Description
Book SynopsisThe French revolution had an electrifying impact on Irish society. The 1790s saw the birth of modern Irish republicanism and Orangeism, whose antagonism remains a defining feature of Irish political life. The 1790s also saw the birth of a new approach to Ireland within important elements of the British political elite, men like Pitt and Castlereagh. Strongly influenced by Edmund Burke, they argued that Britain''s strategic interests were best served by a policy of catholic emancipation and political integration in Ireland. Britain''s failure to achieve this objective, dramatised by the horrifying tragedy of the Irish famine of 1846-50, in which a million Irish died, set the context for the emergence of a popular mass nationalism, expressed in the Fenian, Parnell, and Sinn Fein movements, which eventually expelled Britain from the greater part of the island.This book reassesses all the key leaders of Irish nationalism - Tone, O''Connell, Butt, Parnell, Collins, and de Valera - alongside
Trade ReviewItour de force of historical interpretation that Bew has achieved in this work. The virtues of historical scholarship and stylish exposition, which have marked the best of Bew's work from the very outset, are here in abundance...He has written an absorbing, engaged, immensely learned and passionately argued interpretation of the last two centuries of political conflict in Ireland....an important book... * Gearἴd Tuathaigh Galway Archaeological and Historical Society *
Bew's impressive command of the subject, his eye for the telling detail and striking quotation make this a compelling and thought-provoking analysis of the conflicted history of modern Ireland. * Catriona Kennedy, European History Quarterly. *
Table of ContentsImpact of the French Revolution: 'The Battle of Burke' - Tone or Castlereagh? ; The Union between Britain and Ireland: One People? ; Daniel O'Connell and the Road to Emancipation 1810-29 ; The Repealer Repulsed: O'Connell 1830-45 ; The Politics of Hunger 1845-50 ; The Fenian Impulse ; Parnellism: 'Fierce Ebullience linked to Constitutional Machinery' ; 'Squelching': By Way of a Hors D'euvres Conflict In Ireland 1891-1918 ; The Politics of the Gun or a 'Saving Formula 1919-1923 ; 'Melancholy Sanctitiy' in the South: 'Perfect Democracy in the North', Ireland 1923-66 ; 'Unbearably Oldfashioned and Pointless': The Era of the Troubles 1968-2005 ; Conclusion
