Young Ireland and the Writing of Irish History

James Quinn is the Managing Editor of the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of Irish Biography. His specialist interest is in the writing of Irish history in the nineteenth century. He is the author of two biographies, Soul on Fire: A Life of Thomas Russell (2002) and John Mitchel (2008).

'James Quinn's refreshingly impartial Young Ireland and the Writing of Irish History shines a much needed lens on the legacy and impact of the Young Irelanders of the 1840s. Straightforward and unpretentious - a rarity for academic history books - Quinn unravels the early beginnings of The Nation newspaper and its charismatic and passionate staff.'Irish America, Feb./Mar. 2016 'Educate, that you might be free. We are most anxious to get the quiet, strong minded people who are scattered throughout the country to see the force of this great truth' - Thomas Davis; 'Quinn has crafted an insightful and impartial examination into a movement which had little interest in impartiality; an exploration into why such history was written and how it was received. While his book will particularly appeal to students of the period, his style is accessible enough for anyone to enjoy.'17 May 2015, The Sunday Business Post 'James Quinn's important new book ... is a well-researched, well-written and balanced study of the ideas and writings of Young Ireland. The structure and layout of the chapters deal in succession with the environment in which they began their mission; their reading of history; their writing of it; the uses they made of the past; their attempt to make history for themselves; the narrative they wrote of their own times; how their work was continued by later writers; and, finally, their legacy.' 20 June 2015, Donal McCartney, The Irish Times 'James Quinn has analysed Young Ireland's approach to the writing of Irish history with great skill. This is a remarkably well-crafted study, grounded in deep research and written with an elegance of expression which is rare today in works of scholarly history. It is a major contribution to the intellectual history of our country.' 3 July 2015, Felix M. Larkin, The Irish Catholic 'James Quinn's new book (indirectly) allows us to appreciate how far we have moved on from insular and unsophisticated debates on revisionism in its scholarly treatment of a defining chapter of Irish identity and ideology, the fashioning of genuinely Irish history by the Young Irelanders. True, the historical writings of Young Ireland are rarely read nowadays and they produced no "great" historian or "great work" of history. But Quinn, unperturbed by the focus on the more fashionable actors and phases of Irish history, had previously taken on the "outmoded and even repugnant" John Mitchell.'July/August 2015, History Ireland 'Quinn keeps his narrative a tight one, making every page and paragraph count. This is a story of ideas, not of events (the 1848 Rebellion is told in barely a paragraph) nor of people (though there is a list of biographies at the end to help the reader keep track of who's who), and Quinn is well able to explain them, and the motivations of the men (they were overwhelmingly men, no Countess Markieviczs here) who nurtured them, spread them as best they could and, in the case of those exiled or imprisoned, suffered for them.' July 2015, The Irish Story

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter 1: Laying The Foundations: The Nation, Education And Temperance; Chapter 2: Reading History: Contemporary Authors, Antiquarians And Foreign Influences; Chapter 3: Writing History; Chapter 4: The Uses Of History; Chapter 5: Making History; Chapter 6: The History Of Their Own Times: Memoirs, Journals And Polemics; Chapter 7: Continuities: From The Celtic Union To Griffith's 'Ballad History'; Chapter 8: The Legacy Of Young Ireland's Writings; Notes; Biographical Notes; Bibliography; Index.