DAVID ARMITAGE Yale University Press £18.99 ISBN 9780300149821 Reviewed by: Eoin Dillon An air of self-congratulation wafted off the panjandrums as they passed judgement on the commemorative events of 1916. ‘That went well’, they concluded: no outbreaks of civil disturbance, no attacks on state power, not even a discernible spike in support for advanced nationalism. … Read more
VALERIE JONES Ashfield Press €25 ISBN 9780995672208 Reviewed by: Sinéad McCoole This book gives the reader much more than the subtitle suggests—the breadth of references span over 400 years, from a description of the alphabet and catechism in the Irish language in 1571 to references to the Irish Guild of the Church (Cumann Gaelach na … Read more
VINCENT MORLEY Cork University Press €39 ISBN 9781782052081 Reviewed by: Jim Smyth This book is arranged in an unconventional way: eight thematic chapters, in proximate chronological sequence, on ‘kingdom’, ‘faith’, ‘memory’, ‘war’, ‘patriots’, ‘land’, ‘rebellion’ and ‘union’, are each prefaced by Irish-language poems, ranging from three to eight pages in length, with facing translations into … Read more
PETER CROOKS and SEÁN DUFFY (eds) Four Courts Press €26.95 ISBN 97801846825712 Reviewed by: Eamon Darcy By the nineteenth century the Geraldines, despite being among the original ‘conquistadors’ of Ireland in the twelfth century, represented ‘the essence of all things Gaelic … and the struggle for freedom from English rule’. This enduring perception is a … Read more
RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC Penguin Ireland €27.99 ISBN 9781844883400 Reviewed by: Vincent Browne In this superb history of the Supreme Court, author Ruadhán Mac Cormaic describes the casual transference of the English legal system and ethos—the common law tradition—into the ethos of the new state, with a few minor and insignificant changes that occurred right at … Read more