Tim Pat Coogan

This coffee-table sized book is a mostly pictorial history of the Irish Civil War that began on June 28, 1922 and ended on May 24, 1923.

Tim Pat Coogan writes about the origins and course of the war in Part I of the book. The far larger Part II features amazing pictures of the personalities and events of the period assembled by George Morrison. The pictures are heavily annotated, so that you get in essence an expansion of the history summarized at the beginning.

Coogan explains the issues at stake clearly, and the quality of the pictures is excellent. For Hibernophiles, the book is a must.… (mais)

I went into this book believing that England's sins in the Great Famine were more of omission than commission, and left being pushed a bit closer to commission, though the author is still judging 19th century behaviour by 20th century standards. There is a pretty good case as to the real villain of the British response, a rather oily Sir Humphrey Appleby type, though some of the Irish landlords that were in the British cabinet do come in for a drubbing. Coogan also goes after "colonial cringe" type analyses of the Famine, i.e., ones that downplay the British actions. Certainly recommended, if a bit polemical. (Addendum: in discussing this with a family member well up on the history, he pointed out that at the same time as the Great Famine in Ireland, there were other famines in Wales, England and Scotland, which tends to undercut Coogan's thesis.)… (mais)