On an October day in 1325, in the royal exchequer at Westminster, the accounts of the treasurer of Ireland were being audited. This was a fairly routine matter. The treasurer in question was Walter Islip, who had retired from office in September 1321. Suddenly the audit was interrupted when the routine inquiries began to reveal … Read more
They have stolen our history’. Thus has the work of professional historians of Ireland been decried in recent years. This statement is true: the labours of historians have wholly revised popular perceptions of the past in Ireland. The catharsis thus engendered would not have been so tempestuous had the historians themselves been better communicators. All … Read more
This is an extremely well-organised and comprehensive treatment of its subject matter. Writing in a crisp, precise style, Connolly takes a thematic approach so that each chapter stands on its own. Not only is the book generously foot-noted but the author gives the reader a précis of the significant debates currently animating historians of the … Read more
Experimentation in historical writing and methodology in order to make it accessible and meaningful to a general readership is once again fashionable. The virtues of narration, imaginative reconstruction based partly on intuition, and the linking of disconnected developments over long periods of time are being tried and tested in order to create a more popular … Read more
A History of Ulster . Jonathan Bardon (Blackstaff Press, 1992, £14.95) and Nine Ulster Lives, G. O’Brien & P. Roebuck (eds.) (Ulster Historical Foundation, 1992, £7.95) (1:1) Tony Canavan On being presented with Jonathan Bardon’s A History of Ulster one recalls the Duke of Gloucester’s comment on being presented with Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, … Read more