The Politics of A Modest Proposal: Swift and the Irish Crisis of the late 1720s 10,664 words In t... more The Politics of A Modest Proposal: Swift and the Irish Crisis of the late 1720s 10,664 words In the summer of 1729 Swift complained to Alexander Pope that the kingdom of Ireland was 'absolutely undone, as I have been telling it often in print these ten years past'. 1 The 1720s had brought an economic downturn, culminating in three successive harvest failures. As prices rose steeply, food riots erupted in southern ports, large-scale emigration from the north began, and thousands died from hunger, malnutrition and disease. 2 The sense that a decade of futile protest against Ireland's constitutional and economic subordination was coming to a grisly climax emanates from Swift's published and unpublished tracts from this period. One of these is entitled An Answer to a Paper, called A Memorial of the Poor Inhabitants, Tradesmen and Labourers of the Kingdom of Ireland (1728): here Swift recalled his vain attempts to rouse Irish public opinion 'at my own peril for several years past'. Added to this characteristic note of self-pity was a new intimation of Old-Testament wrath: Swift admitted to experiencing some 'Malicious 1 Swift to Pope, 11 Aug. 1729, in David Woolley (ed.), The Correspondence of Jonathan
William Molyneux's Case of Ireland (1698) is widely regarded as the most important work of Irish ... more William Molyneux's Case of Ireland (1698) is widely regarded as the most important work of Irish political thought published during the long eighteenth century. Over the last 40 years Patrick Kelly has analysed its arguments and patiently reconstructed the wider Anglo-Irish controversy of the late 1690s in a series of illuminating articles. But in the wider historiography, anachronistic readings of Molyneux still persist, focused on his alleged contributions to evolving ideas of Irish nationhood. We can make better sense of the various strategies Molyneux adopted by situating him within the debates over the ancient constitution that took place in late seventeenth-century England. A careful reading of the hostile responses to Molyneux also reveals that the Case of Ireland prompted the first attempt by English constitutional writers to conceptualise their empire as a single power structure. Contextualising Molyneux in this way prompts further methodological questions concerning the indifference among most Irish scholars to the 'Cambridge school' of intellectual history.
Swift’s Modest Proposal (1729) is widely regarded as the most brilliant satire in the English lan... more Swift’s Modest Proposal (1729) is widely regarded as the most brilliant satire in the English language, but its political context has never been properly explored. Some literary scholars have presented the tract as a parody of political economy; others have concentrated on the imputation of cannibalism, the distinguishing mark of the savage, which Swift redirects away from the natives towards the English settlers and their descendants. But nobody has convincingly related A Modest Proposal to the Irish parliamentary debates and pamphlet discussions of the late 1720s, when three successive harvest failures led to food riots in southern ports, large-scale emigration from the north, and thousands of deaths. Nor has anyone seriously investigated Swift’s hatred of the Irish landlord class, which provides A Modest Proposal with its most powerful, animating grievance. During the 1720s disputes over estate management, leasing practices and the relative merits of tillage and pastoral agricult...
Four Nations Approaches to Modern 'British' History, 2017
In a series of essays published between 1974 and 2005, J. G. A. Pocock protested against the conv... more In a series of essays published between 1974 and 2005, J. G. A. Pocock protested against the conventional anglocentric arrangement of British history, in which Scotland, Ireland and Wales had been largely ignored. His plea for a new British history has been the most influential framework for writing a pluralist, multi-cultural history of these islands. It is well known that Pocock’s original manifesto was prompted by the UK’s entry into the European Economic Community in January 1973. But this chapter will provide a richer account of the intellectual context in which Pocock’s ideas developed, paying particular attention to his native New Zealand in the post-war period. The underlying theme is the role of biography in shaping the decisions about the spatial frame we adopt when we write history.
Peter Hart's monograph, The IRA and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916–1923, h... more Peter Hart's monograph, The IRA and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916–1923, has been the subject of a rancorous debate in Ireland since its publication in 1998. In academic journals, in the press, and in the electronic media, Hart has been accused repeatedly of deliberately distorting evidence. The controversy turns on Hart's depiction of Irish revolutionary violence, and in particular upon a chapter entitled ‘Taking it out on the Protestants’, in which the IRA was portrayed as fundamentally sectarian. This article seeks to address a question that must occasionally trouble all of us: what are historical disagreements really about? To achieve a wider perspective on the Peter Hart affair it considers the famous row over historical ‘fabrication’ ignited by David Abraham's The collapse of the Weimar Republic (1981) and Keith Windschuttle's assault on Lyndall Ryan's book The Aboriginal Tasmanians (1981; 2nd edition 1996). The comparison suggests that w...
