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Revisionist historians and the modern Irish state: the conflict between the Advisory Committee and the Bureau of Military History, 1947–66

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Evi Gkotzaridis
Evi Gkotzaridis*
Affiliation:
European University Institute, Florence
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Extract

The most resounding charge brought during the last two decades against ‘revisionism’ in Irish historiography has been that of a tacit collaboration between historians and the government. This accusation is too serious to be left unexamined. Traditionalists have denounced ‘revisionism’ as a dubious device designed to prop up the border and undo the work of the revolution. Desmond Fennell declared categorically that ‘Both in its ultimate thrust, and as a matter of objective fact, [it] is the historiography of the counter-revolution.’ Séamus Deane defined it as ‘a provincial phenomenon’ and dismissed its practitioners as ‘neo-unionists’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 137 , May 2006 , pp. 99 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2006

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