Ruth Dudley EdwardsReseñas

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/an-atlas-of-irish-history-by-ruth-dudley-edwards...

This book dates from half a century ago, when the world was a different place and Irish history was a different discipline. It’s a breezy summary of the main points of Irish history to date, concentrating on the medieval and early modern periods, and the maps, even though they would have been a bit old-fashioned even in 1973, illustrate the narrative.

But there are some odd omissions. After independence, Northern Ireland largely disappears from the narrative. (It gets seven pages in the second last chapter, and the Troubles get one line.) From my political perspective, it would have been interesting to see more mapping of election results across the whole period. The chapter on social change completely misses the elephant in the room, the role of the Catholic church in society.

There is a much newer edition, published in 2005 with contributions from Bridget Hourican, where I believe that these issues have all been addressed. I see reviewers complaining, however, that Bromage’s maps were retained despite not really being with the Zeitgeist; as I said, they look old-fashioned for 1973, let alone 2005 (or 2024).½

Jack Troutbottom becomes a baroness and leads fight against banning of fox hunting, murders of lords tied to inheritance, not politics

radical church politics lead to murder in C of E , another Amiss mystery

murder in gentleman's club

murders on staff of eccentric political paper in England

murder at a woman's college as new battles old over large legacy

When Sir Nicholas Clark is murdered, there is no shortage of suspects. All his colleagues and underlings in the civil service hated him and all of them had the opportunity to kill him. Scotland Yard's task is to sift through all these suspects to figure out whodunit.

After Irish independence in 1922, the men executed following the Easter Rising of 1916 became secular saints in Ireland. In this book, [a:Ruth Dudley Edwards|63805|Ruth Dudley Edwards|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1285742000p2/63805.jpg] takes one of the most revered of these saints, Patrick Pearse, and returns him to the world of mortal men and woman. She examines Pearse as a living, breathing man, with great weaknesses and flaws as well as great strengths and talents. For this she was, and has been, vilified by those who wish their saints to remain antiseptic.

While I would consider myself to be on the opposite to Pearse, thanks to Dudley Edwards excellent, humanising biography, I do feel I understand him a bit better.

My undergraduate degree is in Celtic Studies, with a focus on Irish Studies. I am, I think, one of the target demographics for this book. That said, I really had a tough time digging into this text, and it took me a while to finish. The research is spot-on, and the historical work is absolutely invaluable. However, easy reading this is not. Even for those who have some understanding of Irish history, (like myself), there is a lot to keep track of. Still, at the end of the day, it is wonderful to see a work that challenges the nationalist narrative.

All in all, this is a great book for history buffs and for Irish studies students. Well done, Ruth Dudley Edwards--this is an exceptional book, even if it may struggle to find the proper audience and acclaim.

"The Seven" was published, appropriately enough, around the time of the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. A century is long enough that we should understand what took place during the conflict, and the people involved, yet that's not always the case. Myth still outweighs facts in many cases. Edward has attempted here to provide short biographies of the seven key individuals - Thomas Clarke, Sean Mac Diarmada, Eamonn Ceannt, Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, and James Connolly - and they role they played in creating the Irish Republic. For those steeped in Irish history, it's a welcomed addition. For those who know the movie "Michael Collins" and little else of the era, it will be a difficult, but helpful, addition to their understanding of the events.

This is one of them books where there are two sides to the fence. If you're Irish and damn proud of it, The Seven who led the Easter Rising in 1916 are heroes. If you're English, then these seven men were traitors.

Now I'm Irish and proud of my heritage; but what disturbs me is that The Seven collaborated with the Germans, and sought Germany's help in their rebellion against England. Since America was fighting against Germany, the patriotic lines become blurred. And I personally can't see The Seven as the patriotic heroes that many Irish men and women regard them to be.

Ruth Dudley Edwards lays it all out matter of factly: the individual backgrounds of The Seven, their parts in the Easter rising and their legacies. An interesting read.

http://www.moibibliomaniac.com/2016/06/the-seven-lives-and-legacies-of.html

I won this book through a free giveaway from Librarything.

This is a placeholder review as I am only about 40% through the book. I love the author's voice and she truly makes the characters come to life. Unfortunately this is basically a biography of seven people and all of the close influences so it is dense. While remodeling my house and taking a class for work it has not been easy to find time to sit and do a deep dive into something so dense, but I will co to he to read in small chunks and finish the novel as I do want to get to the end and see what happens, similar to the feeling I would receive watching a movie!

Update upon completion:

This is a true biography, seeking to explore the entire & complete lives of the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The author details the birth, upbringing, and political philosophy of each member up to and through the uprising, capping the book with an account of the revolution, defeat, and deaths. There doesn't seem to be any stone left unturned and the reader gains information and insight to each actor's religious beliefs, familial obligations, and political history. The author has a tendency to state a fact, then back up years to explain how that fact came into being. The book can get bogged down in detail, but for a historian I would imagine that interesting. Overall I gained new insight and found the writing a good addition to my library.½

This was a very detailed account of the seven patriots who were responsible for starting the Easter Rising in Ireland. The author begins with seven chapters of personal history - one for each major player in the book. She then deftly weaves their stories together to culminate in the fateful rebellion of 1916.

