Diarmaid Ferriter is professor of modern Irish history at University College Dublin. His book A Nation and Not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1913-23 is published in paperback by Profile Books

He really knows Irish history.
Why would anyone read a book that he says is "an arrogant travesty of Irish history?"
Certainly not to learn anything.

"this truly dreadful book"

" Coogan is not remotely interested in looking at what others have written on 20th-century Irish history."

"scant regard for evidence."

"There is no indication whatsoever that Coogan has engaged with the abundant archival material relating to the subject matter he pronounces on. There is no rhyme or reason when it comes to the citation of the many quotations he uses; the vast majority are not referenced. For the 300-page text, 21 endnotes are cited and six of them relate to Coogan's previous books, "

"Nor is there much accuracy about dates. Contrary to his assertions, Arthur Griffith did not found Sinn Féin in 1904 (it was 1905); the Ulster Volunteer Force was not established in 1912 (it was 1913); Erskine Childers did not organise the smuggling of arms to Ireland "in the summer of 1916" (it was 1914); and King George V did not open the Northern Ireland parliament on June 7th, 1921 (it was June 22nd)."

"Coogan is also a master of sweeping, inaccurate generalisations. "

"There are many other varieties of codswallop: "Fianna Fáil cumainn became IRA flying columns by night". Strange, then, that the IRA was declared an illegal organisation by a Fianna Fáil government in 1936."