Nationalism in Ireland

Book reviews The

book

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provide

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good

philosophical

events

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conceptual. War. ture

period

Perhaps

to look

unsurprisingly

at possible

past

and

the

and

early

1970s.

there

dre

evident

sophical

given

the

book

experience,

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introduction

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style,

be

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and

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way

this

book

written

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the

to

a

price,

thr

earlier

Drarving leaders,

Boyce

general.

reader.

that emphasi/ecl

identity

pp.. ISRN

study,

originally

undergone

two revisions;

included

place

endorses

is neither final

that

debate

It is

scholarly

value-free

a4 ‘all history

might

be called

books

a “tone”,

that histor-

same

understand

turned

it is that

101)

IXstancing

science

theory

his enquiry

in the empirical

by what to do is to

flawed

men

from

tradition,

much

social

and situating Boyce

of Irish nationalist

his

fluently polit-

and

Protestant that

Irish

and

tightened

\vhy

l)isof

in

his

the

fi-om

case.

power

in the

he Lls

the

in 1921.

of evidence

illllstratc

society

the

relations

period

under

to frilly explain

a Catholic

version For

of

the

national

identity

\v;1s to emerge.

alleges

that

onward)

u as not a colony I>ut a ‘sister-kingdom

modern

inslance.

Ireland

ISoyce

(17th

centtq

Lvithin the Hritish Isles; the parliament and its relationship illustrate

this

theless,

insufficient

ology

ot

that

cism.

equation

if theorized

rights

more

politics

parliament

\vomen

the

modt~l ot national

the ~vould

An analysis

practised

under

reinforced

emergence

of a

excluded

is necessary

identity.

The

Catholi-

or the poor.

coml”eliensit~le. and

economic island.

with

that

after

to more of

the idc-

in the context

t’ully

apparatus

(1800)

the

the

of Irishness

in I)ublln

Act of L’nion contextualizc

and

of exclusion

to

the political

on

more

state

of Catholics.

become the

parliament

to

Nc\cr-

is paid

underlying

prevailing

subsequent

relationship.

attention

mint1

relationships

in I>ublin

\vltli VC’estminster is used

‘sister-hoocl’

‘Ahccndancy

a

con-

conccptionh

plenty to

and

from

up to independence

presents

Consequently

Protestant

or style

in the first place’ (pp. 900-

on nationalism

tract’s the development

at he

compro-

are informed or flavour can hope

what

time

is not

the only thing the historian into gods and heroes

has

nor aimed

At the integrity

that

over the last

the critique

truths.

mised

study

has

chapter.

in Irish historiography

ical analysis argues

has

new edition

final

the vociferous

Boyce

producmg

1982,

at the text’s end, that I wish to begin.

In overviewing decade.

in

each

a supplementary

here then, taken

published

to the

it. Moving

under-theorizes

reasons

0 415 I2776 9. This

study.

attention in I)ublin

gradually

documents

underlying

D. George

1995, 409

through

of political

the unity

claims

leading Royce

argument

to

of ‘Catholic.

national

public

London,

particular

pdrliament

dlbcourse

l%oyce

of political

of a range

respc,nses

a of

of seconclaiy

works

takes the reader

subsquenr

srnter‘,

by

definition

range

and practice Irish

clrcade~

Routledge,

steadily

and pays

\Xhile

,Vatio~~ali.snz in I1-&1117~i,3rd edn,

a \vitle

18th-century

recogni-

replaced

Gaelic

published

movements

of the suggests

the

was

and

the

interrsts

thinking Boyce

that had characterized

thinking

from

and

of identity

of translation

Catholic

popula-

analysis

political

diversity

political

sources

nion

Royce.

process

the ideology

accessible

affordable

recommended

non-specialist

an

in the

Irishness.

into

the

by the Old

Presbyterian

population.

tion of cultural

to be L1S rcla-

and

Irish

compet-

definitions

advanced

unitary

into

from

contradictory)

initially

Catholic

is that

gradually

Anglo-Irish

narrower

provides

in

at an

that

that

of the study

sometimes

to a more

philo-

legacies

French

(and

of ‘nationhood’,

Roman

the

argue

of earlier

historical

As a quick

Vietnam

does

thesis

incorporated

1960s

from the pre-Norman

developed

English,

strut-

1950s.

