Overview

For much of the twentieth century, Ireland has been synonymous with conflict, the painful struggle for its national soul part of the regular fabric of life. And because the Irish have emigrated to all parts of the world - while always remaining Irish - 'the troubles' have become part of a common heritage, well beyond their own borders. In most accounts of Irish history, the focus is on the political rivalry between Unionism and Republicanism. But the roots of the Irish conflict are profoundly and inescapably religious. As Marcus Tanner shows in this vivid, warm, and perceptive book, only by understanding the consequences over five centuries of the failed attempt by the English to make Ireland into a Protestant state can the pervasive tribal hatreds of today be seen in context. Tanner traces the creation of a modern Irish national identity through the popular resistance to imposed Protestantism and the common defence of Catholicism by the Gaelic Irish and the Old English of the Pale, who settled in Ireland after its twelfth-century conquest. The book is based on detailed research into the Irish past and a personal encounter with today's Ireland, from Belfast to Cork. Tanner has walked with the Apprentice Boys of Derry and explored the so-called 'Bandit Country' of South Armagh. He has visited churches and religous organisations across the thirty-two counties of Ireland, spoken with priests, pastors and their congregations, and has crossed and re-crossed the lines that for centuries have isolated the faiths of Ireland and their history.

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9780300090727

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Reviews

This is a compellingly written book. . . .The whole narrative is enriched by local portraits and personal stories. . . .It is a successful example of the very best history-writing; learned, balanced, and thoroughly readable. Excellent, readable, controversial, and original. Tanner's book is astute, well-written, and formidably researched. This is a compellingly written book....The whole narrative is enriched by local portraits and personal stories....It is a successful example of the very best history-writing; learned, balanced, and thoroughly readable.

Tanner ( Croatia , 1997, etc.) painstakingly scrutinizes the Irish struggles of the last half-millennium through the lens of religion, which by necessity brings to bear facets of ideology, class, politics, and the distribution of wealth and power. Five hundred grim years in the making, the religious strife that continues to bedevil Ireland is not a pretty picture. The animosities among the various parties-the natives, the Old English, the New English, the Presbyterians, the Church of England, the Church of Ireland, with the odd Methodist, Calvinist, and Congregationalist thrown in-seemingly have forever been at or near the boil, and have been since the Middle Ages. Tanner's marvelously detailed study traces tensions back to the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169, but it was Henry VIII's split with the Pope that started the troubles in earnest. It is a miracle that Tanner can make sense of the byzantine convolutions that make up the political-religious matrix, though it requires careful reading and the memory of an elephant: a Dutch Calvinist prince allied to the Catholic Habsburgs and the Pope, who was claiming the throne in the name of his Anglican wife, daughter of the English Catholic king. It also feels just plain ridiculous, though always mortally so: slaughters haunt this tale. It is not Tanner's intent to suggest that religion is the sole motivating factor behind the endless turmoil-he is aware of the political and economic machinations at work and weaves them into the narrative-though he does feel that the religious angle, now that the Sinn Fein, the RUC, and the bombing have taken the limelight, give religion short shrift. Ironically, he sees religion as having lost importance in the last decade, as church indiscretions, and its lack of employment opportunities, have undercut its authority and sense of sanctuary. Tanner's concurrent personal explorations of the real and symbolic Irish landscapes bring an immediacy to this ancient fight. Unfortunately, such immediacy doesn't lend much hope for a solution ere long. (Kirkus Reviews)

This is a compellingly written book. . . .The whole narrative is enriched by local portraits and personal stories. . . .It is a successful example of the very best history-writing; learned, balanced, and thoroughly readable.

Author Information

Marcus Tanner is the author of Croatia: A Nation Forged in War (ISBN 0 300 09125 7, 9.99 pb.), newly released by Yale University Press in its trade imprint Nota Bene series.

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