Review: Twentieth-Century Ireland Revisited

Reviewed Work(s): The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000 by Diarmaid Ferriter: A

New History of Ireland. VII-Ireland, 1921-1984 by J. R. Hill
Review by: Fearghal McGarry
Source: Journal of Contemporary History , Jan., 2007, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Jan., 2007), pp.
137-148
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.

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Journal of Contemporary History Copyright @ 2007 SAGE Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and
New Delhi, Vol 42(I), 137-148. ISSN 0022-0094.
DOI: 10. 1 177/0022009407071633

Fearghal McGarry
Review Article
Twentieth-century Ireland Revisited

Diarmaid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, London,

Profile Books, 2004; pp. xi + 884; ISBN 1 86197 307 1
J.R. Hill (ed.), A New History of Ireland. VII - Ireland, 1921-1984, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 2003; pp. lxxxiii + 1142; ISBN 0 19 821752 8

If the volume of survey histories is anything to go by, the present period is a

vibrant one for modern Irish historiography. While such books used to arrive
at the leisurely pace of three or four a decade - J.J. Lee's Ireland 1912-1985
and Roy Foster's Modern Ireland being the most outstanding and influential
surveys of the 1980s' - the last decade has seen the publication of survey
histories of, or encompassing, twentieth-century Ireland by Tim Pat Coogan,
Mike Cronin, David Fitzpatrick, Brian Girvin, David Harkness, Alvin
Jackson, Dermot Keogh, Henry Patterson and Charles Townshend.2 To this
vast output we can add the two bulky books under review which, between
them, amount to almost 2000 pages. In reality, this prodigious output also
reflects publishing trends (cheaper production costs, more titles, shorter shelf-
lives), increased competition for the undergraduate market and the continuing
- heartening - appetite for academic and popular Irish history among
students and the public, as much as the current vitality of history writing in
Ireland.
These books generally confine themselves to summarizing the main political
events, outlining economic trends (with the occasional nod to social history),
synthesizing recent research, and emphasizing some key themes, often related
to the historian's prior field of research. Some have been more innovative. Joe
Lee's powerful study presented a trenchant, even scathing, critique of the
shortcomings of the politics, administration and society of independent
Ireland under the guise of a traditional survey history. David Fitzpatrick's

1 J.J. Lee, Ireland 1912-1985. Politics and Society (Cambridge 1989); Roy Foster, Modern
Ireland 1600-1972 (London 1988).
2 Tim Pat Coogan, Ireland in the Twentieth Century (London 2003); Mike Cronin, A History
of Ireland (Basingstoke 2001); David Fitzpatrick, The Two Irelands 1912-1939 (Oxford 1998);
Brian Girvin, From Union to Union. Nationalism, Democracy and Religion in Ireland - Act of
Union to EU (Dublin 2002); David Harkness, Ireland in the Twentieth Century. Divided Ireland
(London 1996); Alvin Jackson, Ireland 1798-1998 (Oxford 1999); Dermot Keogh, Twentieth-
Century Ireland. Nation and State (Dublin 1994); Henry Patterson, Ireland since 1939 (Oxford
2002); Charles Townshend, Ireland. The Twentieth Century (London 1999).

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138 Journal of Contemporary History Vol 42 No I

