Trials of Irish History: Genesis and Evolution of a Reappraisal

InTrials of Irish History, Evi Gkotzaridis brings her original insights into theory and philosophy to bear upon the controversial question of revision in Irish history. In an incisive restaging of the passionate joust that took place between revisionists and traditionalists in the shadow of the 'Troubles' the book prises open conflicting intellectual notions about the function of history in a divided society. This IrishKulturkampfis compared with similar discussions in Germany and France in order to identify and magnify the strengths, weaknesses and temptations hidden in the arguments propounded by each side. Here for the first time, the historical and the theoretical fuse in an attempt to enter the minds of those trailblazer historians who from 1938, against considerable odds including: the painful memory of the Irish Civil War; the cultural contraction of the first decades of independence; the estrangement between two regimes; and the devastation of the Second World War, spearheadedan unpoliticized history. Drawing on hitherto unused archives, the book shows how the venture to disenthrall Irish and European history from the fiend of official propagandas proved stimulating, challenging and also perilous.Trials of Irish Historyunveils a crucial chapter in the history of Irish revisionism - when the 'new historians' clashed with the Bureau of Military History over the handling of oral records related to the War of Independence - refuting the accusations of collaboration with the Political Establishment laid at the door of the revisionist school of history. This book provides a provocative and spirited defense of the revisionists. While recognizing that revisionism is a path littered with booby traps which needs to be trod carefully, the author nonetheless commends the spirit and ingenuity of the revisionists, showing how the post modern interpretative turn at the end of the twentieth century has by and large vindicated it.