central

tions,

of trying

between

influences and

the

goal

of the

in the L’ietnamese,

tionships.

dimenVietnam

connections

ing

the

policy

and practice

to the present.

nationalism

points

and

period The

in the

its stated

experiences

thinking

found

and

the

historical

review

forces

and

key

the

under

respective

of the book

of

chapters

of the

traditions,

ical thought

is charac-

substantive

organizational

of the

and sense

synopses

of the

sions

researched

personalized

533

a

of the the full)

Catholic

More generally, the discussion of cultural identity sparingly examines the position of the Irish language (spoken by the majority of the population in 1800) and the state’s role in its decline in the 13th century Thus, for instance, the role of national primary education in contributing to the demise of the language is underanalyzed. If we accept that a nation is an ‘imagined community’ it is necessary to outline how that imagination is fostered through economic. cultural and political systems. In his discussion of the Great Famine of the 18405, for instance, Boyce focuses on the post-f:imine readjustment of the agricultural and the rural class system. IIe doea not offer any sustained analysis of the government‘s response to its sister-kin~~1om.s crisis and there is virtually no discussion of how the experience of the famine fhy tenants and landlords) affected the political climate and the cultivation of a popular memory in the latter part of the 19th century. Put simply, the Uritish climcnsion to Irish political life is not always sufficiently scriitinizcd. The ~OCLIS on the internal evolution of Irish nationalist politics diminishes the explanato1y power of the analysis by underestimating the greater ISritish and Ibropean context in \vhich Irish political life can IX both placed and understood. &wing in mind that there has been much nen’ research since the original publication of this hook, and despite some resenWons about the interpretation that is JTrescnted. this sllldy does offer an engaging overview of some of the key episodes in the evolution of an Irish political idenrity. It is clearly \vritten, coherently argued and is a valuable intro&Won for any students of nationalism and of Irish history.

Gorzelak’s book aims to fill an important gap in the literature: namely, to provide a picture of thy

socio-economic map of central Europe after the first few years of postcommunist restructuring. The author outlines what he calls the ‘general processes of transformation’ and the ‘historic heritage of sock-economic space’ before discussing at length the regional patterns that have appeared. He concludes with brief resumes of the potential for further change and the state of regional J~olicy. The book concentrates on Poland, hut there are frequent. if less detailed, references to the Czech Republic. Hungary and Slovakia. it is lit~erally illustrated with maps and tables. It has been published 3s one of the Regional Studies Association’s series on Kegional Policy and Development. It is unfortunate, in these circumstances. that it gives the appearance of having been thrown together. The series editor might have suggexted that thr hook would he more logically ordercstl if it opened Lvith the historical chapter. She might have insisted that thrre be some ol~vioua rationale for the interpolation of italicized sentence5 into the text. She might have required that the reader he helped to understand the significance of the hoses in the text by giving each a title; and she might have clcm:mdrtl that Professor Gorztlak‘s text IX rendered throughout into comprehrmihle English. :mtl that page-numl,er cross-referenit’s 1X cotllpleted. There ;ircs, however. more significant criticisms that must hc made. The author alludes to three thc%ses.Flc claims that 50 years of communist develoI~ment have not altered the m;ijor lineaments of the economic geography of the Visegrad group. IIr contends that the rrstructuring of their economies since 1080 has merely followed the pattern of d~intlilstrialization that began in Western Europe LO or 30 years earlier; and he implies that the economic geography of the region is not going to change dramaticatly ~1s :* resuit of the systemic tr~~nsforniati~n that is now occurring. These theses are not, however, allowec1 to structure the book, which is composed largely of simple. and in some cases simplistic, descriptions of such matters as the spatial ctixtrit)tltion of popiilaticm, the location of foreign investment. and the ‘political profiles~ (8 Polish regions, none of n-hi& are placed in the context of any theory of developmentor restrui’turing, spatial or otherwise. The conclusionthat some new and stronger regional policy is essential if regions that are no\V in difficulty arc