Sir,—The series of sometimes romanticised narratives about our Gaelic past that have been passed down to us are fun to read. The bardic accounts of raids and battles, the many chronicles of fratricidal fights for power, the stories of passionate love affairs of kings and princesses from rival clans, are timeless and colourful narratives that … Read more
A.F. O’Brien lectures in medieval Irish history at NUI, Cork; Jim Smyth lectures in sociology at Queen’s University, Belfast; Patrick Maume lectures in Irish history at Queen’s University, Belfast; Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent of the London Independent.
Nicholas Mansergh was one of the last great historians of empire. He thus wrote with more elegance than Gibbon but with the dry wit of one who has witnessed folly amid the collapse of kings and princes. In a wonderful diary entry of 29 June 1937, the twenty-seven year old Mansergh cynically records a luncheon … Read more
Arthur Griffith has been overshadowed by more glamorous contemporaries. For many people the founder of Sinn Féin is the enemy of Larkin, the defender of anti-semitic pogroms, the opponent of Synge’s Playboy. Brian Maye has often defended Griffith’s memory; now he has produced this long-awaited biography. Maye adopts a thematic rather than a chronological format. … Read more
For most people, historical knowledge is constituted by the oral and the visual. The oral tradition transmits a sense of tradition and belonging creating an identity which is buttressed by visual representations which help lodge potent images in the mind. Both oral and visual traditions are essentially backward looking, helping form a link with the … Read more