No one could say that we, the people in general, don't discuss history enough. We use it as a weapon. Whether we, give enough of our minds to an analysis of it, the lessons of the past, is another question. That excellent quarterly History Ireland has its usual quota of interesting articles in its Spring issue, led off by an account of a conference in New York University on Visions and Revisions: recent trends in Irish literature and history.
A lot of good knockabout stuff, and towards the end, an American journalist asked the panellists: "What books would you have the politicians read before coming to the table for all party talks?" Brendan Bradshaw of Cambridge suggested the historical writings of Eoin MacNeill (how many are still in print?). Roy Foster suggested Estyn Evans's book The Personality of Ireland (mentioned here more than once or twice), along with the collected works of Louis MacNeice and John Hewitt. Edna Longley agreed with Hewitt, and added the essays of Hubert Butler and a poem by Paul Durcan "A spin in the rain with Seamus Heaney".
Finally, Denis Donoghue "revealed a certain weariness - or healthy scepticism when he said that if they read King Lear, that's all they have to know." Earlier, Hiram Morgan of UCC, a Northerner, said that he and his generation seek a new Ireland, beyond the division of Catholic and Protestant. He stated his belief that one can be professionally critical while being open to a number of interpretations of the past, and this was the idea upon which History Ireland was founded. Hiram Morgan is one of the editors.
That's not so far from Denis Donoghue's concluding remarks in his contribution that, in the future, in Ireland there will, and should be, a multiplicity of voices and stories. But, he added, every individual will still find that one story rings truer than the rest.
This issue has an article on the tower houses of medieval Ireland, a piece about O'Neill's departure from Ireland entitled, note the question mark, Flight of the Earls? Irish suffragettes, Ulster unionists' propaganda against Home Rule 1912 to 14. And much else. £3.95 in the newsagents.