The Long Gestation: Irish Nationalist Life, 1891–1918, Patrick Maume. (Gill and Macmillan, £19.99) ISBN 0717127443 The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party, 1916–1923, Michael Laffan. (Cambridge University Press, £40) ISBN 0521650739

It has become commonplace for historians of Ireland to describe the events of 1912–1923 as a ‘revolution’, typically without attempting to define that term. These three complementary studies of Ireland between 1891 and 1936 all follow suit: Maume concludes with ‘Reflections on a Revolution’; the largest part of Laffan’s study is entitled ‘The Irish Revolution, … Read more