Research into the life and thought of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-64)-philosopher, theologian, canon l... more Research into the life and thought of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-64)-philosopher, theologian, canon lawyer, cardinal and reformer-has experienced resurgence in the United States, thanks especially to the American Cusanus Society whose conferences have led to the publication of this book and two predecessors, the first of their kind in English. The dedication of the current volume to three distinguished Renaissance scholars indicates the wide scope of the society's appeal : it has attracted more than those who specialise in some particular aspect of the cardinal's thought, probably because he represents an alternative to late medieval scholasticism and nominalism. At the same time, the editors have invited younger scholars to participate along with those who have established reputations, such as Bernard McGinn, Louis Dupré and Wilhelm Dupré. The present volume contains thirteen essays that cover three general topics. The first section, on context, interprets the subject in a broad sense, and includes two chapters on metaphysical issues : Wilhelm Dupré on spirit and mind in Cusanus and Louis Dupré on the cardinal's theory of religious symbols. A wider historical context engages Dennis Martin who writes on the Carthusians and late medieval spirituality. Cusanus' early life as a canon lawyer is not forgotten, however, as is demonstrated in Thomas Morrissey's article on 'Canonists in crisis ' during the fifteenth-century reform councils. The second section takes us into still fairly uncharted territory with three articles on Nicholas's sermons: Lawrence Hundersmarck and Thomas Izbicki on some of the early sermons ; Walter Euler on the role of Christ in sermons from the cardinal's visitation to Brixen ; and Clyde Lee Miller on the presence of Eckhart's thought in a sermon from 1456.
POWER AND THE NATION IN EUROPEAN HISTORY Few would doubt the central importance of the nation in ... more POWER AND THE NATION IN EUROPEAN HISTORY Few would doubt the central importance of the nation in the making and unmaking of modern political communities. The long history of 'the nation' as a concept and as a name for various sorts of'imagined community' likewise ...
The nature of Ireland's place within the British Empire continues to attract significant publ... more The nature of Ireland's place within the British Empire continues to attract significant public and scholarly attention. While historians of Ireland have long accepted the complexity of Ireland's imperial past as both colonised and coloniser, the broader public debate has grown more heated in recent months, buffeted by Brexit, the Decade of Centenaries and global events. At the same time, the imperatives of social movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum have asked us to reflect on the assumptions, hierarchies and norms underpinning the structures of society, including the production of knowledge and the higher education system. This round table brings together scholars from diverse disciplinary and methodological backgrounds to examine the prospects, possibilities and challenges of what decolonising Irish history might mean for our field. It sets these discussions within broader frameworks, considering both the relationship of Irish historical wr...
... The siege of Derry in Ulster Protestant mythology. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: ... PAGES (I... more ... The siege of Derry in Ulster Protestant mythology. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: ... PAGES (INTRO/BODY): 93 p. SUBJECT(S): Londonderry (Northern Ireland); History; Historiography; Siege, 1688-1689; Protestants; Attitudes; Ulster (Northern Ireland and Ireland). ...
The Politics of A Modest Proposal: Swift and the Irish Crisis of the late 1720s 10,664 words In t... more The Politics of A Modest Proposal: Swift and the Irish Crisis of the late 1720s 10,664 words In the summer of 1729 Swift complained to Alexander Pope that the kingdom of Ireland was 'absolutely undone, as I have been telling it often in print these ten years past'. 1 The 1720s had brought an economic downturn, culminating in three successive harvest failures. As prices rose steeply, food riots erupted in southern ports, large-scale emigration from the north began, and thousands died from hunger, malnutrition and disease. 2 The sense that a decade of futile protest against Ireland's constitutional and economic subordination was coming to a grisly climax emanates from Swift's published and unpublished tracts from this period. One of these is entitled An Answer to a Paper, called A Memorial of the Poor Inhabitants, Tradesmen and Labourers of the Kingdom of Ireland (1728): here Swift recalled his vain attempts to rouse Irish public opinion 'at my own peril for several years past'. Added to this characteristic note of self-pity was a new intimation of Old-Testament wrath: Swift admitted to experiencing some 'Malicious 1 Swift to Pope, 11 Aug. 1729, in David Woolley (ed.), The Correspondence of Jonathan
William Molyneux's Case of Ireland (1698) is widely regarded as the most important work of Irish ... more William Molyneux's Case of Ireland (1698) is widely regarded as the most important work of Irish political thought published during the long eighteenth century. Over the last 40 years Patrick Kelly has analysed its arguments and patiently reconstructed the wider Anglo-Irish controversy of the late 1690s in a series of illuminating articles. But in the wider historiography, anachronistic readings of Molyneux still persist, focused on his alleged contributions to evolving ideas of Irish nationhood. We can make better sense of the various strategies Molyneux adopted by situating him within the debates over the ancient constitution that took place in late seventeenth-century England. A careful reading of the hostile responses to Molyneux also reveals that the Case of Ireland prompted the first attempt by English constitutional writers to conceptualise their empire as a single power structure. Contextualising Molyneux in this way prompts further methodological questions concerning the indifference among most Irish scholars to the 'Cambridge school' of intellectual history.
