By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr There was a small press at Count Plunkett’s home of Larkfield, Kimmage, on which it is said that the ‘Castle Document’ was printed on 13 April 1916. This document alleged that the Dublin Castle authorities proposed to arrest many important public figures, and to raid homes and buildings: ‘First, the … Read more
KEN McGOOGAN HarperCollins $29.99 ISBN 9781443425506 Reviewed by Dean Jobb Celtic lightning ends with a beginning. Author Ken McGoogan describes how, in 1863, two political opponents joined forces with a common goal—to unite four of Britain’s North American colonies and form a new country, Canada. John A. Macdonald was a Glasgow-born political dynamo, a master … Read more
DEIRDRE RAFTERY and KARIN FISCHER (eds) Irish Academic Press €22.45 ISBN 9780716532446 Reviewed by Colm Mac Gearailt This book is not a survey of the education system as it progressed in Ireland. It offers instead vignettes of different areas of educational policy, both official and unofficial, from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, and their … Read more
GREGORY A. SCHIRMER Lilliput Press €40 ISBN 9781843516392 Reviewed by Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha Brian Merriman’s poem Cúirt an Mheon-Oíche, composed in or around 1780, is often described as the best narrative poem in Modern Irish, and even as the finest Modern Irish poem tout court. The definitive edition, by Liam P. Ó Murchú, based on … Read more
Owen McGee Merrion Press €25.19 ISBN 9781785370090 Reviewed by Patrick Maume This fascinating and exasperating book attempts two tasks: to produce a professional study of Arthur Griffith—filling one of the major gaps in our understanding of twentieth-century Ireland—and to offer a wholesale reconceptualisation of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Irish history. McGee approaches Griffith as … Read more