Eight years after the fall of the Berlin Wall seems an appropriate time for the arrival of new European histories which attempt to give East and West parity of esteem. Such histories are now wending their way to the bookstores. Europe: a History has garnered the most headlines (and sales). The layout is innovative. The … Read more
Shane O’Neill, the great Ulster lord of the mid-sixteenth century, merits a biography. Brady’s is accessible, exceptionally well-written and strong on high politics and Anglo-Irish relations. Shane’s visit to the court of Elizabeth is no longer a barbarous freak-show but the subject of court intrigue. There is the state’s botched attempt to poison O’Neill by … Read more
The Parnell split was the most destructive in Irish history. The self-indulgence displayed exceeded by a long way that of the Treaty split. That was more strongly based on principle, was deeply regretted on both sides, and there were more concerted efforts to bridge the gap. Tim Healy lived long enough to draw comparisons between … Read more
In a series of fascinating and brilliantly argued interconnecting essays Professor Tom Garvin has addressed the emergence of a democratic Irish state through the pivotal period of what he terms the long 1922: from the truce of July 1921 to the dumping of arms in May 1923 which marked the end of the Civil War. … Read more
If Yeats had many talents, then one was certainly his foresight, or as Roy Foster describes it, ‘that faculty, which always amazed his wife, of knowing how things would look to people afterwards’. But frequently this went further than prophecy: when it came to the question of how he himself might look in retrospect, Yeats … Read more