History Studies: University of Limerick History Society Vol (15)

It brings enormous pleasure to see the launch of Volume 15 of History Studies. The eight contributions to it are testament to the healthy state of history as currently practised by today’s undergraduate and post graduate scholars. Indeed, the chronological range and diversity of interest and the quality of both the archival research and analytical reflection that we find here, build on the impressive record of Historical Studies since its inception at the University of Limerick at the end of the 1990s. As a peer reviewed journal, Historical Studies is entirely produced by postgraduates with a rotating editorship, and this makes it unique within the island of Ireland. The essays reflect the direction in research that is currently being undertaken by the rising generation of scholars. Collectively, the essays thus offer an insight into the changing historiographical landscape in each field or period of study, as we can read in the contributions by Nina Vodstrup Andersen, who examines the ideological tensions between William Philbin, the bishop of Down and Connor, and the Provisional IRA in the early years of the Northern Ireland conflict, and the essay by Seán McKillen on John Hume’s role in the Sunningdale Agreement (1973) that laid the foundation for power-sharing in Northern Ireland; McKillen’s piece can be read as a companion piece to Andersen. Staying with Ireland, but south of the border, Gerald Maher’s essay on the Roscommon I.R.A’s ambush of Crown Forces at Scramogue in 1921 will arouse interest and possibly controversy in this decade of contested commemorations.