The Two Irelands 1912-1939 was the first to assess revolutionar

partition Ireland, north and south, in a systematically compara
work. In contrast, quite a number have demonstrated relatively little
Northern Ireland, tacking it on as a short appendage to the main
occasionally even ignoring it, thereby conflating the history of I
that of the independent Irish state. Northern historians - from
unionist, republican and socialist backgrounds - have recipro
similarly partitionist surveys of Northern Ireland or Ulster.3 W
approach adopted, one consequence of the increasingly crowded
that there is more of an onus on historians to explain the rationa
ning their particular take on the period, and the need for another su
will unavoidably cover much the same ground and periodization
ones. Both of these books attempt to do so: to what extent do th
and what do they tell us about the current status of Irish historiogra
Published under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, A New
Ireland. VII - Ireland, 1921-1984 represents the culmination of a
ambitious historical project: a nine-volume history beginning in
times and ending in (the curiously insignificant date of) 198
project comes with some historiographical baggage.4 Based on th
vided by the Cambridge collective histories, the project was initia
in 1962 by T.W. Moody who (along with R. Dudley Edwards, anot
ate of the Institute of Historical Research in London) was one of t
figures of modern Irish historiography. Moody and Edwards, wh
founded the academic journal Irish Historical Studies in 1938, w
mental in introducing modern historical standards to the Irish di
in ensuring that academic history asserted its independence from
making requirements of the nationalist and unionist Irish states.5
small achievement, particularly when one considers that the hi
was taught in schools continued to serve a crude legitimizing fun
relatively recently; the north's curriculum emphasized Ulster's
imperial tradition to the neglect of its Irish dimension; the south
presented the history of Ireland as essentially the story of seven
struggle for independence from British rule.

3 The two most recent are Jonathan Bardon's A History of Ulster (Belfast 2001
Hennessey's A History of Northern Ireland 1920-1996 (Dublin 1997). Revealingly
survey histories of the Catholic/nationalist experience - including Marianne Elliott
of Ulster (London 2001), Enda Staunton's The Nationalists of Northern Irel
(Blackrock 2001) and Eamon Phoenix's Northern Nationalism, Nationalist Politics
the Catholic Minority in Northern Ireland, 1890-1940 (Belfast 1994) - has not be
studies of the more religiously and politically fragmented Protestant/unionist comm
4 For an earlier critique of the project, see Thomas Bartlett, 'Review Article: A N
Ireland', Past and Present, 116 (1987).
5 Ciaran Brady, '"Constructive and Instrumental": The Dilemma of Ireland's Fir
rians"', in idem (ed.), Interpreting Irish History. The Debate on Historical Revis
1994 (Dublin 1994).

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McGarry: Twentieth-century Ireland Revisited 139

Moody's ambition of creating an all-Ireland framework wit

historians of divergent political backgrounds could work - one wh
sized the importance of impartial scrutiny of empirical evidence a
to avoid political bias - has remained a contentious one. During th
violence in Northern Ireland raged, Irish historiography was do
rancorous debates about 'revisionism' - a series of interconnecte
revolving around such questions as the legitimacy and necessity of th
can violence of the revolutionary period, and criticisms that the
approach advocated by Moody and Edwards was naive, arrog
servient to partisan political agendas.6 A consensus seems to be
particularly among the generation of historians educated during
that we are now living in post-revisionist times, the revisionist d
seen as necessary but in certain respects unrewarding. But lest any
that we are all post-revisionists now, it should be noted that there is
age of academics and critics, more frequently working within th
cultural, literary and post-colonial studies than history departments,
tinue to regard much of Irish historiography with suspicion. More
the gulf between academic history and the popular historical co
has narrowed in recent years, the current Irish Taoiseach Bertie A
for many outside academe in regularly voicing his dislike of 'revision
A short preface written by the board of editors sets out the Ne
stall, but in doing so raises a number of critical issues which migh
weaknesses in a volume which can otherwise be welcomed as a substantial
contribution to Irish historiography. First, the market. The New History was
launched with the admirable 'aim of making more accessible the fruits of a
generation of specialist scholarship'. As Moody observed: 'If history at its best
is not made available to the educated public as a whole, it fails in one of its
essential social functions'.8 It is hard to disagree with these sentiments, but
given its price (A125) and weight (over 1000 pages) it is unlikely that this is a
function that will be fulfilled by this volume. A much better example of this
ambition is T.W. Moody's The Course of Irish History (co-edited with F.X.
Martin) which has sold in huge quantities since it was first published in 1967.9
In reality, the principal achievement of the New History series is to have
constructed an authoritative, comprehensive and balanced history of Ireland
from the earliest times. The first volumes appeared, moreover, at a time when
few reliable general histories existed. The series has served, therefore, as an

