Tom Garvin (1944–2024)

Like Garvin's other books this one is also well researched, written and argued. Initially Garvin indicates that to get to the bottom of identifying why Ireland was so poor for so long it is overtly simplistic to place all the blame on de Valera. However, delving deeper into the book this becomes a common recurring theme of the author in tandem with the stifling self-control of the Catholic Church and a perplexingly almost anti-intellectual peasantry. One interesting point Garvin makes is the show more impact that Northern Catholics made to Government policy in different eras such as McGilligan, McElligott and MacEntee to name but a few in the economic and social area where they were outsiders to begin with. show less

Garvin's book is very well written and argued. The author's focus is on the period between the demise of Parnell to the coming of independence in 1922. He attempts to analyse the disparate factors influencing those who would become in his words the "elite" of the revolutionary era. In my personal opinion chapters 5 and 6: assessing the role of the Gaelic League and Irish language and ideological themes and chapter 7: analysing republican opinion post-1922 defeat are the most interesting.

By and large it is a very well written and argued book as one would expect from Garvin. It is obviously written from a pro-Treaty perspective, however, and so there is a desire to place the blame for starting the Civil War. De Valera features prominently as he does in other books by Garvin as a result. There are some statements in the book that are extremely difficult to support. For example, the Blueshirts were solely a movement to protect free speech - many would disagree.

This is my personal favourite of Garvin's books that I have. He performs an analysis of how the current Irish party system came into being, supported with statistical analysis, and comparative analysis with other similar countries. He goes right back to the time of fenianism and ribbonism and assesses the role of the IRB and then looks at the success of Sinn Féin post 1916. There is a very interesting comparative analysis of the memberships of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin and discussion show more about the development of these and other parties. show less