Leeann Lane

It is fair to say that Macardle was deserving of an in-depth biography. Lane does not disappoint and this is a much-more wholesome version than the former one by Nadia Clare Price. Bringing a lot of material to the reader's attention, through her detailed Jail Journal, and various forms of correspondence, this was a rigorously researched book. Interestingly Macardle feels she must defend herself and feels insecure during her Civil War prison sojourn in comparison to fellow-inmates who were on active service or who had been interred during 1916. Views on class and intelligence emerge. Her relationship with de Valera is thoroughly explored in the book and in my view fairly. In addition the background to her literature is also explained in considerable detail.… (more)

Interesting series of essays on how the perception of various ideas has changed over the 20th Century with finding further information and looking at things in a different, and sometimes less politicised or polarised way.

The first Essay is on Irish Political History: Guidelines and reflections, looking at Irish Politics and political figures from O'Connell to the 21st Century.

Ireland 1600-1780: new approaches is the next chapter, looking at what it meant to be Irish and English in Ireland and abroad

The Irish Famine: history and representation looks again at the Irish Famine and how different writers have had different opinions on the causes and effects

Economic and Labour History looks at how poor the scholarship in this area is but how it's growing

Conceiving Irish diasporas: Irish Migration and migrant communities in the modern period - what it ways

Local History looks at the growth of local, mostly non-Dublin-centric histories of the country

Institutionalisation in Irish history and society looks at how institutions grew, from the poor law workhouses to psychiatric institutions, including a small amount about Magdalene houses, the concept behind them and their legacy.

Irish Histories: Gender, women and sexualities looks at how women are occasionally written out of history and how people have attempted to put them back in, it's a bit of a struggle. I often objected to gendered teaching because I believed it enabled the general history departments to continue to ignore women in history and just point at the "gender studies" department as where to go to include that. I think we still haven't really resolved that issue.

Ireland: Identities and cultural how the concept of Irishness and catholicism in particular excluded others.

Visualising Irish history talks about painting, popular imagery and how Ireland has been depicted in image and how this has changed over time.

All fairly interesting, none of it really made me want to write any of it down but it did make me think.… (more)