Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for These Divided Isles:
I know where I place the blame.
Quick synopsis:
The story of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and how the British government kept mucking it up.
Fact for Non-History People:
Approximately one million Irish died during the Great Famine.
Fact for History Nerds:
The population of Ireland has still not recovered from the famine and emigration 180 years later.
My Take on These Divided Isles:
Finally, I get to rant. Fully rant about the English treatment of Ireland. All their sanctimonious condescension…wait, let’s set some ground rules.
1. Not talking about Scotland and Wales. Love you folk.
2. Not even talking about British people. Basically, just the government.
3. I’m Catholic but will not be engaging in any religious warfare.
4. I’m American, not Irish-American. I love my heritage but readily admit I am not Irish. I will not be going to Ireland and regaling a pub with where my grandparents are from (but just know that I CAN!).
Back to our regularly scheduled rant. These Divided Isles by Philip Stephens is a wonderful book that looks at the relationship (situationship?) between Britain and Ireland in the century since the Anglo-Irish treaty and partition. Do you not know much about it? Good news and bad news. Bad news is that it is endlessly complicated with a dizzying array of names and acronyms. So many damn acronyms. The good news is Stephens streamlines a lot of the history to make this readable and understandable.
Stephens accomplishes this by looking at the entire story at the government level. (If you want a more street-level and intimate view, please read Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming, There Will Be Fire by Rory Carroll, or The Next One is For You by Ali Watkins.) By keeping it high-level, Stephens is able to condense the history of these divided isles and explain it to someone completely clueless the why of all of this.
The answer to why goes back centuries. The Great Famine should be enough, but there is a lot more. I grew up knowing most of the other reasons, but Stephens adds a twist to the Irish perspective by adding a third way to look at it. Northern Ireland isn’t a huge fan of the way the British do things, either, but for different reasons. Northern Ireland has consistently felt like the mainland Brits are ready to abandon them at every turn. Rather than a protector, Northern Ireland sees the British government like an inattentive parent who just hopes the baby will stop crying if they ignore it long enough.
While my point of view is obviously biased (and how!), Stephens is both British and Irish. He aims for a balanced view, but he can only go so far to excuse consistent British government missteps driven by condescension, inattention, and hubris. To use their own vernacular, “they’ve made a right shambles out of this.”
Oh, I really liked this book. Can you tell?
(This book was provided as a review copy by Pegasus Books.)
Verdict:
Should be required reading. Buy it here!
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