Diarmaid Ferriter
Author of The Transformation of Ireland
About the Author
Diarmaid Ferriter is Professor of Modern Irish History at University College, Dublin. He has written numerous books on Irish history, including The Transformation of Ireland (Overlook), Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland, and Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s.
Image credit: http://www.ucd.ie/scholarcast/scholarcast14.html
Works by Diarmaid Ferriter
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Ferriter, Diarmaid
- Birthdate
- C.1972
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Ireland
- Birthplace
- Dublin, Ireland
- Education
- St. Benildus College, Kilmacud, Dublin
University College Dublin - Occupations
- professor
broadcaster - Organizations
- University College Dublin
RTE - Short biography
- Diarmaid Ferriter is Professor of Modern Irish History at the UCD School of History & Archives at University College, Dublin. He also broadcasts the What If radio programme on RTE. He formerly lectured at St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra and at Dublin City University.
Members
Reviews
Between two hells : the Irish Civil War by Diarmaid Ferriter
Misnamed. Only the first half of the book is about the Civil War, and it is a bit cursory: it may cover the main incidents, but it does not enter into areas of controversy. The second half covers pensions in great detail, the Army Mutiny and the professionalisation of the Army, the coming to power of Fianna Fáil, and the Civil War and other bases of the divide between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael down to the present. And this is very interesting.
Festschrift and therefore not cohesive. But there is good study in it. Women's suffrage, sport, Casement's Irish brigade, the Irish Parliamentary Party, Pearse hagiography, the IRA GHQ, violence against women, informers, IRA pensions , Civil War in Galway, Bulmer Hobson, Seán Lemass. Every chapter has new and interesting material.
http://nhw.livejournal.com/717949.html
This is a collection of twenty essays, of between eleven and fourteen pages each, summarising a series of radio discussions on RTÉ in 2005. I bought it because I find alternate history interesting as a genre, and was intrigued by its application to Irish history.
In fact hardly any of the essays is a real AH speculation; they are much more reflections on particular events, so "What if the Blueshirts had attempted a coup in 1933?" is really a consideration of what the Blueshirts were all about, with some reflections on why no coup attempt was ever really possible; and "What if Proportional Representation had been abolished in 1959 or 1968?" is simply an analysis of how Fianna Fail lost the argument at the time, with little speculation about what would have happened if they had won. There are also no less than three about single elements of the Irish media, (The Late Late Show, Magill, and The Irish Press) which presumably reflects the interests of those who commissioned the programme. Other areas suffer corresponding neglect.
The only essay that really does get interestingly into AH territory is "What if there had been no 1916 Rising?" which concludes, with Townshend (whose book had not yet been published at the time of broadcast) that the growth of militancy, and opposition to conscription, were such that Nationalism would have take a much more radical turn in 1918 with or without the Rising; indeed the discussants raised a slightly different and even more intriguing question - what if the Rising had been timed better, to coincide with the introduction of conscription, and/or had been better planned, so that in fact the insurgents had a better chance of winning?… (more)
This is a collection of twenty essays, of between eleven and fourteen pages each, summarising a series of radio discussions on RTÉ in 2005. I bought it because I find alternate history interesting as a genre, and was intrigued by its application to Irish history.
In fact hardly any of the essays is a real AH speculation; they are much more reflections on particular events, so "What if the Blueshirts had attempted a coup in 1933?" is really a consideration of what the Blueshirts were all about, with some reflections on why no coup attempt was ever really possible; and "What if Proportional Representation had been abolished in 1959 or 1968?" is simply an analysis of how Fianna Fail lost the argument at the time, with little speculation about what would have happened if they had won. There are also no less than three about single elements of the Irish media, (The Late Late Show, Magill, and The Irish Press) which presumably reflects the interests of those who commissioned the programme. Other areas suffer corresponding neglect.
The only essay that really does get interestingly into AH territory is "What if there had been no 1916 Rising?" which concludes, with Townshend (whose book had not yet been published at the time of broadcast) that the growth of militancy, and opposition to conscription, were such that Nationalism would have take a much more radical turn in 1918 with or without the Rising; indeed the discussants raised a slightly different and even more intriguing question - what if the Rising had been timed better, to coincide with the introduction of conscription, and/or had been better planned, so that in fact the insurgents had a better chance of winning?… (more)
English and Irish Doccuments from the period pointing out that the fault was in both houses and that it's more a question of how people managed to survive than die that we should be asking, though it could be an embarassing one to answer!
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Statistics
- Works
- 18
- Members
- 689
- Popularity
- #36,713
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 45
- Languages
- 1