Issue 4 (Winter 1996)

The British Problem, c.1534-1707: State Formation in the Atlantic Archipelago, Brendan Bradshaw and John Morrill (eds.), (MacMillan £42.50 hb, £13.50 pb). Uniting the Kingdom?:The Making of British history, Alexander Grant and Keith J. Stringer (eds

There is a spectre haunting Irish historiography, one more ominous perhaps than revisionism or nationalism—the spectre of the ‘British Problem’, carrying with it the threat of another colonial impulse. Still reeling from Anglocentrism, scholars now have to face Britocentrism. Introducing Paddy and Mr Punch, Roy Foster assured his readers that his focus on English rather … Read more

Matilda Tone & the American legacy of 1798

Despite the enormous wealth of sources, and much superb ethnic historiography over the course of two centuries, the story of 1798 and the United Irish diaspora has consistently escaped the attention of mainstream political historians. One obvious example was the prodigious nineteenth-century biographer R.R. Madden who invariably concluded his memoirs of numerous United Irish exiles … Read more

Cities in Eastern & Western Europe

The third conference of the European Association of Urban Historians was held at the Central European University, Budapest, on 29-31 August 1996 where papers dealt with a variety of aspects of the European city from  early modern times to the twentieth century. The key-note speech by Professor Heinz Schilling (Humboldt University, Berlin), delivered in Budapest … Read more

New light shed on Stormont’s ‘X’ Files

In October the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland released 3,000 files of the old Stormont Ministry of Home Affairs dealing with the period 1921-1962 and previously embargoed on grounds of sensitivity. The files include the highly sensitive ‘S’ (Secret Series) files covering such subjects as the 1920s Troubles, internment (case files for individual internees … Read more

Orange déja vu?

Sir Patrick Mayhew’s setting up of an independent review of parades and marches in northern Ireland, under the chairmanship of Dr Peter North, follows a pattern set in the last century. Orange marches through mainly Catholic areas invariably led to resentment and riot, sometimes to death and destruction, often followed by a government inquiry of … Read more