Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

A Concise History of Ireland by Máire O'Brien; Conor Cruise O'BrienReview by: J. G. SimmsIrish Historical Studies, Vol. 18, No. 71 (Mar., 1973), pp. 437-438Published by: Irish Historical Studies Publications LtdStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30005426 .

Accessed: 17/06/2014 01:18

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toIrish Historical Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.127 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 01:18:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

REVIEWS AND SHORT NOTICES 437

potential critics, but as a personal testament to a profession to which he has, over long years, contributed so much. He did not do so. If such critics do descend on him, let them not forget what this book is, in any obsession with what it is not.

PATRICK O'FARRELL

A CONCISE HISTORY OF IRELAND. By Mhaire and Conor Cruise O'Brien. Pp 192. London : Thames and Hudson. 1972. £2.50.

'CONCISE' is an apt epithet for a history that traces the fortunes of the Irish people from mesolithic days to our own in just over eighty pages of text. The remainder of the book is taken up by 173 illustrations, from megaliths to the tribal symbols of modern Ulster. And yet the narrative is more than a repetition of familiar outlines. It is saved from that by the distinction of much of the writing, and by the knowledge of Irish literature and of a wider world that between them the authors have brought to their task. In so short a space they have treated their subject with a freshness that is remarkable. Columba's psalter ('the oldest surviving manuscript in western Europe'), Columbanus's song of the Rhine boatmen, Yeats's 'four bells' embellish a narrative which is in any case marked by an original handling of broad themes.

The first quarter of the book covers the period up to the end of the middle ages. Here the emphasis is mainly on cultural and social matters: the 'golden age' is described with affectionate enthusiasm; and in the chaos of medieval Ireland it is 'the excellent personal poetry of noble amateurs' and the gentle elegance of Connacht monasteries that stand out.

The rest of the book treats the story from the Tudor conquest to the Ulster troubles of today as an inescapable tragedy, action and reaction following one another with grim inevitability. The chapter headings give the impression that the conflict is religious rather than secular: the word 'protestant' occurs in three out of five of them. 'The protestant conquest' covers the period from the Elizabethan wars to the battle of the Boyne. But in fact the authors recognise that zeal for the reformed faith was not the primary motive of the conquerors. The following chapter, which runs from the treaty of Limerick to the act of union, has the surprising title 'Protestant conquest undermined'. It contains shrewd comments on the differences, as well as the resemblances, between apartheid and the penal code.

Events from Emmet to Parnell are the subject of a chapter entitled 'Catholic resurgence and protestant reaction'. But there is some uncer- tainty whether religion was the significant dividing-line or whether 'the struggle could no longer be seen in terms of a war of religion'. Custom- ary emphasis is laid on the significance of the famine, with the suggestion that it was responsible for a transformation of the Irish character from happy-go-lucky cheerfulness to a grim determination reminisc-nt of the makers of modern Israel. Parnell gets full and perceptive treatment, ending with the citation of Yeats's verdict that Parnell's fall-the 'fourth bell '-turned a disillusioned Ireland from parliamentary politics.

K

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.127 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 01:18:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

438 REVIEWS AND SHORT NOTICES

The chapter on the struggle for independence, which extends from Redmond to the civil war, pays remarkably little attention to I916, and there is nothing on the ideas of Pearse or Connolly. Popular support for the guerrillas of 1919-2I is seen in Maoist terms-the 'water' and the 'fish'. The final chapter-' Self-government '-is a judicious review of the achievements, and limitations, of the ' 26-county' government and of the problems created by partition, with little hope held out of an early reconciliation.

There are a few questionable statements, apart from those listed in the errata slip. It is difficult to believe that the earl of Ormond was the only member of the 1541 parliament who knew enough English to under- stand a proclamation (p. 47). The dates 1745?-1833 (p. ioi) are those of Count Daniel O'Connell, not of the 'liberator', who was his nephew. There was no fenian rising in 1865 (p. io8). The home rule act of 1914 did not exclude any Ulster counties (pp 133, 135). The original day proposed for the 1916 rising was Easter Sunday, not Monday, and the manoeuvres countermanded by MacNeill were for the Sunday (pP 136-7).

The numerous and varied illustrations are well displayed and add greatly to -the attractiveness of the book But it is now accepted that the mercenaries on pp 64-5 are as Scottish as they look; Sir Neill O'Neill (p. 69) was noted for his part in the battle of the Boyne and not as an opponent of Scottish covenanters.

J. G. SIMMS

MEDIEVAL RELIGIOUS HOUSES : IRELAND. By Aubrey Gwynn and R. Neville Hadcock. With a foreword by David Knowles. Pp xii, 479. London: Longman. 1970. £8.

WITH this book comes the completion of a remarkable trilogy, of which the first two volumes are: M. D. Knowles and R. N. Haidcock, Medieval religious houses: England and Wales (I953; 2nd ed., 197i); D. E. Easson, Medieval religious houses: Scotland (1957; with maps by R. N. Hadcock). There is now available the basic material for the comprehensive and comparative study of medieval monasticism in Britain and Ireland. This is undoubtedly one of the most important books on medieval Irish ecclesiastical history to appear in modern times since, for the first time, it places the whole history of monasticism in Ireland from c. I0oo to the reformation on solid foundations. What were some very rough places for the historian have been made plain. Treacherous waters have been charted. Nor is it only the history of monasticism in all its forms which has been reduced to order. A very valuable chapter on ithe cathedrals similiarly puts the history of the diocesan church in medieval Ireland on a new footing. The Gwynn-Hadcock combination has fashioned what must become, indeed already has become, the starting-point of new researches. Their achievement is the more commanding of admiration when it is appreciated with what obstacles of ill-health its authors have had to contend.

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.127 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 01:18:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions