Ireland's Holy Wars: The Struggle for a Nation's Soul, 1500-2000 - Hardcover

Tanner, Marcus

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300090722 ISBN 13: 9780300090727

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2002

Synopsis

For much of the twentieth century, Ireland has been synonymous with conflict, the painful struggle for its national soul part of the regular fabric of life. And because the Irish have emigrated to all parts of the world - while always remaining Irish - 'the troubles' have become part of a common heritage, well beyond their own borders. In most accounts of Irish history, the focus is on the political rivalry between Unionism and Republicanism. But the roots of the Irish conflict are profoundly and inescapably religious. As Marcus Tanner shows in this vivid, warm, and perceptive book, only by understanding the consequences over five centuries of the failed attempt by the English to make Ireland into a Protestant state can the pervasive tribal hatreds of today be seen in context. Tanner traces the creation of a modern Irish national identity through the popular resistance to imposed Protestantism and the common defence of Catholicism by the Gaelic Irish and the Old English of the Pale, who settled in Ireland after its twelfth-century conquest. The book is based on detailed research into the Irish past and a personal encounter with today's Ireland, from Belfast to Cork. Tanner has walked with the Apprentice Boys of Derry and explored the so-called 'Bandit Country' of South Armagh. He has visited churches and religous organisations across the thirty-two counties of Ireland, spoken with priests, pastors and their congregations, and has crossed and re-crossed the lines that for centuries have isolated the faiths of Ireland and their history.

About this title

About the Author

Marcus Tanner is the author of Croatia: A Nation Forged in War (ISBN 0 300 09125 7, 9.99 pb.), newly released by Yale University Press in its trade imprint Nota Bene series.

From Publishers Weekly

In the 20th century, much of the conflict between Irish Protestants and Catholics or between English and Irish was described in political terms Unionism vs. Nationalism. Tanner (Croatia: A Nation Forged in War) argues that the real conflicts in Ireland have always been religious, between Protestants and Catholics. In exhaustive, and exhausting, detail he traces the rise of this animosity from the 16th century to the present, arguing that the mid-16th century was crucial for Protestantism in Ireland. In 1538, the Protestant authorities attacked pilgrimages, shrines, monasteries and the cult of saints. They also demanded that churches order the new English translations of the Bible. By the 17th century, Protestant Bishop James Ussher denounced the Catholic Church in a backhanded way by arguing that the Church of Ireland was doctrinally closer to the Church of St. Patrick than to the Catholic Church. By the 20th century, Tanner concludes, the rise of a multicultural and multiracial Ireland rendered the once-certain divide between white Catholics and white Protestants superfluous. In addition, he asserts, both Catholics and Protestants are now declining so substantially in size that the battles that once raged between them no longer have tremendous significance. Tanner's thesis is rather unremarkable a simple look at recent headlines will reveal that Ireland's struggle is religious rather than political and his writing is plodding and dense, full of turgid prose and cluttered with detail. Readers will have to turn elsewhere for a crisper study of Ireland's religious history.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0300090722
• ISBN 13: 9780300090727
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384