Problems and Perspectives in Irish History since 1800. Essays in Honour of Patrick Buckland (review)

This collection of essays paying tribute to the achievement of Patrick Buckland as the founder of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool naturally takes into account a variety of Irish themes, social and literary as well as political. It therefore includes only two contributions on specifically parliamentary topics. One, by Alan O'Day, now having affiliations in Oxford, is a very broad overview, based on secondary sources, of the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom, chiefly during the nineteenth century. It contends that the standard historiographical understanding of the story, concentrating on nationalist efforts and British responses, is mistaken. Instead, especially during the period from the 1820s to the 1860s, there was a sustained drive by the British state towards a form of centralization that encompassed Ireland. This was a top-down process, consistently trying to contain the forces unleashed by popular catholicism but never conceding the ability to take initiatives. This phase, however, ended with the passing by Gladstone of Irish disestablishment in 1869, an acknowledgment of internal constitutional diversity within the United Kingdom. Even afterwards there was a continuing British preoccupation with the sister island evidenced in a high level of Irish legislation. This account contains a stimulating perspective that may point others towards adopting and perhaps refining the interpretation offered here. The other essentially parliamentary study is a reassessment of Isaac Butt, the leader of federal home rule during the 1870s, by Philip Bull of La Trobe University, Melbourne. Bull rates highly the biography of Butt by David Thornley, but points out that it lacks coverage of the British reactions to Butt's activities. Only by reintroducing the surrounding British politicians to the narrative of Butt's career can his stance be understood. It emerges when he is thus rescued from isolation that his Home Government Association, established in 1870, was a result of a loss of impetus in Gladstone's engagement with Irish problems, and in particular his failure to secure the release of Fenian prisoners. Home rule, therefore, was originally designed to complete Gladstone's work of stabilizing the existing order. Far from being radical, Butt planned to retain hereditary peers in an Irish house of lords. This nationalist leader should therefore be placed in a long tradition of those willing to make an accommodation with the British state, a tradition, Bull suggests, of continuing contemporary relevance. There can be little doubt that Bull is correct to see the need to place Butt in a wider context, and perhaps we can hope for further writing from him on this theme.

Beyond these two articles, there are several strongly political pieces. Mark McGovern examines the myth of the siege of Derry in 1689 as it altered in the Victorian setting. What for Macaulay had been an episode in a non-religious struggle between nations turned into a popular religious symbol of victory over catholics and then, in the 1880s, was taken up by the élite in a unionist ideology that merged with imperial patriotism. Christine Kinealy tells a thoroughly researched story of an episode in 1849 when there was a sectarian affray at Dolly's Brae in Co. Down. It assumed importance because the earl of Roden, an Orange deputy grand master, was dismissed from the bench over the event and a ban on political marches was reintroduced as a result. Alan Megahy recounts the role of Irish nonconformists in resisting home rule between the first and third bills by appealing on anti-catholic grounds to their coreligionists. In the social studies, Mervyn Busteen uses Manchester ballad literature to characterize the developing Irish communal identity (suggesting that awareness of contemporary political issues was a sign of growing integration) and Frank Neal helpfully unravels the procedure for repatriating vagrant Irish from England. Even in the most literary contributions there is political content. Roger Swift, professor of Victorian...