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The Political Thought of the Irish Revolution

The Political Thought of the Irish Revolution

The Political Thought of the Irish Revolution

Richard Bourke, King's College, Cambridge
Niamh Gallagher, University of Cambridge
April 2022
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    The Irish Revolution was a pivotal moment of transition for Ireland, the United Kingdom, and British Empire. A constitutional crisis that crystallised in 1912 electrified opinion in Ireland whilst dividing politics at Westminster. Instead of settling these differences, the advent of the First World War led to the emergence of new antagonisms. Republican insurrection was followed by a struggle for independence along with the partition of the island. This volume assembles some of the key contributions to the intellectual debates that took place in the midst of these changes and displays the vital ideas developed by the men and women who made the Irish Revolution, as well as those who opposed it. Through these fundamental texts, we see Irish experiences in comparative European and international contexts, and how the revolution challenged the durability of Britain as a global power.

    • The first volume to combine key texts produced by Irish and British thinkers whose ideas shaped the reconfiguration of the Anglo-Irish Union and later demise of the British Empire
    • Provides a comprehensive chronology that will be an essential reference point for students of Irish history. It also includes authors' biographies and recommendations for further reading
    • Includes a wide-ranging introduction to the period, clarifying the nature and diversity of political thought in Ireland, Britain, and the Empire

    Reviews & endorsements

    'Bourke and Gallagher’s book tells us that this body of specifically political writing can be and should be placed alongside the thinking of other revolutionary processes, or other histories of secession or decolonisation, or alongside the political ideas of the European war or of the great re-arrangement of states, nations and one-time empires which was the global context for the Irish struggles. Irish political ideas and writing deserve to be studied and evaluated in their own terms, not merely as part of the discursive mix underpinning a Yeats poem or a party campaign. Richard Bourke and Niamh Gallagher’s excellent anthology shows us where to start.' Conor McCarthy, Dublin Review of Books

    ‘rich and valuable’ Conor McCarthy, Dublin Review of Books

    See more reviews

    Product details

    April 2022
    Adobe eBook Reader
    9781108873772
    0 pages
    This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.

    Table of Contents

    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction Richard Bourke
    • Bibliographical Essay
    • Chronology of Events
    • Biographies
    • Note on the Texts
    • 1909:
    • 1. Women, Ideals and the Nation Constance Markievicz
    • 1910:
    • 2. From Labour in Irish history James Connolly
    • 1911:
    • 3. From 'Pitt's Policy' Arthur Griffith
    • 4. From the Framework of Home Rule Erskine Childers
    • 1912:
    • 5. 'Home Rule and the Colonial Analogy' L. S. Amery
    • 6. 'Settlement of an Old Controversy' Edward Carson
    • 7. Ulster's Solemn League and Covenant
    • 8. Ulster's Solemn League and Covenant (Women's Declaration)
    • 9. 'The Economics of Nationalism' Thomas M. Kettle
    • 1913:
    • 10. From A Fool's Paradise A.V. Dicey
    • 11. 'The North Began' Eoin MacNeill
    • 12. The Coming Revolution Patrick Pearse
    • 1914: 'Labour and the Proposed Partition of Ireland' James Connolly
    • 14. 'Our Duty in the Crisis' James Connolly
    • 15. 'A Continental Revolution' James Connolly
    • 16. 'Speech on the Suspensory Bill' John Redmond
    • 1915:
    • 17. 'A War for Civilization' James Connolly
    • 18. From the Re-conquest of Ireland James Connolly
    • 19. 'O'Donovan Rossa: Graveside Panegyric' Patrick Pearse
    • 1916:
    • 20. 'What is a Free Nation?' James Connolly
    • 21. Proclamation of the Republic: Poblacht na h Éireann
    • 22. The Sovereign People Patrick Pearse
    • 1917:
    • 23. 'State of Ireland' Hanna Sheehy Skeffington
    • 24. A Defence of the Convention Horace Plunkett
    • 1918:
    • 25. Ireland and a People's Peace Louie Bennett
    • 26. Loyalty and Disloyalty: What it Means in Ireland Alice Stopford Green
    • 27. Ourselves Alone in Ulster Alice Stopford Green
    • 1920:
    • 28. 'Ulster the Facts of the Case' Robert Lynd
    • 1921:
    • 29. Is Ireland a Danger to England? Erskine Childers
    • 30. 'Debate on Treaty' Arthur Griffith
    • 1922:
    • 31. From Ulster's Stand for Union Ronald McNeill
    • Index.
      Contributors
    • Richard Bourke, Niamh Gallagher, Constance Markievicz, James Connolly, Arthur Griffith, Erskine Childers, L. S. Amery, Edward Carson, Thomas M. Kettle, A.V. Dicey, Eoin MacNeill, John Redmond, James Connolly, Patrick Pearse, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Horace Plunkett, Louie Bennett, Alice Stopford Green, Robert Lyn, Ronald McNeill

    • Editors
    • Richard Bourke , King's College, Cambridge

      Richard Bourke is Professor of the History of Political Thought and a Fellow of King's College at the University of Cambridge. His books include Peace in Ireland: The War of Ideas (2nd ed. 2012) and Empire and Revolution: The Political Thought of Edmund Burke (2016), which was joint winner of the István Hont Memorial Book Prize in Intellectual History in 2016. His work has been named a Book of the Year in The Observer, The Irish Times, The Spectator, The Claremont Review of Books, RTÉ, The Indian Express, and The National Review. He is co-editor of the Princeton History of Modern Ireland (2016) which was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

    • Niamh Gallagher , University of Cambridge

      Niamh Gallagher is Lecturer in Modern British and Irish History and a Fellow of St Catharine's College at the University of Cambridge. Her first book, Ireland and the Great War: A Social and Political History (2019), won the Royal Historical Society's Whitfield Prize in 2020, the first work of Irish history to win the prize since its establishment in 1976. She has since published on the cultural, political and social history of the First World War and other aspects of Irish and British History, and appears regularly in the UK, Irish and international media.