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A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

author:Zhang, a scholar of cultural analysis

Text/Speech Noon

Editorial/Speech

introduction

By escaping the orbit of its neighbours, Ireland's history has begun to move out of its traditional comfort zone.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

The Antrim Coast, featuring the Giant's Causeway, is depicted in posters in London, Midland and Scottish Railways. Works of art by Prar, circa 1924.

Ireland's history has long been dominated by its troubled relations with its larger neighbors. After the 1998 Good Friday agreement, the Irish issue seems to be slowly sliding from the political agenda into the realm of history.

However, the complexity of Brexit negotiations has brought it back to centre stage. New tensions have emerged in Anglo-Irish relations, and history seems to be once again engaged in politics.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

These immediate concerns are one of the reasons why the publication of The Cambridge History of Ireland is particularly timely. This four-volume work sheds light on Ireland's past, which is not as isolated as it once was, and shows the diversity of competing narratives of Ireland's past.

Ireland was not so much a fringe on Britain as a dynamic player that swept not only the archipelago, but continental Europe, the Atlantic Ocean and even the world.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

Consider, for example, the two Galvegians who circumnavigated the globe with Ferdinand Magellan, or recreated the Irish Presbyterian Church in remote parts of 18th-century Pennsylvania in their own image, or brought their Catholic brand to Irish missionaries in Britain's African colonies.

These stories complicate the narrative of Irish victims, or the equation between the Irish experience and colonial experiences elsewhere.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

Irish village

Revealing this complexity, going to mythology Ireland's past, revealing harder, more interesting truths and nuances has been the main goal of Irish historians for much of the 20th century.

The sharp revisionist debates of the 1970s and 1980s have given way to less ideological, broader-based historiography. The slow end of the trouble played a role, but it would be a mistake to attribute the expansion of this approach only to the decommissioning of weapons or revisionist academic polemics.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

At least as important is the thriving development of research within and outside Irish universities. The surge in productivity can be explained in part by the increased money brought about by the Celtic Tiger economy and the increasing demand for history. It is the results of this research that form the basis of these vivid scholarly books.

This new thinking is particularly evident in the overall chronological arrangement. There are countless ways to divide the past, but traditionally, Irish history has been divided by royal dates or moments of major constitutional change: the King's Title Act 1541, the Act of Union 1801 or the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921; All this is shunned here.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

Conversely, medieval Ireland ended in 1550, while early modern Ireland extended into 1880 (interrupted in 1730).

This division of Ireland's past takes the reader out of the comfort zone of traditional political narratives, a feeling interrupted by the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 and the Act of Union in 1801.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

In doing so, it decouples Ireland's history from that of its neighbours. The choice of 1550 is particularly interesting because it highlights a different, more fluid story of the Irish Reformation, and the persistence of the Aboriginal legal system and social structure that extends far beyond the Norman conquest in the 12th century to the Tudor era.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

Extending early modern Ireland beyond the Great Famine may not be to everyone's taste, but it is a good testament to Irish modernity coming late.

Carl Kuttner, a German traveler to Ireland in 1783, observed that although Irish peasants were not as materialistic as English or European peasants, they were "much happier than any of us", which is worth considering. Modernity does not always mean happiness.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

Using 1880 as a sign of the beginning of modern Ireland, it avoids telling a teleological story about state formation, focusing on the struggle for local self-government and independence.

Instead, the final volume investigates how Ireland became modern while exploring the Irish Revolution of 1913–23, drawing on the recent prosperity of Irish social history.

Anne Dolan's provocative chapter on post-revolutionary Ireland highlights the questioning of the established narrative: the promise of revolution gives way to a grim, button-down Catholic Ireland. Ireland in the 1930s was much more than that, and in any case, it was not so exceptional.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

The chapter on Northern Ireland shows continuity and disruption on both sides of the border in the decades following independence.

This changed with the outbreak of trouble, a controversial topic that was covered in part in an innovative visual photography essay curated by Thomas Bartlett that used contemporary imagery to achieve amazing results.

It is accompanied by a narrative narrative of the father-son combination of John (Lord) Bew and Professor Paul Bew. This is interspersed with personal memories of the former, sometimes challenging archival records and allowing readers to engage and reflect on Ireland's recent violent history.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

Each of these volumes opens up new areas of historiography, both in the field of environmental history, gender history, and in its focus on topics such as the Irish language and race, honor and respect.

Jane Almeyer's emphasis on Ireland's connection to the wider world was particularly welcomed through the use of fragments of Indian Kalikos, Colombian emeralds, Mexican dyes and Yemeni coffee from the 17th-century wash pit of Ras Farnham Castle.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

From Michael Bennett's discussion of late medieval Ireland, to beginning with the bubonic plague (reminding us that not all global connections are beneficial), to Younan O'Harpin's shining essay on contemporary Ireland, the subject has been rightly pursued throughout.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

There is only a quota of 3 potatoes a day

Inevitably, there are gaps and omissions – one thinks, for example, of the history of Irish sentiment – but this history and its often provocative questioning and sometimes speculative arguments will undoubtedly stimulate further research.

A brief look at why Ireland's history has stepped out of its traditional comfort zone

This is an essential starting point for anyone who wants to take a serious look at Ireland's past, present and future.

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