The Oxford Companion to Irish History, edited by Sean Connolly Oxford, 618pp, £25 in UK
Thank God for the Abbey Theatre! Without it, the first entry in this welcome compendium would have been "Abductions"; hardly an inspiring start. Happily, we can finish up in the "Zoological Gardens", where no "tigers, celtic" roam; and just think, without the "ah-zoo" to end in, Sean Connnolly in his search for the zed-word might have had to opt for zygote. From Abductions to Zygotes: An Alternative Guide to Irish History?
The Oxford Companion series has been on the go for the past eighty years or so, and has already given us a volume devoted to Ireland: Robert Welch's Companion to Irish Literature (1996). The volume under review will fit in well as a companion to that Companion, though Connolly's volume is superior in crossreferencing and indexing, and, unlike the Welch volume, entries here are signed.
The purpose of this Companion is stated by Connolly at the outset: "Anyone with a question to ask about a significant individual, event or institution in the Irish past, should be able to search here with a reasonable prospect of finding at least the beginnings of an answer." From this initial statement cascades a torrent of facts, information, details and opinion on just about everything that Irish people have said, done, thought, suffered, organised or endured in recorded history. The 1,800-odd entries contributed by eighty-six experts will provide an essential reference work for all journalists, historian, diplomats and indeed anyone who wishes to find out quickly the who, the when, and the what in Irish history.
Lengthy entries on such topics as "agriculture", "Dublin", "Literature in Irish", "history and historians", "diet", "famine", "dress", "parliaments", are particularly noteworthy in that they have permitted the writers to range over very long periods of time. Occasionally, however, the need to compress complex developments into little more than a "haiku" may perplex the reader.
The writing in general is non-contentious, even bland, though on occasion a ripple can be detected on the otherwise placid waters of Irish history. The editor's verdict on the pioneers of the Irish historical revolution of the late 1930s may be quoted: "Unfortunately, the declared commitment to new standards of professional rigour was not always matched by the production of significant scholarly work". Ouch! (Incidentally, no 20th-century historian makes it among the individual entries.) There are some quirky comparisons: the Irish in England are represented by Brendan Bracken and the IRA sleeper Ed O'Brien. Again, the use of the word "Holocaust" for the Great Famine is rejected; criminal responsibility "of the kind said to have been displayed by some British generals at the Somme may be nearer the truth"; whether this is an advance may be debated.
A large number of significant (and dead) individuals have been judiciously selected for inclusion, but the reader should be advised that the Companion makes no claim to be a one-volume dictionary of Irish biography. Medieval and early modern individuals are well represented and, in general, women do well. Longer entries on certain families where there have been a number of famous offspring - the Fitzgeralds, say, or the Ponsobys - are a welcome innovation. There are also a number of useful maps; and a sophisticated system of cross-referencing makes for a userfriendly reference work.
In the end, however, a work like this does not stand or fall by criteria of inclusiveness, exhaustiveness, or comprehensiveness. There is in fact only one criterion - is it accurate? In this key regard, the Companion must score very high marks indeed. I have noted very few errors, and none of substance. The contributor on Montserrat, included because "it serves as a laboratory study of how an Irish empire might have operated", has an out-of-date reference to the island's tourist industry; and a reference to the "1992 World Cup" ought to have been shown the red card. These apart, this is an accurate reference work on Irish history which manages to be both accessible and very good value.
Thomas Bartlett is Professor of Modern Irish History at the National University of Ireland, Dublin