Reviews

The Heart of Dublin: resurgence of a historic city, Peter Pearson. (O’Brien Press, £30) ISBN 0862786681 Dublin: a celebration from the 1st to the 21st century, Pat Liddy. (Dublin Corporation, £25) ISBN 0946841519

Peter Pearson’s book is perhaps the best architectural history of Dublin since Maurice Craig’s Dublin 1660-1860. It presents an area by area account of the growth and development of the core of the city from its Viking origins through to the present day. The meticulously detailed account of the city’s built environment provides the reader … Read more

The Heritage of Ireland, Neil Buttimer, Colin Rynne and Helen Guerin (eds.). (Collins Press, £31.25) ISBN 1898256152

The cries of despair and outrage from the tourist sector following the current closure of Newgrange, Cashel, etc. because of foot-and-mouth disease restrictions clearly shows the extent to which the industry has become dependent on these cultural amenities. Heritage presentation is big business and has become the flagship of the tourist industry. Ireland has built … Read more

Gaelic Ireland: land, lordship and settlement, c.1250-c.1650, Patrick J. Duffy, David Edwards & Elizabeth FitzPatrick (eds.). (Four Courts Press, £39.50) ISBN 1851825479

In the period 1250 to 1650 covered by this book there was no single entity known as Gaelic Ireland. The term has been devised by modern historians to signify collectively the numerous quasi-autonomous Gaelic and Gaelicised lordships that existed in medieval Ireland. The sources from which the detailed workings of individual Gaelic lordships in the … Read more

Revolution, Counter-Revolution and Union: Ireland in the 1790s, Jim Smyth (ed.). (Cambridge University Press, £35) ISBN 0521661099 The Concise History of Ireland, Seán Duffy. (Gill & Macmillan, £19.99) ISBN 071713055 The Timechart History of

Reading these histories of Ireland, I could not help wondering who they were written for. The writers’ fellow historians? Hardly! They know too much already to be interested in a brief general survey of our history. The general Irish public? Perhaps, though many of them know the outline already and are more likely to seek … Read more

Rebellion and Remembrance in Modern Ireland, Laurence M. Geary (ed.). (Four Courts Press, £35.44) ISBN 185182586X Revolution, Counter-Revolution and Union: Ireland in the 1790s, Jim Smyth (ed.). (Cambridge University Press, £35) ISBN 052166109

As the Irish parliament enacts the union a deputation of dissident MPs burst into the study of Robert Emmet, demanding that he go immediately to France in search of armed assistance. Elsewhere Father Murphy organises his parishioners into an insurrectionary band. Later Michael Dwyer marries Anne Devlin, before both flee to Australia. These self-evidently ludicrous … Read more