6 Ibid.; D. George Boyce and Alan O'Day (eds), The Making of Modern Irish History.
Revisionism and the Revisionist Controversy (London 1996).
7 That Ferriter's study (under review) was the subject of hostile reviews for being both 'soft on
republicanism' (C.D.C. Armstrong, 'Looking Through Green-tinted Spectacles', The Spectator, 30
October 2004) and anti-republican (due to its use of Peter Hart's The IRA & its Enemies.
Violence and Community in Cork, 1916-1923 [Oxford 1998]) reveals an appetite among some to
prolong an unhelpfully polarized debate.
8 J.R. Hill, A New History of Ireland. VII - Ireland, 1921-1984 (Oxford 2003), v.
9 F.X. Martin and T.W. Moody (eds), The Course of Irish History (Cork 1967).

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140 Journal of Contemporary History Vol 42 No I

essential historiographical resource, and has probably been used

historians (particularly when confronted with the challenge of gettin
with large swathes of unfamiliar territory for teaching purposes)
sity students than the public. At its best, it has met a high standard.
volume, Ireland under the Union I (1801-1870), combined aut
synthesis with elegant writing; other volumes have received a mo
reception.'1
How does A New History: VII compare? Given that there are 26
tors, there is inevitably a degree of unevenness in terms of approach
ity. The political narrative of the two Irish states is considered in 14
9 contributors, while 13 articles are devoted to social, economic a
themes such as emigration, demography, education, literature and
media. The standard is, as one would expect, generally high, par
terms of the political narrative which certainly passes the compre
test. Anyone in need of a concise and authoritative account of th
War, or the Republic's entry into the European Economic Comm
the outbreak of the troubles, or indeed any significant political ev
period can safely turn to the New History. The southern and nort
are dealt with in separate articles except, curiously, in John Wh
contributions (spanning 1945-72) where events in both states are
parallel sections within chapters or, at critical points of north-so
action such as the outbreak of the troubles, within interweaving
narrative. Whyte's approach is perhaps preferable, but given the lack
action between the two states throughout this period the dual str
not detract: had the book covered the peace process of the 1990s
approach might have been required. The thematic chapters revea
variety of approaches; literature and the visual arts, for exampl
sidered in a national framework, while music is partitioned.
Jonathan Bardon's excellent overview of Northern Ireland, whic
the state with an eye to the comparative European context, sets
which most of the articles follow. The contributors generally provide
narrative rather than a thematic interpretation. Eunan O'Halpin's
of the first decade of the Irish Free State reflects recent historiograp
in its sympathetic treatment of Cosgrave's achievements. Wherea
once tended to stress the post-Civil War polarization which charac
bitter period, O'Halpin emphasizes the extent to which conservativ
ist values were shared by republicans and treatyites." The 1923 ge
tion, he notes, 'initiated a pattern of politics that persisted for
which the majority of the electorate chose between two major p
marily defined by the treaty split and overwhelmingly male. In t

10 W.E. Vaughan, A New History of Ireland. V - Ireland under the Union

(Oxford 1989).
11 This is a central theme of John Regan's study, The Irish Counter-Revoluti
Treatyite Politics and Settlement in Independent Ireland (Dublin 1999).

