sio Ireland

the notion that everything can be explained by the potato,1311
and Large has raised some fundamental questions about the
position of the landed classes, absentee or resident, who have
usually been rather execrated than studied.1312

(B) AFTER THE UNION

Two valuable surveys do not quite replace the missing com-
prehensive history of Ireland from Union to Free State.
McCaffrey judiciously reviews a century of Irish nationalism
in a book which oddly enough copies the title of Mansergh's
more searching study; this, however, does not start till i84O.1313
Running over the years, McDowell has described the govern-
mental machinery,1314 and Black has attempted to elucidate
the effect of English economic thinking upon England's Irish
policy.1315 Since the only weapon left to oppressed patriots
were the tongue and pen (ready weapons ever in Ireland, any-
way) it is perhaps not surprising that we seem to know more
about public opinion in that country than in England, though
the work done concentrates on the first half of the century.1316
However, the main thread of Irish history in this age consists
of a succession of crises, expressing themselves in ever renewed
movements of political and irredentist protest; government
reacted with a policy oscillating between repression and con-

1311 Louis M. Cullen, 'Irish history without the potato*, PP 40 (1968),

72-83-

1312 David Large, 'The wealth of the greater Irish landowners, 1750 -
1815', IHS 15 (1966-7). 21-45.

1313 Lawrence McCaffrey, The Irish Question, 1800-1922. U of
Kentucky P: 1968. Pp. ix, 202. -P. N. S. Mansergh, The Irish
Question, 1840-1921. L: Allen & Unwin: 1965, Pp. 316. Rev:
Hist 52, 229f. This is an entirely revised version of the book,
Ireland in the Age of Reform and Revolution (1940).

1314 R. B. McDowell, The Irish Administration, 1801 -1914. L: Rout-
ledge: 1964. Pp. xi, 328. Rev: EHR 81, i86f.

1315 R. D. C. Black, Economic Thought and the Irish Question, iBiy-
1870. GUP; 1960. Pp. xiv, 299. Rev: EHR 77, i76f.; HJ 5, 2o8ff.

1318 R. B. McDowell, Public Opinion and Government Policy in Ireland,
1801 -1846. L: Faber: 1952. Pp. 303. - Brian St John Inglis,
The Freedom of the Press in Ireland, 1784 - 1841. L: Faber: 1954- Pp.
256.