GERARD HANLEY Four Courts Press €45 ISBN 9781801510783 Reviewed by Brian Girvin Brian Girvin is Professor Emeritus and Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow. Political independence promises much, but rarely delivers to the most disadvantaged sections in the new state. This certainly proved to be the case for the Irish working class and trade … Read more
NIAMH HOWLIN Four Courts Press €55 ISBN 9781801510844 Reviewed by James Meighan James Meighan is a solicitor and a Ph.D candidate at the University of Limerick. This book considers various aspects of the profession of barrister in Ireland. It is timely in that it encapsulates the evolution of the practice, side by side with the … Read more
JANE FENLON and SARAH MAGUIRE Four Courts Press €50 ISBN 9781801510899 Reviewed by Eoin Swithin Walsh Eoin Swithin Walsh is the author of Kilkenny: in times of revolution, 1900–1923 (Merrion Press, 2018). One of the significant successes of the ‘decade of centenaries’ has been the upsurge of interest in local histories. Knowing what happened in … Read more
JANE OHLMEYER Oxford University Press €43 ISBN 9780192867681 Reviewed by Hiram Morgan This is a significant survey of Ireland’s involvement in colonialism—both its own colonisation by the English and Scots in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and its ubiquitous role in the British and other European empires into the mid-eighteenth century and beyond. Fast-moving, richly … Read more
By Daragh Fitzgerald The ongoing slaughter in Gaza has rightly produced outrage and consistent demonstrations of solidarity in Ireland, demanding a permanent ceasefire—as it has the world over. Irish support for the Palestinian cause is well documented and widely known. Less familiar, however, are the historic links between Irish nationalism and the Jewish diaspora. A … Read more