I enjoyed this book as I was a novice at Irish history. However the shear weight of the amount of details about people I'd never heard of before was a little daunting. Also, the author threw me at the end. I was thinking this was a pro-Rising, patriotic review of the event. However, at the end, the author quickly flips the argument to assert that the seven had not done something great; rather embarked on a foolhardy and deadly event just for the sake of shedding Irish blood. She goes on to blame all Ireland's bloody history since on the deeds of these seven men. I don't know enough about Irish history to know if her assertions are true, but I was not expecting that turn.

Overall, a good book for the reader looking for a lot of detail about this event. Maybe a little much for the novice. I read this during the time leading up to the 100th anniversary of the Rising.½

I have a sad feeling that this book is going to sink without a trace in the middle of the Atlantic.

To explain: There are presumably two primary audiences for this book, one in Ireland and one in America. And the Americans are going to find it hard to understand, and the Irish aren't going to like it because it conflicts with the Official Patriotic History of Ireland.

Which probably needs more explanation. In fact, it needs the background that author Edwards doesn't provide in her book; rather than put it at the beginning, she tries to weave it into the narrative, and often it comes too late for readers to understand what is going on.

Ireland, of course, suffered many years of English colonialism, neglect, and religious persecution. But by the early twentieth century, the Protestant church had been disestablished in Ireland, tenants had much greater rights, and the British were even moving toward giving the Irish their own parliament and direction over internal affairs ("Home Rule"). Had things gone as planned, Ireland would have become a largely internally autonomous state with strong trade ties with Britain and a common foreign policy -- a win-win situation, since it would have produced freedom for the Irish and a better economy for both nations. Most Irish were reasonably content with this situation, looking forward to a more secure future.

But there were always hotheads. Ireland hardly has a patent on them, but because it had a bad history, it was easier to turn people who would otherwise have occupied wildlife refuges, or or just driven their cars too fast, into nationalist rebels. Ireland had quite a collection of these.

And then World War I came. The British parliament, with a war to fight, suspended the liberalization of Irish laws -- and recruited the more patriotic Irishmen to go fight in the trenches, leaving the country with an excess of hotheads. A handful of these people -- led by "The Seven" who are the subject of this book -- wrote a manifesto and planned a rebellion -- the "Easter Rising" of 1916 (which took place just a hundred years before this book was released). The rebels didn't expect it to work, and it didn't, but they thought it would lay the groundwork for future independence, and it did. They occupied the Dublin Post Office and a few other places, and fought. If someone did something like this today, they would probably be called terrorists. The Rising was quickly put down. Most of the Irish disliked it; their city had been damaged, and the rebels were disdained, condemned, even spat upon by the majority of the Irish.

Until British justice took a hand. The World War was still raging; they thought they didn't have time to let the wheels of justice spin properly. (Where have we heard that before? Or, rather, where have we heard it since?) They had most of the rebels in custody -- and started trying them with military tribunals and shooting them. And, suddenly, because true justice had not been done, the pariahs who had upset civil society in Ireland became martyrs -- and the Irish independence movement, which had been failing under the burden of the fact that nationalism was a really stupid idea, came back to life in full force.

And so, the rebellion became even hotter. Ireland fell into the Black and Tan War, and when Britain made peace, it was peace via partition, with Northern Ireland remaining British. Ireland went into Civil War, and it took its economy the better part of a century to recover. And when World War II came, their visceral hatred of the British kept them out of the war -- in effect, allies of Nazi Germany; had Ireland been one of the Allies, the Battle of the Atlantic would have been easier to win, and the war might have been shorter, and perhaps slightly fewer Jews and Gypsies and "undesirables" would have been killed in the Holocaust.

That's the bad side of Irish nationalism, and it's the background of this book. And Edwards, as a "revisionist" Irish historian, tries to tell it warts and all.

There are times when she lays it on a little thick. Pearse et all weren't evil, or even stupid, as much as set on a course which they thought right; as nationalist movements all over the world show, they have lots of allies. But the real problem, it seems to me, is that the book assumes that its readers will know the history that I outlined above. In Ireland, of course, everyone will -- but they will have been taught the version in which The Seven were the leading lights of a movement that was All For The Good and which all Irish supported implicitly. Neither of which is true, but it will be hard for them to read this book. And Americans, or others who don't know Irish history, will be confused.

This is, I think, an important and useful book, although it might have been better were it a little shorter. But it really needs to explain more at the beginning. Ultimately, I fear this book will suffer the fate of most volumes of Irish history: Since most people (including me!) come to it with a very strong bias, it is hard to tell the whole story. Maybe, in another century or two, someone will manage it. In the interim, here is a good and useful contribution to the not-so-patriotic side of the debate -- but one where you will probably need to read another book first before you can really understand this one.½

The timing of my receipt and reading of this book was appropriate as it is Easter weekend. The author provided a detailed profile of the Seven and, not knowing a great deal on them, I appreciated the knowledge I now come away with. I will refer others to this book that may be interested.

