Sir,—I appreciate History Ireland’s accolade in choosing the collected writings of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington as the ‘Big Book’ review for January/February 2018 (HI 26.1). I was very glad to see that the reviewer, Patrick Maume, begins by describing this as a ‘valuable book … a picture of an activist in her own words’. But to … Read more
By Bernadette Cunningham Who is the most famous person in Irish history? We all know about ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’, so how can we compare the renown of various historical personalities from the Irish past? What biases will affect any attempt to rank historical personalities by reputation or popularity? What if a database designed … Read more
NOEL DORR, Royal Irish Academy, €30, ISBN 9781-908997647 By Cillian McGrattan Cillian McGrattan lectures in Politics at the University of Ulster. Former Irish senior civil servant Noel Dorr revisits the increasingly well-furrowed ground of the Sunningdale period (1973–4) in this autobiography-cum-history. Although Dorr’s perspective on events was rather limited at the time owing to his … Read more
BY TONY CANAVAN Where and when did the War of Independence start? At Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary, 1919, I hear you say. Well, in Donegal they recently commemorated what they claim was the first action of the War of Independence. On 4 January 1918, an RIC party was bringing two republican prisoners from Kincasslagh to court … Read more
NIAMH HOWLIN, Four Courts Press, €55, ISBN 9781846826214 By Dean Jobb Dean Jobb teaches journalism and non-fiction writing at the University of King’s College in Nova Scotia. ‘In a case on which religious animosities prevailed,’ a member of parliament declared in 1824, he ‘would infinitely rather trust the life of a man to one of … Read more