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Author Biography
Diarmaid Ferriter is one of Ireland's best-known historians and is Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD. His books include The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000 (2004), Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the Life and Legacy of Eamon de Valera (2007), Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland (2009), and Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s (2012). His most recent book is A Nation and Not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1 913-23 (2015). He is a regular broadcaster on television and radio and a weekly columnist with the Irish Times. Susannah Riordan is a lecturer in the School of History, University College Dublin. Her main research interests lie in the fields of Irish and British social, religious and intellectual history and in the history of sexuality. She has published numerous articles on these topics and is the co-editor, with Catherine Cox, of Adolescence in Modern Irish History (2015). She is currently the Secretary of the Irish Historical Society.
Description
Years of Turbulence powerfully showcases many new perspectives on the Irish revolutionary period of 1912-23, through the vivid and provocative scholarship of leading and emerging historians. The contributors to this fascinating collection not only focus on new angles, they also revisit traditional assumptions, and elaborate on some of the central, current debates on the revolutionary period. Many muted voices of the revolution are given a platform for the first time in these pages. The collection demonstrates a determination to uncover personal experiences and protests that until now have remained relatively undocumented and ignored. Such themes as the experience of violence in its various forms, the specific circumstances of individual counties, tensions between constitutionalism and radicalism, between elites and the grassroots, the extent to which the IRA's campaign was effectively co-ordinated and controlled, as well as the challenge of writing about women and what they experienced, are deeply considered.Historians in this collection also recognise the need to address, not just events of the revolutionary period, but its afterlife, assessing what the revolution and its leaders came to symbolise, the extent to which a hierarchy of benefit existed in its aftermath, and what the implications were for survivors.Making use of a variety of recently released archival material - including censuses of Ireland of 1901 and 1911, the Bureau of Military History collection, the Military Archives and Service Pensions Collection - Years of Turbulence reveals a fascinating web of different experiences during the revolutionary era and is a fitting contribution, not only to the pioneering scholarship of renowned historian Michael Laffan, who this collection honours, but also to the current decade of commemoration of the centenary of the revolution. The book is richly illustrated with rare images of the period from the Des FitzGerald collection.
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Diarmaid Ferriter & Susannah Riordan
- Introduction
Eamon O'Flaherty
- Michael Laffan, Portrait of a Historian
William Murphy
- 'Voteless Alas'
- Suffragist Protest and the Census of Ireland in 1911
Paul Rouse & Ross O'Carroll
- Sport and War
- The 1915 All-Ireland Hurling Championship
Brian Maye
- Michael Keogh
- Recruiting Sergeant for Casement's Irish Brigade
Conor Mulvagh
- A Souring of Friendships?
- Internal Divisions in the Leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party in the Aftermath of the Easter Rising
Shauna Gilligan
- Painting Pictures and Telling Tales
- The Scholarly and Popular Portrayal of Patrick Pearse, 1916-27
Katie Lingard
- Physical Force within the Bounds of Political Constraints
- GHQ's Role in the War of Independence
Marie Coleman
- Violence Against Women During the Irish War of Independence, 1919-21
Anne Dolan
- 'Spies and Informers Beware Una Newell
- 'Have We Been Playing at Republicanism?'
- The Treaty, the Pact Election and the Civil War in Co. Galway
Diarmaid Ferriter
- 'Always in Danger of Finding Myself with Nothing at all'
- The Military Service Pensions and the Battle for Material Survival, 1925-55
Marnie Hay
- From Rogue Revolutionary to Rogue Civil Servant
- The Resurrection of Bulmer Hobson
Tom Garvin
- The Making of Irish Revolutionary Elites
- The Case of Sean Lemass
Clara Cullen
- Select Bibliography
Notes
Index.
‘Each chapter – without exception – adds significantly to our knowledge and understanding of that time [1912–23] … The work of female historians stand out in this volume and, as expected, they help us to rediscover the role of women in the independence struggle … This is a handsomely produced volume with a couple of dozen well-chosen illustrations. It is a fine tribute to an outstanding Irish historian [Michael Laffan].’
Jonathan Bardon, Familia: Ulster Genealogical Review, 2016
You can read the full review here
‘A fitting tribute to the career of Michael Laffan … The essays on the Military Service Pension Records, the GAA, Parliamentary Party responses to 1916, violence against women, responses to the 1911 census and the killing of informers provide particularly engaging interpretations of their given topics that might be employed for teaching purposes.’
Irish Studies Review, 2017
You can read the full review here
‘As the centenary of the Easter Rising approaches, historians have been busy tapping newly revealed sources and archives for new angles on this landmark event and its aftermath up to the end of the Civil War in 1923. While the main politico-military narrative remains largely unchanged, research into the underlying social and cultural conditions of these “years of turbulence” is yielding valuable new information.’
The Irish Catholic, 10 March 2016
You can read the full review here
‘Michael Laffan’s contribution to the history of the revolutionary period was unique … He also made a significant impression on a generation of University College Dublin students, many of whom assemble to honour him with this collection of essays … the subjects of their contributions … range from pre-war suffragism and the GAA, via the Irish parliamentary party and the IRA to the careers of Bulmer Hobson and Seán Lemass … UCD Press has produced an appropriately elegant-looking book … embellished with a well-chosen collection of highly atmospheric, mostly unfamiliar photographs. Bringing together established and new historians, it forms a worthy tribute.’
Charles Townshend, The Irish Times, 16 January 2016
You can read the full review here
‘Years of Turbulence is written in honour of UCD History lecturer Michael Laffan, a man responsible for forging a different approach to the events of 1916 over previous decades. The book is suitably scholarly, and there’s no doubting the effort taken in winkling out valuable insights from hitherto darkened corners of the period.’
Noel Baker, Irish Examiner, 16 January 2016
You can read the full review here
‘An excellent new book … here some of Ireland’s most talented historians offer new perspectives and insight into Ireland’s revolutionary period from 1912–1923, giving a platform to many of the muted voices of the revolution and elaborate on some of the central, current debates on the revolutionary period.’
The Irish Voice, January 2016
You can read the full review here
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