It is a very special time to receive this book. One hundred years ago this April these events were happening in a place that I once lived, so I hold this book in special revere. There are good and bad points to this book; it is about the men and not about the events, and the author may have been aiming to offer a thesis on Ireland's hero worship, but it came off more flat and less direct. I am thrilled to have another book in my collection of these brave men and will take any lack of central theme beyond biographical in stride.½

The Seven, the Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic (Ruth Dudley Edwards) is an excellent biography of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rebellion. Both casual readers and students of Irish history will discover new things in this book. It’s a well-researched, detailed history of the factors that led to the Easter Rebellion, the Rebellion itself and the aftermath. Some of the Seven (Patrick Pearse, James Connolly) are known by casual readers of Irish history, while others (Thomas J. Clarke, Eamonn Ceannt) are not as well known. For anyone interested in Irish history, this is a must-read book.

When the statement was made that politics makes for strange bedfellows then the Seven was surely what was meant. The author does a outstanding job of presenting the history and background to the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. The Seven whose names appeared on the proclamation is each given a chapter devoted to explaining their backgrounds and their reasons for coming to belong to the cause. The remaining parts of the work is dedicated to explaining how the rising came to be almost by accident even with the best planning. The best part of the work is how the author shows the interactions between the players and even gives some details of the family members and their roles in Irish politics after the rising and into the careers of the spouses and children of the main players of the rising. This work is great for research into the politics and the lives of the Seven during the late Victorian era and early 20th Century. The reader can see how religion, politics, sex, national origin and even associations can play a role in a persons development. The reader can also get a feel for life growing up in the era of Empire and the role that world Empire made on the various citizens of the Empire as related to the various groups listed above.
With all that said, the work is not a easy read, the flow of the work at times if going along explaining a point and then takes off in another direction and then return to that point later in the same chapter or later on in another chapter. This copy that was reviewed was an "Advance uncorrected proof" and it did contain errors and in one case an entire paragraph repeated itself and in one place 1870 was typed 1970. No photographs were included nor maps or even an index. All of which are indicated to be included in the final work, however. The author also includes statements where a understanding that their grandmother was associated with some of the Seven and so this adds to idea that in addition to a long standing of getting first hand information as to the events that unfold in the work. It appears that the author and her brother both have dedicated parts of their lives to discovering the facts related to several of the Seven and to present a academic view even if sometimes facts that do not sit well with the general concept of the person in question.
The author could have expanded the list of abbreviations also and a glossary of terms used might have proved helpful to the reader. The copy reviewed also did not contain an index and the connections with the chapters might have stood out better with that inclusion.
The American reader might have to bone up on their Irish history to get a better understanding of the former risings and conflicts that the author keeps mentioning however, that only partly took away from the work. If you were raised in a strong Irish influenced background you may be more aware of those points.
This work does deserve inclusion in a high school or college library if only as a research tool it does include a great select biography and chapter notes section. Overall, it does give new light to the coming 100th Anniversary of the Easter Rising if 1916, well worth considering its inclusion in a top pick for 2016.

This is a "who-dun-it?" in the classic mode.
A civil servant is killed and the investigation gets under way with considerable input from a junior public servant who explains the workings of the public service to the investigating officer. It's quite clever and funny at this point--something like the "Yes, Minister" and Yes, Prime Minister" television series.
The rest of the book is more conventional, as they try to work out who , amongst all his collegues, actually didn't want to kill him.

cozy with a twin brother ending who didn't like that his brother declined to live in a castle

Marvelously funny and brilliantly read by Bill Wallis. If you offend easily, skip it.

I listened to the audio version of this book masterfully read by Bill Wallis. It's one of the finest (and funniest) political and social satires I have read (listened to) in a long time. You will laugh out loud as Edwards makes fun of political correctness, conferences, movements, religion, politics, just about everything. I'm sorry the offended other reviewer failed to see the humor and took everything so seriously. This is a marvelous book.

What a dreary book. Dudley-Edwards usually writes very funny whodunnits and I was looking forward to this one to complete my collection.

There was no story here, no humour and no particular interest. I will happily go back to reading "Downfall: How the Labor Party Ripped Itself Apart". It contains far more relevance, more interest and is far more readable.

I would not recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Dudley-Edwards' books; she has totally lost her touch.½

This book is a 2 1/2-3 star book. This is part of a series but the first one I have read. I had a hard time getting into this book. I picked it up because it had to do with books and I love a good biblio mystery, unfortunately this was not one. The was a lot of talk about politics, lousy books and England vs Europe. There were a few murders but the who and why did it came out of left field. I like to try and figure out the mystery but most of the info is hidden from the author so I only read to the end to see who did it. There maybe others in this series that are better but I would skip this one.

I honestly couldn't believe that such feeble reactionary nonsense wouldn't include a surprise twist, but about half-way through I got so tired of it that I gave up. The author sets up straw-feminists and
-liberals so caricatured that even the Daily Express would be embarrassed to use them! It's possible that the author intended the protagonist to be seen as "charmingly eccentric" instead of arrogant, bigoted, right-wing and selfish - if so, she failed.