There can be few European communities more soaked in their history than the Catholics of Ulster. Ulster has always been geographically a land somewhat apart from the rest of Ireland, and its harsh history has given both the Catholic and Protestant communities a unique stamp. Both communities' understanding of their past remains central to their identities, but the layers of myths, lies and half-truths which make up these understandings have had ruinous effects. In this long-anticipated book, Marianne Elliott has succeeded in at last creating a coherent, credible and absorbing history of the Ulster Catholics - from their early mediaeval origins to the devolution of 1999. In the process many myths are destroyed, but a picture also emerges of a history which, while in many senses quite different from the received wisdom, is none the less, with the arrival of the English and Scots, an extremely brutal one. At a remarkable point in Ulster's history, this book will be at the focus of a great deal of debate.
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'Elliott brings new and perceptive insights' -- Belfast Irish News
'Elliott's book is a formidable achievement...balanced as well as deeply researched and forcefully written.' -- Daily Telegraph
'In this fine book, Marianne Elliott, an Ulster Catholic who has lived in England for decades, has triumphantly succeeded in showing why her people are as they are.' -- Ruth Dudley Edwards, The Times
'Marianne Elliott has written a scholarly, immensely well-documented work which, while controversial in many of its conclusions, adds immeasurably to our knowledge of a neglected community.' -- Belfast Irish News
'The Catholics of Ulster is a rich and complex work that deserves to be read not only by all students of Irish history but also by anyone with an interest in the history of Catholicism and the relationship between religion and nationalism.' -- Daily Telegraph
'This is an authoritative, fair-minded and compelling work. There have been some fine books published on Irish history over the past couple of years, but The Catholics of Ulster must surely be one of the most distinguished.' -- Jonathan Bardon, The Irish Times
'[An] important, ground-breaking work' -- Belfast Irish News
'Elliott's book is a formidable achievement...balanced as well as deeply researched and forcefully written.' -- Daily Telegraph
'In this fine book, Marianne Elliott, an Ulster Catholic who has lived in England for decades, has triumphantly succeeded in showing why her people are as they are.' -- Ruth Dudley Edwards, The Times
'Marianne Elliott has written a scholarly, immensely well-documented work which, while controversial in many of its conclusions, adds immeasurably to our knowledge of a neglected community.' -- Belfast Irish News
'The Catholics of Ulster is a rich and complex work that deserves to be read not only by all students of Irish history but also by anyone with an interest in the history of Catholicism and the relationship between religion and nationalism.' -- Daily Telegraph
'This is an authoritative, fair-minded and compelling work. There have been some fine books published on Irish history over the past couple of years, but The Catholics of Ulster must surely be one of the most distinguished.' -- Jonathan Bardon, The Irish Times
'[An] important, ground-breaking work' -- Belfast Irish News
About the Author
Marianne Elliott is Andrew Geddes and John Rankin Professor of Modern History at the University of Liverpool. Her biography of Wolfe Tone won the Irish Life/Irish Independent non-fiction award.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By "smccrea"
Format:Hardcover
Professor Elliott reviews the history of Ulster Catholics from pre-history to the modern day, and examines the relationship between the historical facts and the politico-religious mythology that has grown around Northern Catholicism, nationalism and republicanism.
The historical account is masterly, and although I'm not entirely sure that Elliott completely succeeds in explaining to this Ulster Protestant why the real history so inexorably lead to the present day mythology, she provides much food for thought.
The author has gone to great efforts to establish facts where facts can be established, and to draw reasonable conclusions when they cannot. This is a scholarly book, and it is no surprise that it was a decade in gestation. That should not however, put off more casual readers. Elliott carries her learning lightly, and the book is as readable as it is informative.
Elliot speaks eloquently of how difficult the book was to write on a personal level, and she clearly still identifies closely with the community she came from. (See interview with Kathy Sheridan, Irish Times Saturday, September 30, 2000.) In this she is unlike Susan McKay, author of 'Northern Protestants' a book with which 'The Catholics of Ulster' will almost inevitably be compared because of their titles and close publication dates. That is however not the best reason for avoiding comparison which can only be detrimental to Elliott's book. Elliott is an academic, McKay a journalist, and it shows.
Throughout the book, Elliott's foot is firmly in the historical revisionist camp and current political consensus one. I have little doubt that the historical revisionism will mean that the book is received with automatic coldness in some Northern Irish Catholic circles.
... Read more ›1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Clara
Format:Hardcover
An overly simplified rehash of prior scholarship. Ulster Catholicism is a different beast to that of Leinster. All would agree. But the author seems to think that Catholicism outside of Ulster is homogenous. A quick glance at the Catholicism of Mayo and that of Dublin 4 would prove otherwise. This book shows a potential which is frustratingly not allowed to develop.
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