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McGarry: Twentieth-century Ireland Revisited 141

tions alternative patterns of division, based on class, section

religious differences, played only a subordinate role in political co
differences between the Anglo-Irish policies of de Valera and
O'Halpin suggests, 'largely matters of style'.'" The conservatis
building period emerges as a dominant theme: even Cumann
administrative innovations tended to substitute Britain's excep
of rule in Ireland for a more faithful replication of British struc
depoliticized civil service and an unarmed police force. More
Fianna Fiil critiqued Cumann na nGaedheal's 'undemocratic, b
and centralist attitude' towards local government and the state
sition, 'de Valera in power was content to operate the adminis
fashioned by his opponents'.'"
Brian Girvin's contribution is one of the few to stress an overar
signalled by its title, 'The Republicanisation of Irish Society,
suggests that the new Fianna Faiil government's 'understanding of
included an alternative view of how the state and society shou
embracing foreign policy, the constitution, the economy, and nat
Its aim in 1932 was what may be characterised as the republ
Irish society.'" His assertion that the two main parties 'were di
ally every issue: foreign policy, domestic reform, and constit
and that de Valera's election represented a break in continuity
cal both in intent and practice', contrasts sharply with O'Halpi
a shared conservative nationalism.'6 Ultimately, the notion of
sation of Ireland' as an organizing concept is not persuasive; it is n
the achievements of a Fianna Faiil government which (as Girv
vincingly to detail) centralized state power, extended clerical a
social sphere, increased gender inequality, and reinforced the i
nationalism with Catholicism - can be seen as republican in a
sense. The term seems little more than convenient shorthand to describe
Fianna Fail's accelerated assertion of sovereignty through the diminution of
constitutional and economic ties with Britain, a policy which Cumann na
nGaedheal had already, if more timidly, adopted.
There is little point in offering a detailed appraisal of the individual contri-
butions but a few general points can be made. Although the political narrative
is arguably the strongest aspect of the collection, it cannot be said that this
volume breaks much new ground. Although there are strong chapters -
including the aforementioned contributions and those by Michael Hopkinson
and Paul Arthur - other contributions have a more dated feel to them, and
quite a few distil work which has long been published in monograph form.
The range of issues considered in some of the contributions also seems unduly

12 Hill, A New History, op. cit., 96.

13 Ibid., 105.
14 Ibid., 112.
15 Ibid., 129.
16 Ibid., 127, 131.

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142 Journal of Contemporary History Vol 42 No I

narrow. For example, Dermot Keogh's piece on the Irish Republic (

'Ireland, 1972-1984') provides a reliable narrative of this era o
instability and economic underachievement, but one looks in vai
acknowledgment that this was a period characterized by serious p
financial corruption. The treatment of clerical and political lead
Archbishop John Charles McQuaid and Charles J. Haughey - w
part, be seen as products of the unaccountable way in which powe
exercised in the southern state - is altogether too uncritical. The
assessment of the latter figure, whose corrosive influence on politics
ness has been partially exposed by state tribunals and the media, tame
'His legacy on the development of the Fianna Fail party and dome
is more difficult to assess. His leadership style was radically different
of his predecessors. Haughey was a fear ann fein (his own man). T
of the state archives under the thirty-year rule will provide a more c
sive view of his time in office.'"7
Some of these problems are due to the length it has taken for this v
appear. The purpose of the New History is to make accessible a ge
specialist scholarship, but in a number of articles it presents th
preceding rather than current generation of scholars. The late Jo
chapters serve as a case in point. Although certainly of lasting value, t
written in the 1980s, and detail episodes about which the openin
archives of the Catholic Church and Irish government in the mid
improved our knowledge. The claim in the preface that 1984 wa
practicable date at which to end this volume' would seem reasonab
collection appeared several years rather than two decades after t
contrast, other recently published surveys have taken the story u
the year of the Good Friday Agreement - or the close of the centu
However, the dated feel to this collection is also a result of a narrow
ographical approach, a shortcoming which is most noticeable in a
the articles devoted to social, economic and cultural themes. Again
cal issue is raised, unsatisfactorily, in the preface which refers app
Moody's philosophy for the New History: 'Historians' views of t
not depend on whimsy, changing orthodoxies, or convenient chang
point, but on the raw material of the story, which was constantly
new characters and plots."' But, many would wonder, what is the
from whose perspective should it be told? The range of themes is also
the preface: 'The New History has certain characteristics, which w
result of accident, serendipity, or fashion. One is the breadth of the w
is best demonstrated by the inclusion of chapters on painting, archite
the decorative arts.' But, despite the playful dust-jacket image (a
Irish cottage, framed by John Wayne and the crew of The Quiet Man
is defined in an 6litist fashion in many of the articles. There is, for e

