A History of Ireland - Revisited
This comment pretty much demonstrates, in a few short paragraphs, all that I found wrong with the various books on the history of Ireland. Some fair points are made, but it gets let down by a blinkered view. The general impression is that “the British” caused everything to go wrong. Any factions were caused by British action or inaction, rather than more complicated reason of which British action was merely a part? Nonsense.
The part that most annoyed me about the comment though is the implication that the people in Ulster who opposed Home Rule were “them”. First of all it wasn’t just people in Ulster who opposed Home Rule, others did too as was their right. You can’t have it both ways. Either everyone has an equal say and can make their own minds up, whether yay or nay, or you acknowledge that you regard certain people as different and not properly Irish. Don’t try to pretend that you have an unblinkered balanced view while clearly disregarding the validity of other’s holding opinions.
With regards to the “them” of Ulster arming, I may not agree with an armed struggle, but I’d have to say that if one side can arm in order to attain their aim it’s a tad rich to criticise the other side for arming in opposition to it.
Finally, I have no problem with recognising where Britain made mistakes, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to foolishly blame Britain for everything. That mistake has been made for far too long in the Republic of Ireland and I’d like to see us move on from that blinkered view and stop using that as a convenient excuse.