the experiences of teaching brothers in five English-speaking countries: Ireland, England, the United States, New … Read more
EDEL BHREATHNACH Four Courts Press €24.95 ISBN 9781846823428 For those of us preoccupied with Irish history it is a sobering experience to look up the word ‘Ireland’ in a History of the world only to find that it’s not there. For students and teachers of modern Irish history it is doubly chastening to discover that, … Read more