Brian M. Walker - Irish History Matters: Politics, Identities and Commemoration

IRISH
HISTORY
MATTERS

Also by Brian M. Walker

Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 18011922 (edited)

Sentry Hill: An Ulster Farm and Family

Ulster Politics: The Formative Years, 186886

Province, City and People: Belfast and its Region (co-edited with R.H. Buchanan)

Ulster: An Illustrated History (co-edited with Ciaran Brady and Mary ODowd)

Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 191892 (edited)

Degrees of Excellence: The Story of Queens Belfast, 18451995 (co-authored with Alf McCreary)

Dancing to Historys Tune: History, Myth and Politics in Ireland

Past and Present: History, Identity and Politics in Ireland

The Oxford History of the Irish Book (co-general editor with Robert Welch)

A Political History of the Two Irelands: From Partition to Peace

A History of St Georges Church Belfast: Two Centuries of Faith, Worship and Music

For Don Akenson

First published 2019

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

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Brian M. Walker, 2019

The right of Brian M. Walker to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

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ISBN 978 0 7509 9189 6

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During the research and writing of these essays I have been helped by many people and institutions. I am much indebted to the staffs of the library of Queens University Belfast, the Linen Hall Library, Belfast, the newspaper section of Belfast Central Library, the RCB Library, Dublin, the National Library of Ireland, Dublin, and the library of Trinity College Dublin. I must record special thanks to George Boyce and Marianne Elliott, who read parts of my manuscript and gave me good advice. Of course, they are not responsible for the final draft!

I have greatly valued the many conversations on historical matters that I have enjoyed with Bill Vaughan. I am very grateful to Eugenio Biagini for his support and advice. Many thanks are due to John Fairleigh, who gave me great encouragement in the writing of this book. Others who provided valuable help include Robin Bury, Vincent Comerford, Gordon Gillespie, Will Hazleton, Jacqueline Hill, Susan Hood, Brian Hughes, Jack Johnston, Greta Jones, Brian Kennaway, Liam Kennedy, Raymond Refauss, Patrick Roche, Don Wood and Christopher Woods.

For their support and collegiality I am very grateful to former members of the Institute of Irish Studies at Queens, in particular Ronnie Buchanan, Sophia Hillan, Dominic Bryan, Angelique Day, Catherine Boone, Jane Leonard, Peter Francis and Margaret McNulty. The encouragement of former colleagues in the Queens politics school, including Yvonne Galligan, Graham Walker, Margaret OCallaghan and Cathal McCall, has been much appreciated. Many of the ideas in this book were first expounded at conferences or to my students over the years and I am very grateful for helpful comments received.

on the 188586 elections appeared in my Dancing to Historys Tune: History, Myth and Politics in Ireland (1996), published by the Institute of Irish Studies.

I must acknowledge especially Don Akenson, not only for his research on the Irish diaspora that inspired my own work, but also for his support for my varied research interests over a long period. I have dedicated the book to him. Many thanks are due to Alex Waite and Chrissy McMorris and the staff of The History Press Ireland for all their assistance towards publication. Finally, I must thank my wife, Evelyn, and our children, Katherine and David, for their constant support, and also their patient understanding of my state of distraction and absent-mindedness during the final stages of writing this book!

In October 1996, the South African church leader Michael Cassidy remarked about Ireland: One notices how people are gripped by the past, remembering the past, feeding on the past. As revealed by the title, Irish History Matters, a major concern in this volume is how and why history matters in Ireland, north and south. An opening chapter looks at the way history, or, more correctly, views of the past, historical perceptions or historical myths, have influenced the present in Ireland. History in Ireland has been heavily contested between communities. These views served in part to cause and to sustain the Troubles, which ran for three decades from the late 1960s until the late 1990s. Eventually, many of these historical perceptions were challenged, which helped to allow important reconciliation and to promote the peace process. Such historical views and the ways they altered are examined here. As indicated by the subtitle, other chapters look at politics, identities and commemoration. This book investigates how these issues have been influenced by historical developments how and why Irish history matters. Public history and its impact on society and politics are studied. New approaches are taken to these issues in their historical context which allows better understanding of our contemporary world.

These essays are based on my research over the last three decades, and include already published material as well as new work. They reflect how my interests have grown over the years. Originally I studied modern history and political science at Magee College Derry/Londonderry and Trinity College Dublin. In the 1970s in Dublin, under the supervision of northerner Theo Moody, a leading figure in efforts to promote objective scholarship in the writing of Irish history, I researched Ulster parliamentary politics, 186886, and Irish elections, 18011922. I became a member of the politics school at Queens University Belfast in 1979 and my teaching and research focus moved to the study of modern politics in Ireland, north and south, with special emphasis on the contemporary Northern Ireland problem. My work at this time also concerned politics in other parts of Europe, which gave me a valuable comparative perspective on developments in Ireland.