Widening the Fight for Ireland's Freedom: Revolutionary Nationalism in Its Global Contexts

Abstract

Political violence in Ireland, particularly militant resistance to the union, is no neglected theme, so in a sense the cluster of books on this broad topic, all published between 2009 and 2010, reflects an elaboration of a well-established scholarly pattern. And yet the effusion of interest these volumes embody arguably represents more than the normal, well-honed contours of modern Irish historiography. A combination of seismic political events—the Good Friday and St. Andrews Agreements in northern Ireland, the attacks of 9/11 in new York and of 7/7 in London—as well as several notable political anniversaries, including the sesquicentenary of the foundation of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the centenary of the death of the great Irish nationalist, michael Davitt, provide the unmistakable and distinctive backdrop to the writing of these several volumes. Close-grained analyses of the triangular set of relationships binding Britain, Ireland, and the united States have not been wanting in