WHILE knowledge of history can explain our contemporary situation, an awareness of the myths and misuses of our history can bring a broader and more conciliatory approach to current political and social challenges.History or, more correctly, 'views of the past' or 'historical myths' have shaped politics in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. These views served in part to cause and sustain the 'Troubles'. Eventually, many historical perceptions were challenged, which helped to promote the peace process. New ideas of revised and shared history were important. These changes are explored here.The public expression of history in Ireland through commemoration of important historical events and persons is investigated in a number of chapters. The impact of historical developments on identity is studied not just in Ireland, north and south, but also among the Irish diaspora, especially in America.In Irish History Matters, Brian M. Walker uses three decades of research to explore the effects historical events have had on Irish politics and society, and why they still have an important influence today.

While knowledge of history can explain our contemporary situation, an awareness of the myths and misuses of our history can bring a broader and more conciliatory approach to current political and social challenges. History or, more correctly, 'views of the past' or 'historical myths' have shaped politics in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. These views served in part to cause and sustain the 'Troubles'. Eventually, many historical perceptions were challenged, which helped to promote the peace process. New ideas of revised and shared history were important. These changes are explored here. The public expression of history in Ireland through commemoration of important historical events and persons is investigated in a number of chapters. The impact of historical developments on identity is studied not just in Ireland, north and south, but also among the Irish diaspora, especially in America. In Irish History Matters, Brian M. Walker uses three decades of research to explore the effects historical events have had on Irish politics and society, and why they still have an important influence today.

History Matters is an eloquent selection of writings over four decades by Bill Nasson, one of South Africa’s most popular and highly respected historians. The pieces in this compendium are lively and entertaining, written with wit, humour and a finely tuned sense of irony. Chapters cover the South African War, the two world wars, cricket, District Six, schooldays and education, Hollywood and history, Mandela and other political biographies, and a great many other topics. Resembling a pudding of spicy plums, this is a perfect book for anyone interested in South Africa and its history, and in a broader appreciation of tweaking the tail of life in the past.

The first complete introduction to the subject ever published, A History of Irish Thought presents an inclusive survey of Irish thought and the history of Irish ideas against the backdrop of current political and social change in Ireland. Clearly written and engaging, the survey introduces an array of philosophers, polemicists, ideologists, satirists, scientists, poets and political and social reformers, from the anonymous seventh-century monk, the Irish Augustine, and John Scottus Eriugena, to the twentieth century and W.B. Yeats and Iris Murdoch. Thomas Duddy rediscovers the liveliest and most contested issues in the Irish past, and brings the history of Irish thought up to date. This volume will be of great value to anyone interested in Irish culture and its intellectual history.

Extensively revised for this edition, these essays combine to build a picture of Scottish history from the time of the Picts and the Britons, through the Wars of Independence, the Reformation and the time of the Covenanters, to the Union of the Parliaments in 1707 and the impact of industrialization on Victorian Scotland.

You may know all about the Easter Rising and the Good Friday Agreement, but did you know that the hypodermic needle was invented in Tallaght? Or that Dublin was the first city in the world to have a woman stockbroker, decades before London or New York? Or that the formula used to create the video game Tomb Raider was sketched on a bridge in Cabra in the nineteenth century? With one entry for every day of the year, this book marks the anniversaries of momentous events in Irish history: in politics, medicine, music, sport and innovation. In this accessible, comprehensive and authoritative book, discover the moments that have helped to shape the national identity of Ireland.

In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe everyone lived 'off the land' in one way or another. In Ireland, however, almost everyone lived 'on the land' as well. Agriculture was the only economic resource for the vast majority of the population outside the north-east of the country. Land was vital. But most of it was owned by a class of Protestant, English and often aristocratic landlords. The dream of having more control over their farms, even of owning them, drove many of the most explosive conflicts in Irish history. Rebellions against British rule were rare, but savage outbreaks of murder related to resentments over land ownership, and draconian state repression, were a regular feature of Irish rural life. The struggle for the land was also crucial in driving support for Irish nationalist demands for Home Rule and independence. In this epic narrative, Myles Dungan examines two hundred years of agrarian conflict from the ruinous famine of 1741 to the eve of World War Two. It explores the pivotal moments that shaped Irish history: the rise of 'moonlighting', the infamous Whiteboys and Rightboys, the insurrection of Captain Rock, the Tithe War of 1831–36, the Great Famine of 1845 that devastated the country and drastically reduced the Irish population, and the Land War of 1878–1909, which ended by transferring almost all the landlords' holdings to their tenants. These events take place against the backdrop of prevailing British rule and stark class and wealth inequality. Land Is All that Matters tells the sweeping story of the agrarian revolution that fundamentally shaped modern Ireland.