Book Review - The Oxford History of Ireland edited by R.F. Foster

 The Oxford History of Ireland edited by R.F. Foster

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992              ISBN 019285271X

(The text of this edition first published 1989 in The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland)

If I check out my DNA profile on Ancestry, it tells me that I'm more than fifty percent Irish. My father's family is almost completely Irish (with a little Danish), while my mother is Scottish, English and Welsh. Because I grew up in my mother's home town rather than my father's, it is the Scottish connections that I absorbed growing up, so I know more history of Scotland than I do of Ireland. In fact the only Irish history I've absorbed is the internecine battles between Catholic and Protestant in Ulster which have been in the news, and the Dublin of James Joyce which has been in my books.

I mean to set out to correct that, and I have started (as you would) with the Oxford history. It's a relatively short book into which to pack a few thousand years of history, and so it's fair to say that parts of the book can seem like a list of "kings" rather than a true history. In fact in many ways, despite attempts by the authors to move away from an "old fashioned" history that focusses on political and military machinations, that's mostly what the reader gets, sometimes to their confusion as the roll-call of petty rulers adds up as one turns the pages.

History is what happens from day-to-day, and it's the job of the historian to try and knock events into shape to tell us a story - particularly in a book like this; a narrative of the creation of a people and a state. The authors in this book question the hackneyed themes of Irish history - the perfidy of the English and the iron control of the Catholic Church over the faithful, and the inevitability of sectarian conflict.

Rather than iron control from over the Irish Sea, this book portrays an England that, while seeking profit for sure, rarely had a coherent strategy for dealing with the land and the people that it had taken centuries to control. It was the internecine warfare between rival chieftains (probably a more appropriate term than kings) that led to the intervention in Irish affairs by the English, who arrived initially with thought of plunder and ongoing riches.

Once the English realised that Ireland was not as rich as was thought, it rapidly became an afterthought in English affairs, only brought to the forefront when rebellion threatened. The Irish began the long process of trying to accommodate themselves to English norms, if they lived East of the Shannon. The more unproductive lands of the West were, generally speaking, left to themselves, which created a wealth and status divide that existed well into the modern era.

It was really only after the Act of Union in 1800 that Irish nationalism began to grow, and that sectarianism became an issue. The Catholics looked for equality, and when moves were made in that direction the Protestants began to fear for their privileged place in society, and the downward spiral of English rule began, culminating in the creation of a "two-state solution" in the twentieth century, which left many of the festering issues unresolved.

This book is clear, but very dry and formal in style, which for me as a neophyte had too much detail without enough explicatory material to make full sense of it. That said, I now feel that I have an overall structure in my mind of Irish history with which to continue my journey.

 

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

London: Fourth Estate, 2010 (first published 2009)     ISBN 9780007230204

Of course I had heard of Wolf Hall before I had read it, after all, who hasn't? It's my contrarian nature rather than anything else that has led to fifteen years elapsing between the publication of this book and my reading of it. To my detriment, I have an irrational reluctance to read prize-winning novels. As is often the case, it was my wife who led me to read this book, and as is usual I'm glad she did because it's a magnificent book (and dare I say a worthy prize-winner...).

Wolf Hall takes as its subject Thomas Cromwell, his rise to power and his machinations in the Court of Henry the Eighth. Specifically, the book covers the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, the annulment of Kathryn of Aragon's marriage to Henry, the rise of Anne Boleyn, and all that this meant for those in the Henrician Court.

The difficulty that arises when a novelist takes on a historical subject is for them to successfully straddle the lines between historical fact, literary necessity, and narrative flow. In some senses Thomas Cromwell is an excellent subject for such treatment. We know what he did when he was in power, just enough about his early life to weave a good tale, but little enough about his character to enable a good writer to go to town.

And Hilary Mantel is a good writer. I haven't read any of her other works, but if they are all this good I will read them all. She deftly creates a believable milieu for the court not only of Henry, but also of Wolsey, and of Cromwell himself. Her use of language is not too old-fashioned, but nor is it jarringly modern. She can evoke a scene or a character in a few words, or if needed spend pages creating the tension required to move the plot forward. Most of all she creates believable characters not only of Cromwell and those around him, but also of Wolsey, More, Kathryn, Anne and Henry himself.

Cromwell is the "hero" of the book, and is by no means portrayed as the heartless reformer that historical legend has given us to believe. He is a man of much experience, and excellent reader of his fellow man (although perhaps not so much of women), not afraid to send men to their death if required, but preferring to take the path of mercy and pragmatism when he can. He is, in this book, a complete and complex man. Mantel delineates all her characters well, giving the reader an understanding of why they have turned into who they are. Anne Boleyn is a creation of her class-climbing and grasping family; Mary Boleyn is a victim of the same family, used as a tool against her wishes. Henry is a creation not only of his family history, but has also been enabled by Wolsey. Wolsey thought he could control Henry to his own advantage, right up until the moment he couldn't. Cromwell was intelligent and ruthless enough to step in and enable Henry's wishes when no-one else could.

Of course we the reader know the outcome of this saga, but Mantel is adept at portraying the story and history on the move with many possible outcomes, not just the one that came to pass.

Wolf Hall really is a wonderful book on every level. Highly recommended.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

- some quotes from the book that made it into my commonplace book are listed below -

"Over the city lies the sweet, rotting odor of yesterday's uncollected sins."

"There it is: if you are so lenient with yourself as to insist on living with a woman, then for the sake of your soul you should make it a woman you really don't like."

"At some point he must have slept. When daylight came, the room felt so empty it was empty even of him."

"He doesn't believe that the dead come back; but that doesn't stop him feeling the brush af their fingertips, wing tips, against his shoulder."

"Flint-face and keen-eyed, he is lean as a gnawed bone and as cold as an axe head."

"His eyes are drawn unwillingly to the cheese; it is pitted and wobbling, like the face of a stable boy after a night out."

"But it is no use to justify yourself. It is no good to complain. It is weak to be anecdotal. It is wise to conceal the past even if there is nothing to conceal. A man's power is in the half-light, in the half-seen movements of his hand and the unguessed-at expression of his face. It is the absence of facts that frighten people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires."

"... it's all very well planning what you will do in six months, what you will do in a year, but it's no good at all if you don't have a plan for tomorrow."

"If you are without impulses, you are, to a degree, without joy;"