Sir,—I was very interested to read in the last issue of History Ireland of Marianne Elliott’s intention to write a book on the history of Ulster’s Catholics. Debate on this relatively neglected subject is set to be invigorated by one of the finest minds in the profession. Nonetheless, I have certain reservations. The book is … Read more
Tony Canavan is an editorial consultant and member of the editorial board of History Ireland; David Edwards lectures in history at NUI, Cork; Thomas O’Loughlin lectures in theology at the University of Wales, Lampeter; C.D.C. Armstrong is a freelance historian.
Religion and Rebellion contains the proceedings of the twenty-second biennial Irish Conference of Historians, held in May 1995. The title is not an exact description of the contents. Only a few of the essays deal with ‘rebellion’ in the usual sense of the word: violent resistance to established authority. ‘Religion, rebellion, dissent, and social protest’ … Read more
While the title under review hints at a book of limited focus, suggesting a curious blend of archaeology and dilettante history, what we have is an in-depth study more comprehensive than any other work to date. It could be given several titles: ‘a social and economic history of Gaelic Ireland’; ‘law and society in early … Read more
The political writings of Edmund Spenser, the Elizabethan poet, have long been familiar to students of Irish history. In particular, his 1596 treatise A Vewe of the Present State of Ireland has achieved a certain infamy for the violent attitudes it expressed towards the Irish, among whom Spenser had lived and worked for almost twenty … Read more