Ed. EC SENIA PASETA (ed.) Oxford University Press £60 ISBN 9780198748274 Reviewed by: Shane Nagle It is difficult to review a festschrift. Does one focus on the historian to whom the volume is dedicated or examine the essays that comprise the book, searching for common threads and the links with the historian who is being … Read more
By Joe Cully Maynooth Studies in Local History: Eamon Darcy, The world of Thomas Ward: sex and scandal in late 17th-century Co. Antrim (Four Courts Press, €9.95 pb, 56pp, ISBN 9781846826092). Martin McCarthy, The committal of two Mallow children to an industrial school in 1893 (Four Courts Press, €9.95 pb, 62pp, ISBN 9781846826108). Emmet O’Connor, … Read more
Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast Creativecentenaries.org By Tony Canavan The Ulster Museum is to be congratulated for its imaginative approach to 1916. With so many commemorative exhibitions, it is difficult to find a new way to approach the centenary. This exhibition is part of a larger initiative in Northern Ireland promoting a creative response to … Read more
Cyprus Avenue/Fine Points Films, directed by Brendan J. Byrne By Breandán Mac Suibhne At the time of the Hunger Strikes, one issue animating Irish critics was the relationship between fiction and history. Translations (1980)—Brian Friel’s play about language and politics, loss, learning and betrayal—had, some argued, distorted history. Set in Donegal in 1833, the play … Read more
Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 6 August–24 September 2016 By Eamon O’Flaherty The most common question posed when deciding whether a work of art can be called a classic is whether it can survive the tendency of most things to decline with age and the passage of time. Even history, which through rhetoric can claim to be … Read more