The Debatable Land #10: The Importance of Being Irish

The rise and fall and rise again of Ireland

Hello and welcome to the tenth edition of my newsletter, The Debatable Land. This week is a special edition looking at two newish books on the history of modern Ireland. As always, if you felt like sharing this post on social media or by email or whatever that would be a kind and much appreciated act.

In the autumn of 1993 I arrived in Dublin to take up a place at Trinity College. This was, in certain respects, an unusual thing. Before applying to Trinity, I had never been to Ireland, had no Irish relatives or connections to any part of the island and had, in truth, never thought about the place at all. My knowledge of and interest in Ireland was largely confined to speculation as to how the Irish rugby team might fare in what was then the Five Nations championship.

Had I not first been keen to leave Scotland, second, not had a disagreement with Cambridge and third not had Trinity suggested to me by a friend who had secured a place there himself Ireland would most likely have remained…