Swift’s Modest Proposal (1729) is widely regarded as the most brilliant satire in the English lan... more Swift’s Modest Proposal (1729) is widely regarded as the most brilliant satire in the English language, but its political context has never been properly explored. Some literary scholars have presented the tract as a parody of political economy; others have concentrated on the imputation of cannibalism, the distinguishing mark of the savage, which Swift redirects away from the natives towards the English settlers and their descendants. But nobody has convincingly related A Modest Proposal to the Irish parliamentary debates and pamphlet discussions of the late 1720s, when three successive harvest failures led to food riots in southern ports, large-scale emigration from the north, and thousands of deaths. Nor has anyone seriously investigated Swift’s hatred of the Irish landlord class, which provides A Modest Proposal with its most powerful, animating grievance. During the 1720s disputes over estate management, leasing practices and the relative merits of tillage and pastoral agricult...
Four Nations Approaches to Modern 'British' History, 2017
In a series of essays published between 1974 and 2005, J. G. A. Pocock protested against the conv... more In a series of essays published between 1974 and 2005, J. G. A. Pocock protested against the conventional anglocentric arrangement of British history, in which Scotland, Ireland and Wales had been largely ignored. His plea for a new British history has been the most influential framework for writing a pluralist, multi-cultural history of these islands. It is well known that Pocock’s original manifesto was prompted by the UK’s entry into the European Economic Community in January 1973. But this chapter will provide a richer account of the intellectual context in which Pocock’s ideas developed, paying particular attention to his native New Zealand in the post-war period. The underlying theme is the role of biography in shaping the decisions about the spatial frame we adopt when we write history.
Peter Hart's monograph, The IRA and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916–1923, h... more Peter Hart's monograph, The IRA and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916–1923, has been the subject of a rancorous debate in Ireland since its publication in 1998. In academic journals, in the press, and in the electronic media, Hart has been accused repeatedly of deliberately distorting evidence. The controversy turns on Hart's depiction of Irish revolutionary violence, and in particular upon a chapter entitled ‘Taking it out on the Protestants’, in which the IRA was portrayed as fundamentally sectarian. This article seeks to address a question that must occasionally trouble all of us: what are historical disagreements really about? To achieve a wider perspective on the Peter Hart affair it considers the famous row over historical ‘fabrication’ ignited by David Abraham's The collapse of the Weimar Republic (1981) and Keith Windschuttle's assault on Lyndall Ryan's book The Aboriginal Tasmanians (1981; 2nd edition 1996). The comparison suggests that w...
Research into the life and thought of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-64)-philosopher, theologian, canon l... more Research into the life and thought of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-64)-philosopher, theologian, canon lawyer, cardinal and reformer-has experienced resurgence in the United States, thanks especially to the American Cusanus Society whose conferences have led to the publication of this book and two predecessors, the first of their kind in English. The dedication of the current volume to three distinguished Renaissance scholars indicates the wide scope of the society's appeal : it has attracted more than those who specialise in some particular aspect of the cardinal's thought, probably because he represents an alternative to late medieval scholasticism and nominalism. At the same time, the editors have invited younger scholars to participate along with those who have established reputations, such as Bernard McGinn, Louis Dupré and Wilhelm Dupré. The present volume contains thirteen essays that cover three general topics. The first section, on context, interprets the subject in a broad sense, and includes two chapters on metaphysical issues : Wilhelm Dupré on spirit and mind in Cusanus and Louis Dupré on the cardinal's theory of religious symbols. A wider historical context engages Dennis Martin who writes on the Carthusians and late medieval spirituality. Cusanus' early life as a canon lawyer is not forgotten, however, as is demonstrated in Thomas Morrissey's article on 'Canonists in crisis ' during the fifteenth-century reform councils. The second section takes us into still fairly uncharted territory with three articles on Nicholas's sermons: Lawrence Hundersmarck and Thomas Izbicki on some of the early sermons ; Walter Euler on the role of Christ in sermons from the cardinal's visitation to Brixen ; and Clyde Lee Miller on the presence of Eckhart's thought in a sermon from 1456.
