Irishmen in War from the Crusades to 1798: Essays from The Irish Sword, Volume I, and: Irishmen in War 1800-2000: Essays from The Irish Sword, Volume II (review)

These two volumes offer thirty-eight articles reproduced from the journal of the Military History Society of Ireland, The Irish Sword. Chosen by a subcommittee of the Irish Commission for Military History, they "were selected to reveal the breadth and depth of the articles within the covers of the journal." (Thomas Bartlett, Vol. I, xiii). Roughly half of the articles were published in the last sixteen years, many in special issues, often produced to commemorate a particular conflict's anniversary: the tri-centenary of the Jacobite War in 1990, the bicentenary of the United Irishmen Rebellion in 1998, the fiftieth anniversary of the "Emergency" (World War II) in 1993, and special issues on Irish participation in both U.N. peacekeeping operations in 1996 and in the U.S. Civil War in 2002.

A portion of these articles are examples of traditional military history: the style of warfare practiced by medieval Irish rulers, the career of Queen Elizabeth's bête noir, Hugh O'Neill, a number of engagements from seventeenth-century Ireland, studies of the weapons and tactics employed in the Rebellion of 1798, a detailed account of the 1916 Easter Rising, and the Defence Forces' expansion during the "Emergency." Naval affairs are not entirely neglected, with an article on the French Navy's involvement in the Jacobite War (1689–92) and two pieces on the relationship between the nineteenth-century revolutionary organization, the Fenians, and a pioneer of submarine design, John Philip Holland (including his involvement with both the U.S. and Japanese submarine programs). Many of these works offer examples of wider trends in military developments in an Irish context, such as comparisons between the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman conquest and the conduct of warfare in the Holy Land, the impact of cannons and firearms in Medieval Ireland, and aspects of the "Military Revolution" reflected in the forces raised by Hugh O'Neill during the Nine Years' War (1594–1603).

But there are also examples of a broader approach to military history that incorporates social, religious, and political aspects, such as articles covering the Volunteer movement that became a radical force in eighteenth-century Irish politics, issues surrounding the Tenth (Irish) Division in World War I, the impact of Ireland's independence on the British Army's Irish Regiments, the outlook of the opposing sides in the Irish Civil War (1922–23), and civil-military relations in the first decades of the newly independent state. Despite its masculine title, these volumes contain accounts from both nuns who worked alongside (though not always in harmony with) Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War and the wife of an officer in India during the Mutiny (1857).

Many of these articles illustrate the military connections between Ireland and the wider world. On the one hand, there are studies of Irishmen serving abroad in foreign armies: their presence in the Crusades, the "Wild Geese" fighting for France and Spain, Irish participation in the British Empire, immigrants from Erin who died on the slopes of Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, and members of the current Defence Forces who have attempted to keep the peace in, among other places, the Congo and Lebanon. Conversely, there are articles covering the role of Ireland in conflicts between foreign nations, such as the Spanish Armada, the War of the League of Augsburg (1688–97), the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and World War II.

In the introduction to the first volume, Harman Murtagh states, "It is hoped that...