‘A resource for the nation’

The Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB) is a superb achievement. The editors, James McGuire and James Quinn, conceive of the DIB as ‘a resource for the nation’ and it measures […]

Flight of the Earls special issue

Sir, —I am grateful to the Revd Canon and Dr Silke for his historiographical criticism of the special Flight of the Earls issue of History Ireland (15.4, July/August 2007) as […]

Belfast Boys: how Unionists and Nationalists fought and died together in the First World War

Richard S. Grayson (Continuum Books, £25) ISBN 9781847250087   Richard Grayson’s Belfast Boys is the latest addition to a small but growing number of popular and academic books on the […]

Judging Lemass: the measure of the man

Tom Garvin (Royal Irish Academy, E30) ISBN 9781904890577   Tom Garvin opens his introduction to this book with the truthful statement that ‘Seán Lemass is commonly seen as the architect […]

England and the 1641 Irish rebellion

Cope (Boydell Press, £50) ISBN 9781843834687   The outbreak of the 1641 rebellion posed two related problems for the English administration in Ireland. First and foremost, the lords justices and […]