POWER AND THE NATION IN EUROPEAN HISTORY Few would doubt the central importance of the nation in ... more POWER AND THE NATION IN EUROPEAN HISTORY Few would doubt the central importance of the nation in the making and unmaking of modern political communities. The long history of 'the nation' as a concept and as a name for various sorts of'imagined community' likewise ...
The nature of Ireland's place within the British Empire continues to attract significant publ... more The nature of Ireland's place within the British Empire continues to attract significant public and scholarly attention. While historians of Ireland have long accepted the complexity of Ireland's imperial past as both colonised and coloniser, the broader public debate has grown more heated in recent months, buffeted by Brexit, the Decade of Centenaries and global events. At the same time, the imperatives of social movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum have asked us to reflect on the assumptions, hierarchies and norms underpinning the structures of society, including the production of knowledge and the higher education system. This round table brings together scholars from diverse disciplinary and methodological backgrounds to examine the prospects, possibilities and challenges of what decolonising Irish history might mean for our field. It sets these discussions within broader frameworks, considering both the relationship of Irish historical wr...
... The siege of Derry in Ulster Protestant mythology. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: ... PAGES (I... more ... The siege of Derry in Ulster Protestant mythology. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: ... PAGES (INTRO/BODY): 93 p. SUBJECT(S): Londonderry (Northern Ireland); History; Historiography; Siege, 1688-1689; Protestants; Attitudes; Ulster (Northern Ireland and Ireland). ...
BREXIT AND NORTHERN IRELAND: BORDERING ON CONFUSION? edited by John Mair and Steve Mccabe with Neil Fowler and Leslie Budd, 2019
This a version of a chapter published in BREXIT AND NORTHERN IRELAND: BORDERING ON CONFUSION? edi... more This a version of a chapter published in BREXIT AND NORTHERN IRELAND: BORDERING ON CONFUSION? edited by John Mair and Steve Mccabe with Neil Fowler and Leslie Budd, and published on 25 September 2019.
In 1998 the ‘Good Friday Agreement’ brought to an end 30 years of political violence in Northern ... more In 1998 the ‘Good Friday Agreement’ brought to an end 30 years of political violence in Northern Ireland. With almost 4,000 dead and 40,000 injured, however, it has been easier to achieve peace than reconciliation. Since 1998, the interpretation of the Northern Ireland conflict has become a political battleground. What was it about? Who bears most responsibility for the destruction of so many lives? Politicians have repeatedly declared their commitment to tackling ‘legacy’ issues, most recently in the Stormont House Agreement of December 2014, which envisages that academics will be involved in producing ‘a factual historical timeline and statistical analysis of the Troubles’ and a final report on the ‘patterns and themes’ that emerge from the various investigatory bodies designed to examine Troubles-related deaths. But what is the proper role of historians in the process of ‘dealing with the past’? Can the academic study of the past contribute to reconciliation?
Review essay on Guy Beiner's Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiograp... more Review essay on Guy Beiner's Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press) by Ian McBride in Dublin Review of Books:
“Why is Forgetful Remembrance so important? The book combines a major topic of Irish cultural history with a meditation on the paradoxes of forgetfulness. … Beiner is simply encyclopaedic. He seems to have read everything. … His intellectual ambition puts him in a different league from most Irish historians of his generation. There are other studies of Irish memory concentrated on particular upheavals – the 1641 rebellion, the Famine, the 1916 Rising – but this is the only one that is likely to be read internationally by scholars and students of ‘memory’, in the way that the classic studies of memory focused on France or Germany or Israel have become fundamental points of reference for us all.”
DRB, issue 115 (October 2019), online: https://drb.ie/essays/the-real-mccorley
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“Why is Forgetful Remembrance so important? The book combines a major topic of Irish cultural history with a meditation on the paradoxes of forgetfulness. … Beiner is simply encyclopaedic. He seems to have read everything. … His intellectual ambition puts him in a different league from most Irish historians of his generation. There are other studies of Irish memory concentrated on particular upheavals – the 1641 rebellion, the Famine, the 1916 Rising – but this is the only one that is likely to be read internationally by scholars and students of ‘memory’, in the way that the classic studies of memory focused on France or Germany or Israel have become fundamental points of reference for us all.”
DRB, issue 115 (October 2019), online: https://drb.ie/essays/the-real-mccorley