17 Ibid., 393-4.
18 Ibid., vi.

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McGarry: Twentieth-century Ireland Revisited 143

article on sport, which has touched a greater number of people

foundly than the visual arts, a surprising omission in light of rece
graphical trends." Vivian Mercier explores high literature only,
reference to the reading habits of ordinary people.20 The chapter
independent Ireland focuses on the undistinguished history of ar
composition (in sections respectively subtitled 'Lack of stron
composition and performance' and 'A poor creative record'). In co
fascinating and vibrant history of 'the popular music idiom' - wh
ing to jazz in illicit dance-halls in the 1930s, the enormous popu
groups such as The Chieftains, The Horslips and U2, the inexplicab
sistent appeal of country-and-western music, the show-band cra
Eurovision successes of the 1990s - is glossed over in two pages.
Such criticisms should be kept in perspective. The volume con
written and authoritative chapters on a broad range of themes includ
such as women's history, which received little attention in previo
Education, language, the mass media and literature in Irish ar
hensively covered; indeed, one of the strengths of the book lies in th
can trace the working out of similar themes - such as the unexpec
tions and disappointments which followed the attainment of inde
the gradual erosion of social conservatism - in chapters on topic
as literature, education and politics. Some articles, moreover, have
than others. A postscript to David Johnson and Liam Kennedy's ar
pleted prior to the emergence of the Celtic Tiger economy, notes
assessment of Ireland's economic performance was deemed unfas
buoyant at the time of writing, but has subsequently been strengthen
remarkable growth of the last decade. The book is handsomely pr
the editor, Jacqueline Hill, should be congratulated for the high
the editorial standards and scholarly apparatus. The volume, whic
comprehensive bibliography, completes a series which will remain
work of reference for those interested in Irish history, but is unlike
criticism about the empirical conservatism of the Irish historio
tradition.
Diarmaid Ferriter, author of The Transformation of Ireland 1
takes a different view of 'the story' from the New History. Indeed, o
principal aims is to construct a narrative of what he sees as the hidde
of Ireland. In the introduction to his excellent study, Ferriter ma
ambition to describe 'what it felt like to grow up in twentieth-centur

19 The relationship between sport, identity and nationalism has received extensiv
R.V. Comerford's recent study of nation-invention, Ireland (London 2003), a
Cronin, Sport and Nationalism in Ireland. Gaelic Games, Soccer and Irish Identit
(Dublin 1999) and Alan Bairner (ed.), Sport and the Irish. Histories, Identities,
2004).
20 See, in contrast, Elizabeth Russell, "'Holy Crosses, Guns and Roses": Them
Reading Material' in Joost Augusteijn, Ireland in the 1930s. New Perspectives
11-29.

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144 Journal of Contemporary History Vol 42 No I

