Sir, —Over the past year several letter-writers have raised the issue of sectarianism and ethnic cleansing in the Irish Revolution and afterward, for instance Nick Foley (HI 16.3, May/June) and Clive Sinclair-Poulton (HI 16.2, March/April, and HI 16.5, Sept./Oct.). The blunt answer is that human nature does not change and the present is the key … Read more
Foclóirí agus foclóirithe na Gaeilge Liam Mac Amhlaigh (Cois Life, €15) ISBN 9781901176834 This book is a brief easy guide to Irish lexicography and Irish lexicographers. It is scholarly, accurate and well written, and provides an overview of its subject from the middle of the seventeenth century to the present day. The author correctly states … Read more
A ‘manly study’? Irish women historians, 1868–1949 Nadia Clare Smith (Palgrave/Macmillan, £45) ISBN 9780230009042 In this timely monograph, Nadia Clare Smith has made a significant contribution to Irish women’s history and Irish historiography. Her careful analysis of the careers of twenty women historians not only challenges W. E. Gladstone’s definition of history as a ‘manly … Read more
Politics, religion and the press: Irish journalism in mid-Victorian England Anthony McNicholas (Peter Lang AG, €68.40) ISBN 9783039106998This study focuses on newspapers produced predominantly by Irish people, and predominantly for Irish people, in 1860s London. It thus explores largely virgin territory. Little systematic research has been done on the history of Irish journalism in Ireland … Read more
Memoirs of Captain Rock Thomas Moore (edited and introduced by Emer Nolan, with annotations by Seamus Deane) (Field Day, €25.) ISBN 9781844881437 Bard of Erin: the life of Thomas Moore Ronan Kelly (Penguin Ireland, €32.) ISBN 978946755363 Famous as the writer of melancholic ‘Irish melodies’ such as ‘The Last Rose of Summer’ and ‘The Meeting … Read more