I've mentioned this before, but up to recently there have been few books dealing specifically withe the Easter Rising - a few books of essays at the time of the 50th anniversary in 1966, but very little before that or since.
While we were in Galway over the weekend we went into Charlie Byrne's Bookshop to find a virtual landslide of well-researched books on the subject, from the actual events in Dublin to how it was received locally throughout Ireland - it seems that the predictions that this would happen have been proved right.
Those on the Rising include a set of volumes covering each of the executed.
I believe that this is only the beginning and between now and the hundredth anniversary of independence we will see more and more, from the War of Independence to the Black and Tan Period right through to the signing of the Treaty - hopefully, the Civil War will be part of this historical soul-searching.
It's always seemed to me sadly ironic that the best book on The Civil War was by Englishman, Carlton Younger, which struck me as being extremely balanced at the time but as it was written nearly fifty years ago, could probably do with updating.
Like the Famine, many of these subjects have been avoided so as not to disturb the neighbours, but since Ireland joined the European Community, and are no longer reliant on it young people looking for work in Britain, as they once where, things will hopefully change.
"the Irish people considered it water under the bridge"
More utter nonsense - Cromwell remains the archetypal English bogeyman, still very much discussed by historians and remembered in the poorer rural areas
What planet do you occupy - read a book.
Jim Carroll