and . . . inject a greater degree of humanity into the study of Irish h

His approach is essentially to reverse the traditional thematic con
survey history by telling the story from below; although provid
ground political narrative, he focuses in much greater detail on so
tural themes. He is more interested in identifying and analysing the
significance of power, class and gender than in dwelling on polit
ments, and in illuminating the impact of these forces on margina
such as the working classes, the urban and rural poor, women, c
elderly and emigrants. Hence, the recurring themes of this book
developed in eight chronological chapters spanning the century, a
ones such as class and the distribution of wealth; social issues such
planning, mortality, illness, alcoholism, sexuality, morality and
vulnerable groups; and cultural themes such as the conflict bet
servatism and liberalism, which are explored through an extensiv
novels, memoirs and popular culture media such as music and spo
Much like J.J. Lee's Ireland 1912-1985, written during a d
shadowed by unemployment, emigration, social conflict and econo
The Transformation of Ireland is very much a book of its time. T
ments provide the context which enables twentieth-century Ir
examined from a new perspective. The first, as the title suggests, is
able transformation which has occurred during the last two decad
possible exception of its first two decades, no other period of the
witnessed such rapid social, economic, political and cultural chang
the 1980s was a country shaped by ongoing violence in the north
south by economic failure, tensions between a still pervasive Cath
and emergent liberal forces, and a republicanism which still ha
to traditional nationalist grievances. It was, for many ordinary
bleak decade; the recurring image in a recent television document
ubiquity of queues - at unemployment exchanges for social welfa
newly-arrived American fast-food chain for jobs, and in long line
American embassy for visas to leave the country. As someone wh
the 1980s, I can remember the way recipients of the random
US work visas, for which almost all school-leavers applied, were
lottery winners.
The perspective - following a decade in which the Republic ha
one of the fastest growing economies in the world - has under
changed. Material prosperity has not only transformed the econ
Republic but radically altered traditional attitudes towards morali
nationalism and much else. One of the most significant chan
occurred, the success of the peace process, can be seen as both a
consequence of this transformation. However, Ferriter, like mo
commentators, is attuned to what has been lost as well as gained
period. Alluding to the 'pragmatic, dismissive, and ideologically i

21 Diarmaid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000 (London 2004

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McGarry: Twentieth-century Ireland Revisited 145

Ireland' of the twenty-first century, his final chapter outlines s

problems, including persistent areas of poverty, greater inequality, t
ment of traditional ideas of community by a more materialistic in
the prevalence of alcohol-fuelled violence, rampant property spec
standard infrastructure and unaffordable housing.
The second, interrelated, development permitting a fresh pers
that the book was written during a remarkable 'period of great
Irish society'.22 During the 1990s, as the old certainties of faith and
were finally left behind, the public, politicians and media began
many of the more sordid aspects of Irish society which had been ign
independence. The Catholic Church was wracked by a seemingly n
wave of scandals, ranging from its failure to deal with paedophile
cruel treatment of unmarried mothers in the Magdalen laundrie
grim institutions, the sale of their 'banished babies' to wealthy forei
incarceration of children in the industrial school system in genuinely
conditions, to the exposure of the hypocritical lifestyle of individual
bishops.23 Of course, the state was also responsible for the treatm
vulnerable groups, and the misdeeds of particular politicians, civ
and businessmen were exposed as never before by revelations of f
ruption within the banks and industry, tax evasion among the w
political corruption from local government to cabinet level.24 By
2000, Ferriter notes, there were six tribunals in session: the Moriarty
investigating payments to Charles Haughey; the Flood Tribunal o
corruption; the Laffoy Commission on the abuse of children in instit
Barron inquiry on the Dublin, Monaghan and Dundalk bombings
inquiries into two separate health-related scandals. This book, th
an attempt to place the radical change of recent decades within a
torical context, and partly an attempt to contextualize the vari
which have provoked much outrage but little mature assessment o
to which Irish society was complicit in them.
The narrative reveals a keen eye for the contradictions, ir
hypocrisies which abounded in independent Ireland, such as the g
the rhetoric of the state concerning the importance of rural lif
speaking communities of the west and the islands, the family, wome
dren and the actual treatment of such groups. It is highly critical of
of authority, whether by the state, Church, or professional gr

22 Ibid., 1.
23 Mary Raftery's groundbreaking documentary on the industrial schools States of Fear, which
shocked the nation and prompted a swift apology from the Irish government, was followed by a
publication, co-written with Eoin O'Sullivan, Suffer the Little Children. The Inside Story of
Ireland's Industrial Schools (Dublin 1999).
24 For recent accounts of the corrupt links between politics and business, see Sam Smyth,
Thanks a Million Big Fella (Dublin 1997), Fintan O'Toole, Meanwhile Back at the Ranch. The
Politics of Irish Beef (London 1995) and Paul Cullen, With a Little Help from My Friends.
Planning Corruption in Ireland (Dublin 2002).

