Good Stuff in the Dublin Review of Books June 27, 2012
Posted by Garibaldy in Irish History.trackback
The summer 2012 edition of the Dublin Review of Books will probably be of interest to a lot of our readers. As the debate over the nature of the Tan War and the way historians write about it continues apace, there is a review by John Borgonovo of a new book about the the Black and Tans, and a substantial review by John Regan of a collection of essays entitled Terror in Ireland, 1916-23 (which was mentioned in the comments somewhere a while back and is dedicated to the memory of Peter Hart). Regan uses the opportunity to address once more the question of impact of contemporary politics on historical writing in Ireland over the last few decades, and also the question of Kilmichael, in response to a chapter that discusses the question of the false surrender. There’s also stuff about Northern Ireland and the GDR that will probably be of particular interest to readers here. I think it’s the most interesting edition of the journal I’ve seen.
http://nearpodcast.org/pcast/?p=6683 Here is an episode of the History Show on Near FM that features an interview with David Fitzpatrick about Terror in Ireland, the new book from the Trinity History Workshop dedicated to the late Peter Hart.
Here’s an audio interview with John Regan about the different arguments in Irish Historiography about this period. http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/06/25/history-wars-interview-with-john-regan/#.T-rkP_VCrcs
The Irish Story is frequently excellent. Interesting article there on the Irish Whales, legendary Irish Olympians competing for the US a hundred or so years ago, for the sports minded among us.
Most interesting surely is the great Terry Eagleton doing a review, especially for DRB, of Martin Amis’ new novel:
http://www.drb.ie/more_details/12-06-22/It%E2%80%99s_Diston_Wot_Done_It.aspx
Without even having read this the phrase, ‘the mother and father of all kickings’ comes to mind.
Eagleton liked it. He saves the jabs at Amis’ borderline racist comments for the end.
Adam Mars-Jones gives Amis a filleting on the latest LRB, too.
Although he incorrectly ascribes the Four Yorkshiremen sketch to Monty Python.
Aw, cmon ejh. Get off this board with your “facts”.
“a collection of essays entitled Terror in Ireland, 1916-23 (which was mentioned in the comments somewhere a while back and is dedicated to the memory of Peter Hart)”
Let me take a wild stab in the dark as to the political thrust of this collection.
You know what they say about judging a book by its cover. It’s a mixed offering with some vry good pieces. In thr mind of its editor it is the kick off of the campaign for the beatification of Peter hart
regan’s meticulous dismantling of the ‘definitive’ treatments of the kilmichael story as constructed by hart and morrison are about as impressive as anything i’ve read in a very long time. the piece really does throw a wrench into the works: not much chance of beatification at this point. it is a remarkably even-tempered review given the condescending rubbish from fitzpatrick that appeared in history ireland a short while back. long overdue, and i expect it will have very positive long-term effects.