Volume 7, Number 1 · July 28, 1966
A Very Special Case
By A.J.P. Taylor
The Making of Modern Ireland: 1603-1923
by J.C. Beckett
Knopf, 496 pp., $8.95
The Irish Question: 1840-1921
by Nicholas Mansergh
University of Toronto, 412 pp., $7.00
Ireland Since the Rising
by Timothy Patrick Coogan
Praeger, 370 pp., $6.95
There is nothing commoner in history than oppression—of one class by another, of one religion by another, of one people by another. Even in this dismal record Ireland is a very special case. Nowhere did oppression go on longer, and nowhere was it so compact of all three characters, class, religion, and nationality. Ireland is a special case in another way. Nowhere, except in one corner, has liberation been more complete, and even the remaining grievance of the Border is losing its harshness. The nations of eastern Europe also liberated themselves after oppressions of varying durations, but only to fall under the domination of Soviet Russia. The Irish are truly their own masters. Nothing remains of the old tyranny except burnt-out barracks and ruined mansions. Odder still, the Irish, after a triumphantly successful revolution, have settled down into a prosaically conservative existence. Their bright boys complain that life is dull. Few would really have it otherwise.
Review, 2229 words
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