It would be difficult to over praise the setting, last Tuesday, chosen for the launch of a new book on Irish military history. It was Collins Barracks Dublin, now being largely taken over by the National Museum, a venerable barracks beautifully spruced up by the OPW. The soft, discreet lighting in the square, the brilliant surface of the well scrubbed, (if that's the right word) stone, the butter cup yellow of the room chosen for the reception (formerly sergeant's mess) and the wood of the doors and . . . Well, all of these remarks come from some one with an eye for architecture and decoration, but there were other distinctive features of the evening. For example, not only was the Minister for Defence, Sean Barrett TD, there but, of course, the Chief of Staff, Lieut General Gerry McMahon and, dammit, no less than four former Chiefs of Staff. There may have been more, so better not start naming them. All in splendid form and as vivacious in conversation as soldiers always are. Yes. And other brass and, naturally, more than a few historians.
This book, A Military History of Ireland, by Thomas Bartlett and Keith Jeffrey, deals with "organised military activity and its broad impact on Ireland over the last millennium or so", makes fascinating reading beyond the purely military. For example, the impact on social life, high and low, emanating from the British garrisons down the centuries. Nora Robertson in her book Crowned Harp (1960) wrote that the close association of the officer class with the civilians of like mind created and encouraged "a Loyalist standpoint which no other influence could have created".
Time and again, through the centuries, the qualities of the Irish soldier are noted hardiness, endurance, even ferocity. This is not the place for a book review. That will be well attended to on other pages, but the nice irony is pointed out, in that a huge loyalist mural in Belfast depicts a UDA man of today with, as background, Cuchulainn - "ancient defender of Ulster from Irish attacks over 2,000 years". And in the background is Cuchulainn, from the statue in the GPO in Dublin.
But the new site for the National Museum - or most of it, or whatever - is another national treasure. Built in 1704-6 and described as one of the oldest barracks in continual occupation in Europe. Still not with out some soldiers.
The book, from Cambridge University Press costs £40.