Poland in the Irish Nationalist Imagination, 1772–1922

Poland in the Irish Nationalist Imagination, 1772–1922
Author: Róisín Healy
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2017-02-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 3319434314

This book explores the assertions made by Irish nationalists of a parallel between Ireland under British rule and Poland under Russian, Prussian and Austrian rule in the long nineteenth century. Poland loomed large in the Irish nationalist imagination, despite the low level of direct contact between Ireland and Poland up to the twenty-first century. Irish men and women took a keen interest in Poland and many believed that its experience mirrored that of Ireland. This view rested primarily on a historical coincidence—the loss of sovereignty suffered by Poland in the final partition of 1795 and by Ireland in the Act of Union of 1801, following unsuccessful rebellions. It also drew on a common commitment to Catholicism and a shared experience of religious persecution. This study shows how this parallel proved politically significant, allowing Irish nationalists to challenge the legitimacy of British rule in Ireland by arguing that British governments were hypocritical to condemn in Poland what they themselves practised in Ireland.

Transnational Perspectives on Modern Irish History

Transnational Perspectives on Modern Irish History
Author: Niall Whelehan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2014-10-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317963229

This book explores the benefits and challenges of transnational history for the study of modern Ireland. In recent years the word "transnational" has become more and more conspicuous in history writing across the globe, with scholars seeking to move beyond national and local frameworks when investigating the past. Yet transnational approaches remain rare in Irish historical scholarship. This book argues that the broader contexts and scales associated with transnational history are ideally suited to open up new questions on many themes of critical importance to Ireland’s past and present. They also provide an important means of challenging ideas of Irish exceptionalism. The chapters included here open up new perspectives on central debates and events in Irish history. They illuminate numerous transnational lives, follow flows and ties across Irish borders, and trace networks and links with Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Australia and the British Empire. This book provides specialists and students with examples of different concepts and ways of doing transnational history. Non-specialists will be interested in the new perspectives offered here on a rich variety of topics, particularly the two major events in modern Irish history, the Great Irish Famine and the 1916 Rising.

John Blake Dillon, Young Irelander

John Blake Dillon, Young Irelander
Author: Brendan O'Cathaoir
Publisher: History S
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1990
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Dillon (1814-66) was a co-founder of the Nation newspaper and a leading member of the Young Ireland group. After the attempted rising in 1848 he escaped to the United States, where he worked as a lawyer for eight years. He was a critical observer of the contemporary scene - post-Famine Ireland, Irish-America and the Church of Pio Nono. His weekly letters to his wife, besides their intrinsic human interest, proved to be a particularly valuable source of research material. After returning to Dublin, Dillon, despite his rebel past and liberal Catholicism, co-operated with Archbishop Paul Cullen in forming the National Association. Elected MP for Tipperary in 1865, Dillon made a remarkable impression during his brief parliamentary career. His performance influenced Gladstone's reshaping of Irish policy and left its mark on that statesman's reforming ministry of 1868-74. His strategy of supporting the new liberal leadership was dramatically successful. He outlined ideas which would be implemented under Parnell ably assisted by his son, John Dillon. This contextual biography of Dillon is long overdue, it is based on primary sources, mainly the Dillon papers in Trinity College, Dublin.