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Register for The Wild Geese Today e-mail updates. 'Ireland's Banner County': New History of Clare Meticulously Recalls Its Role in Ireland's Birth To tell the history of Ireland from 1890 to 1918, when the nation experienced massive political change, is clearly a Herculean task! From the downfall of Parnell and the Irish Party he led in Parliament to the emergence of Sinn Fein and the IRA, these decades helped forge the character of Irish politics to this day. WGT reviewer Noel Crawford says that Clare native Daniel McCarthy, though focusing on events and personalities in his home county, has nevertheless written a book that helps us understand the forces behind the tumultuous events throughout the country. By Noel Crawford Special to The Wild Geese Today Clare is a region of Ireland that is very physically distinct and relatively isolated geographically. Historical trends in the rest of Ireland over the years tend to be mirrored in Clare, but also accentuated there by its physical nature and its religious demographic. Given the relative homogeneity of Irish populations of the time as rural and agrarian, it offers itself as a perfect microcosm of Ireland. In "Ireland's Banner County," author Daniel McCarthy uses all possible sources of local information and history to tell the story not only of Clare, but also of an Ireland readying itself for the most violently turbulent period in its history. Because of the nature of his approach, McCarthy is able to cover almost all aspects of Irish life at the time. Nothing is left out, from the split within the Irish Nationalist and Parnellite movements to the emergence of Sinn Fein and the IRA, from the lot of the Irish Protestant ascendancy to the role of the Catholic Church and from the workaday life of ordinary Irish workers and their agrarian struggles to their deaths on the green fields of France. McCarthy's approach here is refreshingly post-revisionist. He has shown the maturity to not only depict the Irish soldiers who fought and died in The Great War as brave soldiers who followed their conscience and brought honour to their country on the field of battle. He grants the same plaudits to those who chose to fight enemies closer to home. McCarthy also challenges many of our perceptions of this history. McCarthy shows us that since independence, the telling of the Irish story has not granted an honourable place in history to the 500 Great War dead of Clare (or indeed of the 49,000 other Irish killed). To describe how this evolved, the author takes us through the opposing views that emerged at the turn of the century in Ireland as to how to deal with the English question. McCarthy points out how members of the Irish party at Westminster felt that through verbalisation of the Irish position a limited form of Home Rule might be achieved. However the continuing presence of the IRB as a remnant of the Fenian movement ensured that a radical alternative was always available. We are shown how only a unifying force was required to fan this flame into life and how this came about through the cultural revival—rather like the use of communism in many countries to channel nationalist energies onto a single path. Irish-born Lord Kitchener urges his countrymen into the ranks. While many of the volunteers joined Redmond in volunteering for the British army at the war's outset, we also see that over the coming years Irish rural youth showed a lack of interest in a war that they saw as none of their business. We further see how this youth was drawn to the cause of Sinn Fein by the party's portrayal of itself as anti-conscription and in solidarity with ordinary people. Those returning from the war were seen as outsiders and traitors, having been seen off to the battle as heroes. Some redeemed their image by wholeheartedly participating in the Tan war, but most were conveniently forgotten. The Ireland they came home to was not the Ireland they had left. The victors write the history. In "Ireland's Banner County," McCarthy challenges this unbalanced traditional view with vigour. He believes that we have reached enough distance and maturity to look back on the choices of our forefathers with understanding and respect. McCarthy shows us, using the bare facts, that history is a finely balanced scale. It only takes something like the treatment of the Irish Westminister party by Asquith or the execution of 16 rebel leaders to change its course. Sinn Fein's counterpoint to Kitchener's appeal: Redmond presides over the Irish dead on the battlefield. McCarthy also challenges many of our perceptions of history. All of us tend to view history through our prejudices and preconceptions. However, the facts are a powerful tool in dismissing perception as reality, and McCarthy wields them like a razor. The Irish Protestant ascendancy emerges as something less odious than the absentee landlord bogeymen drawn in our schooling, and the Catholic Church is shown as willing and able to influence politics and history in a way that today would not be countenanced. What comes across clearly and unambiguously in "Ireland's Banner County" is the contribution of individual players in the great game that was played in Ireland and specifically in Clare in those years. Names like de Valera and Parnell stride like colossi through the book, but never assume an inflated importance. McCarthy offers a detailed analysis of cause and effect in relation to their actions at this time. For example, he details the effect of the actions of Charles Stewart Parnell in being cited as co-respondent in the divorce of Mrs. Kitty O'Shea. Such a seemingly trivial issue by the standards of today then destroyed the Liberal / Nationalist consensus at Westminster. The church is often depicted as the junior partner in the fall of Parnell and thus of moderate nationalism. McCarthy makes clear the culprits are Asquith and the Irish Party, whose members refused to stand behind the one man who could deliver to them their lifetimes' dreams. AT A GLANCE Ireland's Banner County: Clare From the Fall of Parnell to The Great War 1890–1918 By Daniel McCarthy. "Ireland's Banner County" is published by Saipan Press and is available in paperback at 19.95 Euros and in hardback at 29.95 Euros by writing to him at Boru Cultural Enterprises, Cragbrien, Darragh, Ennis, County Clare, Eire. Postage for a single copy is 3 Euros for Ireland, 3.50 Euros for UK, 5.70 Euros for Europe, and 5.00 Euro elsewhere by surface mail. You can e-mail McCarthy at boruculture@msn.com. The fall of Parnell and the subsequent slow, but sure, demise of the Irish Party's popularity hastens the rise of Sinn Fein and the meteoric emergence of Eamon de Valera. Only the right opportunity was needed. After Willie Redmond died at the Battle of Messines in 1917, the by-election that followed delivered that opportunity. McCarthy chronicles how the local clergy were independent-minded in their support for the Sinn Fein candidate and also how massive support from local people (which had been lacking just 18 months previously) ensured "Dev" could speak seditiously, at will, from public platforms. With the Clare by-election won, de Valera and Sinn Fein had arrived, and the rest, as they say, is history. It would be wrong however to think that this book covers only the great nationalist characters of the time. True, Willie Redmond was a nationalist, but he lived out what he believed was his duty to the British crown, like thousands of others at that time, and his unique contribution to the history of Clare and the nation is not discounted but given its proper place, as are the contributions of many key local and national personalities of the time. AUTHOR'S U.S. TOUR Hear author Daniel McCarthy this week in either Albany, Chicago or New York City. For details, visit WGT's Events Listings. "Ireland's Banner County" is a meticulously researched work of academic importance. I counted 103 primary sources of information, both published and unpublished and 128 secondary sources in a well laid-out and easily accessible bibliography. Useful also are the statistics, tables, and graphs that are used throughout the texts to illustrate specific conclusions. While the density of McCarthy's prose ensures that the narrative does not clip along easily and may reduce its accessibility to casual students of history, this book nevertheless is a significant contribution to our understanding of the real history of Ireland. It merits reading by those who seek genuine understanding of how we became who we are. Dublin-based Noel Crawford (nclc123@hotmail.com) is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. Though working full-time in information technology, Noel finds time to pursue keen interests in modern Irish history and Roman and Greek art and architecture. Noel's grandfather, like Jim Larkin, once served as secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and his great-granduncle, Michael Mallin, was a rebel commander in Dublin during the Easter Rising. Buy a hat, shirt, mug or other great "WGT" item at Show the world you are one of "The Wild Geese" Search WWW Search TheWildGeese.com E-mail us for more information about The Wild Geese Today Click to return to The Wild Geese Today's Home Page Copyright © 2003, GAR Media. All rights reserved.