This year they include a review by myself of Karina Holton’s excellent biography of Valentine Lawless (1773-1853), the United Irishman and liberal politician.

A PDF of the Saothar, vol. 46 (2021) reviews can be downloaded or read here: saothar-46-book-reviews-2021.

Using a wide range of sources, the article traces Thompson’s business career, his falling out with his family and his increasing financial reliance on his small estate in west Cork. It is argued that this financial dependence greatly constrained his practical involvement with the Owenite movement and ruled out the establishment of a cooperative community on his land during his lifetime. Thompson was considerably less wealthy than has often been suggested.

The volume also contains an analysis by Michael Turner of the prominent Irish-born Chartist Bronterre O’Brien.

IRISH HISTORICAL STUDIES
Vol. XXXIX, no. 153 (May 2014)
Timothy D. Watt – ‘The corruption of the law and popular violence: the crisis of order in Dublin, 1729′
Fintan Lane – ‘William Thompson, bankruptcy and the west Cork estate, 1808-34′
Michael J. Turner – ‘Ireland and Irishness in the political thought of Bronterre O’Brien’
Caoimhin De Barra – ‘A gallant little “tirin”: the Welsh influence on Irish cultural nationalism’
Peter Smyth – ‘”The right flower to stick to”: the Unionist Party’s questionable choice in 1959′
Stuart C. Aveyard – ‘”We couldn’t do a Prague”: British government responses to loyalist strikes in Northern Ireland 1974-77′
Mark Empey – ‘Select documents: Sir James Ware’s bibliographic lists’
Joost Augusteijn – ‘Review article: New work on the Irish Revolution’