The Two Irelands: 1912-1939 (O P U S) - Softcover

Fitzpatrick, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192892401 ISBN 13: 9780192892409

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

The partition of Ireland created two states embodying rival ideologies and representing two hostile peoples. This book concerns the revolution which prompted partition, and the legacies of that revolution for the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland.

Though less bloody than the nationalist uprising after 1916, Unionist defiance against Home Rule proved equally effective in wresting concessions from a hostile British government. Despite their mutual antagonism, the two revolutionary movements were strikingly similar in their reliance on fraternal solidarity and intolerance of dissent. Both new states were immediately engulfed by civil war, resulting in the ruthless suppression of dissident southern repulicans and northern Catholics. The power of each revolutionary elite was consolidated at the expense of alienating substantial minorities, although republican opponents of the Free State (unlike northern Catholics) eventually joined the democratic process.

This is the first sustained attempt to integrate the political history of the two Irelands in the era of revolution and partition. It provides an unexpected and provocative slant on each individual history.

About this title

Review:

clear-sighted, unromantic and astringent ... a very fine piece of historical writing. (Professor D. George Boyce, University of Wales)

About the Author:

David Fitzpatrick is Associate Professor of Modern History, and Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0192892401
• ISBN 13: 9780192892409
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320