An Accessible History of Modern Ireland. . - Reviews - From Union to Union. Nationalism, Democracy and Religion in Ireland: Act of Union to EU - book review

From Union to Union. Nationalism, Democracy and Religion in Ireland: Act of Union to EU. Brian Girvin. Gill and Macmillan. [pounds]29.99. 278 pages. ISBN 0-7171-3336-2.

This is not yet another book on the Act of Union, or acts of union, but a splendidly clear chronological survey of the history of modem Ireland from 1801 to the 1960s by an established political scientist and historian. In seven readable chapters he makes accessible modem discussions on nationalism, democracy and religion while attempting to answer what could prove to be a very daunting final examination paper with such questions as: Why did the Irish not become British? Why did they resist the Act of Union when the Scots and Welsh embraced it? Why did Daniel O'Connell cause more division than healing in Irish society? Did the British government's handling of the 'Great Hunger' simply further the nationalist cause? What was the political impact of the 1916 Easter Rising, and what results followed Irish independence from 1923 to 1945? How far did nationalism and religion go towards building a moral community in church and state from 1937-1961? Why was Irish agriculture less developed in 1945 than it had been i n 1929? To what extent was Irish political life characterised by a conservative nationalism and fear of change between 1945 and the 1960s? Separate and individual books could be penned, and, indeed, have been, to grapple with these complex but fascinating questions on modern Irish history, economics and politics; hence the analytical nature of Professor Girvin's excellent and elegant treatment of these questions.

Irish Catholic nationalism is, however, the core element running through the work from its more notable beginning in 1800 (though nationalism's birth date as 1800 can be contested) to its peak between 1922 and 1945 and then its running out of steam until Irish nationalism went through an identity crisis in the late 1950s. The author sees the economic and social disasters of that decade partly as the result of the paltry practical achievements of early nationalist self-governments. In 1961, when Ireland applied to join the EEC, the dynamic forces of Irish nationalism which led to the consolidation of the Irish Republic had become exhausted; but then, as political violence broke out in the North after 1969, Mr Girvin postulates a return to a more traditional form of Irish nationalism.

As a political movement Irish nationalism provides a laboratory case study for the modern world in so many ways for it shows how nationalism can both unify and divide people territorially as the conflict between nationalism and unionism shows up the difficulties in resolving secessionist clalms. Above all Irish political nationalism demanded a state wherein for good or ill the people decide their own destiny. Apart from the theoretical discussion on the 'isms' it is part of the author's task to assess how the people's representatives in party and government measured up to their mandates. In his judgment on Eamon de Valera's long dominance in Irish politics Mr Girvin sees de Valera's rural values, of a small farmer tillage economy, as illusory, neither visionary nor practical in curing the evils of emigration, unemployment and poverty.

The book is not unduly weighed down with statistics on the Irish economy but it is of interest that in the fifteen years after 1945, 90 per cent of women migrants to the U.K. were destined for work as nurses and domestic servants whereas males migrated for unskilled or semi-skilled labour as wages and living conditions were more attractive in Britain, though the latter would be hotly contested by the Irish Catholic hierarchy and De Valera's, Fianna Fail ministers. The Bishops were as much alarmed about the future of Irish motherhood and rural depression and decay as they were about the dangers to faith and morals in the pagan, materialistic cities of Britain. Irish missionaries in their traditional role of converting the pagans were sent to the cities to stem the flow of the lapsed from the Church, and De Valera's famous appeal in 1951 for Irish workers to return home largely fell on deaf ears. While the religious consciousness of the Irish people is a trait much commented upon in modern literature, despite t he overt materialism of the much vaunted Celtic Tiger economy, the author in company with most historians of the period is rightly sceptical of Church attendance as an index of a nation's morality.

In the final chapter, 'Back to the Future', it was almost inevitable that the reader would be presented with yet another look at the changing face of contemporary Ireland on whose landscape whitened 'Spanish' villas spatter the hillsides, identical housing developments spread out from every town and village, and despite the ring roads, the inexorable traffic jams are now as much a feature of modern Ireland as the ubiquity of the JCB and the concrete block. The author in citing John Montague's poem 'The Siege of Mullingar' (1972) also summarizes the subtle changes of a more relaxed, open-minded and sensual Ireland.