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 146 Joumal of Contemporary History Vol 42 No I

doctors and the legal profession. The obvious danger of such a p

that it can easily lend itself to a simplistic analysis of a complex
Ferriter's approach is sufficiently nuanced to prevent this. In his ex
contentious themes such as the influence of Catholicism, he choo
size a multiplicity of perspectives rather than score easy point
highlighting the arrogance, snobbery and lack of compassion w
characterized the Catholic Church, he notes its vital contribution
health provision and welfare. While noting that vigilance group
Catholic Truth Society were frequently mocked in literary
observes that 'the members of such groups were more represent
people than those who wrote books'." At times, moreover, the 'l
Catholic social movement seemed to be the only group making a
social problems'.26
He is also keen to emphasize that 'behind the monolith there
varied attitudes to religious expression'." What, for some, was
repression was a positive experience for many; others 'found bo
discomfort in their experience of Irish Catholicism'.28 Despite th
mass piety and devotion which appear to define the period, Fer
that there was 'an almost underground resentment and resistanc
enforced piety'.29 Notwithstanding the clerical obsession with m
ences, he observes, 'the Irish population became one of the heavi
going populations in the world, and were keen to drink as muc
and dance from one end of the country to the other'.30 (Similarl
points are made about other under-researched aspects of 'de Vale
such as sex - 'Irish historians have been over-concerned with the denial
rather than the experience of sex' and repression - 'Perhaps historians
fallen into the trap of becoming consumed with what Irish people were
posedly not permitted to do as opposed to what they actually did; and w
they actually read as opposed to what was banned.'31) For many, he sugg
the attraction of novenas and sodalities lay primarily in their importance
social outlet, or in the words of George Russell as 'the high culture of the ave
age man and especially the poor'.32 And while some politicians displayed
craven attitude to the hierarchy or indulged in Catholic triumphalism, m
were 'moderate, educated and unself-conscious Catholics' who resisted agg
sive Catholic pressure for sectarian legislation.33

25 Ferriter, Transformation, op. cit., 337.

26 Ibid., 410.
27 Ibid., 335.
28 Ibid., 411.
29 Ibid., 334.
30 Ibid., 336-7.
31 Ibid., 322, 10. Brian Fallon's lively survey, An Age of Innocence. Irish Culture 1930-1960
(Dublin 1998), convincingly disputes the cliched notion of 'de Valera's Ireland' as a cultural
wasteland.
32 Ibid., 337.
33 Ibid., 337-8.

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McGarry: Twentieth-century Ireland Revisited 147

In a work of such scale, criticisms can inevitably be made.

admires Joe Lee's critical analysis of the independent Irish state,
not offer as coherent a critical framework for assessing its failings.3
the most frequently recurring theme of the study is its criticism of
tion, but the author does not square this with his acknowledgm
deeply unsatisfactory nature of the only two major areas of decen
the provision of health services by regional authorities and the r
planning and environmental issues by local government."3 The extent
the transformation of Ireland mirrored or, more frequently, lagged
same trends in other western countries might have been more
Although it gives due attention to Northern Ireland, the ana
troubles sheds little new light. Ferriter is perhaps right to suggest th
'weakness of the historiography of Northern Ireland remained th
examine history through non-sectarian concepts - power, class an
but his compensating tendency to analyse events such as the civil righ
ment or the collapse of the Sunningdale agreement through the pe
marginal voices like Eamonn McCann and Bernadette McAliskey d
justice to the perspectives of mainstream unionism, constitutional
and the British government.36 It may also be due to the depressin
in Northern Ireland power, class and gender are, like every other
arably intertwined with sectarianism, rendering its politics and societ
resilient to new ideas or perspectives.
Ferriter's broad reading, which encompasses recently released
sources - it is the first to begin to assimilate the records of th
Military History - and the vast range of monographs and theses p
social historians since the 1980s, ensures that his book will remain
tant work of historical synthesis for some time." But notwiths
accessibility, its length (almost 900 pages) will dilute its impact; the c
individual chapters, some over 100 pages long, is poorly signposte
use of brief quotations rather than explanatory subtitles as sectio
and this problem is compounded by the loose structure of individu
which are thematically rather than chronologically organized. Key
sometimes returned to within the same chapter, suggesting lax ed
some episodes are discussed out of sequence (the 1913 Lockout, f
follows 1916, and a brief discussion of the Antarctic explorer T
located between two passages on the Easter Rising). Some historian
at the unstuffiness of tone, as demonstrated by subjective descrip
'the greatest rock band in the world in the 1980s and 1990s
'played at its best, there is no sport to rival it in the world' - or
narrative (rather like an enjoyable conversation in an Irish pub) sw

