John Charles McQuaid: Ruler of Catholic Ireland (Irish Studies) - Hardcover

Cooney, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815606427 ISBN 13: 9780815606420

Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 2000

Synopsis

The first major biography of one of Ireland's most powerful figures who became the ecclesiastical Prime Minister of a clerical state.

About this title

About the Author:

John Cooney is a journalist and broadcaster based in Dublin. He is a visiting Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen and Director of the Humbert Summer School in County Mayo. A former Religious Affairs correspondent with the Irish Times, he is author of The Crozier and The Dail, Church-State in Ireland 1922-1986.

Review:

'Get stuck into the rich red meat of primary research with which it is replete' -- John Horgan 'The book is a fine piece of historical research. It's excellently written and will become, I believe, an indispensable insight into the Ireland of the 1940s, 50s and 60s' -- Vincent Browne 'Immensely readable and comprehensively researched ... (it) meets an essential criterion of good biography ... that it should illuminate the period as well as the subject. As a controversial portrait of a remarkable figure and as an important contribution to modern Irish historiography, it can be confidently recommended to history students and the general reader .' -- John A Murphy - Sunday Independent * The Sunday Independent * 'A trove of (such) detailed anecdote, lucidly described and compellingly written ... you will fly through its 700 pages. Even the footnotes are interesting. It is an absorbing description of post-independence Ireland and its evolving social and cultural mores. In all, this is a fascinating and intriguing account, beautifully produced with detailed indices and a mischievous compliment of photographs.' -- Eamon Delaney - Magill * In Touch Magazine * 'This is an important book which should be read by all those interested in the history of independent Ireland.' -- Ronan Fanning - Sunday Independent * The Sunday Independent * 'This is a fine, meticulous biography, revealing McQuaid in all his complexity, brilliance, arrogance and insecurity ... Impessive and well-written account.' -- David Robbins - Evening Herald * Evening Herald * 'Cooney has performed a signal service in meticulously tracing the ways McQuaid wielded the influence which the Catholic State conferred on him as Archbishop of Dublin' -- Eamonn McCann - The Sunday Tribune * The Sunday Tribune * 'This is an important and powerful book. Nobody who has an interest in the history of modern Ireland will read it without being enthralled by the windows it opens into hitherto unseen corners of our national life. The archives are rich indeed and John Cooney has gone through them with a searchlight. In many areas, a telling phrase is picked out to illuminate an aspect of McQuaid's character or of his interaction with others, in a way which adds immeasurably to our understanding of the ways in which the struggle for power was waged, in the old days, behind closed doors.' -- John Horgan - The Irish Times * The Irish Times *

About this edition

• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0815606427
• ISBN 13: 9780815606420
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 560