34 Ibid., 752.
35 Ibid., 299, 695-6, 704-5, 709-10, 731-2.
36 Ibid., 654.
37 Ferriter makes good use of recent research on women, family and gender, most notably
Finola Kennedy's Cottage to Creche. Family Change in Ireland (Dublin 2000).

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 148 Journal of Contemporary History Vol 42 No I

from the tactics of the Triple Crown-winning rugby team of the

emergence of revisionism in academic writing.38 Most readers, I s
welcome the breadth of scope and the refreshing absence of cyn
overuse of irony which characterize much Irish historical writing.
The achievement of this book is to write into the historical narrative - a
narrative which will be widely read in Ireland - the experiences of hitherto
marginalized voices, thereby changing the story. Ferriter quotes the archivist
and critic Catriona Crowe to make this point in relation to the recent scandals
which have preoccupied Celtic Tiger Ireland:

The whole business of untold stories is at the heart of our fascination with these revelations.
The private domain of personal experience has always been at odds with the official stories
which were sanctioned, permitted and encouraged by the state and Catholic Church ... these
memoirs run like a parallel stream of information alongside the official documentary record
and complement it with their personal immediacy and vibrancy. The official record can tell
us what happened, but rarely what it felt like.9

Ferriter does not claim to have written a definitive history, but his original
take on the type of sources and range of subject matter which historians of
twentieth-century Ireland should consider has set a new agenda for subsequent
research. Ferriter places as much emphasis on the 'huge opportunities squan-
dered' as on 'the daunting task' facing those who built the independent state
over the last century.40 Revealingly, he concludes by quoting Michael Moran,
the War of Independence veteran from John McGahern's classic novel
Amongst Women, whose unfulfilled expectations and experience of native
misrule had embittered his memories of the struggle for freedom: 'Some of our
own Johnnies in the top jobs instead of a few Englishmen. More than half of
my own family work in England. What was it all for? The whole thing was a
cod.' Despite the disillusionment, Ferriter observes, 'McGahern's work
remains both an indictment of the failures of Irish independence and a cele-
bration of Ireland's distinctiveness.' The same could be said about this impres-
sive book.

Fearghal McGarry
is a senior lecturer in the School of History at Queen's University
Belfast. He is the author of several books on political radicalism in
twentieth-century Ireland, including Irish Politics and the Spanish
Civil War (Cork 1998) and Eoin O'Duffy - A Self-Made Hero
(Oxford 2005). He is currently working on a history of the
Easter Rising.

38 Ferriter, Transformation, op. cit., 742, 744, 746-7.

39 Ibid., 665.
40 Ibid., 5. Both the daunting task and the opportunities squandered are examined in Tom
Garvin's recent studies, 1922. The Birth of Irish Democracy (Dublin 1996) and Preventing the
Future. Why was Ireland so Poor for so Long? (Dublin 2004).

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