Book review: Ireland’s many changes to the modern age

Diarmaid Ferriter's latest book spans a 25-year period when Ireland was transformed, not just economically, but socially and politically as well

Diarmaid Ferriter deals with the decline in influence of the Catholic Church which forms another touchstone in a rapidly changing Ireland in 'The Revelation of Ireland 1995-2020'.

• The Revelation of Ireland 1995-2020 
• Diarmaid Ferriter 
• Profile Books, £25 

What makes Diarmaid Ferriter such a compelling and readable historian is not just his deep understanding of the past but how that understanding makes sense of the present.

His latest book spans just 25 years, a time that might make one wonder what could possibly have happened over such a short period to warrant forensic investigation.

A lot, actually. It is no exaggeration to say that Ireland was transformed over that period, not just economically but socially and politically as well. 

HISTORY HUB

If you are interested in this article then no doubt you will enjoy exploring the various history collections and content in our history hub. Check it out HERE and happy reading

The scale of clerical abuse led to such widespread revulsion that it changed our relationship with the Catholic Church forever.

The period under review also saw the emergence of the Celtic Tiger which brought economic transformation of a kind considered unthinkable even a decade before. 

It also deals with the global economic crash of 2008 which shook the foundations of Ireland.

Ferriter notes economist Morgan Kelly’s reflection on the meteoric trajectory of the Irish economy over the past 25 years “from basket case to superstar and back to basket case”. 

It was also a time when issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and the status of women became subjects of everyday debate.

Within a short period, Ireland was becoming a multicultural society, approaching the European norm despite being spiritually closer to Boston than Berlin, as Mary Harney once observed when she was enterprise minister at the turn of the 21st century. 

It was also becoming a nation of immigrants rather than emigrants. 

As for the economy, who could have predicted that Ireland would be the world’s third wealthiest country, after Luxembourg and Macau? 

Indeed, who would have forecast the first visit of a reigning British monarch in 100 years or imagined that it would have been such an outstanding success? 

When Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Ireland in 2011, at the invitation of president Mary MacAleese, she captured the hearts of millions when she bowed gracefully and respectfully at the monument to the rebels of 1916.

The visit was seen as a symbolic normalisation of relations between the two countries, following the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

While her visit to Dublin was understandably formal, she received a warm welcome when she walked the streets of Cork.

Looking back on the book he published 20 years ago, The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, Ferriter says the title now appears provisional: 

“While the pace of change towards the end of the twentieth was swift, the early twenty-first century was to bring another abundance of transformations.”

Ferriter deals with the decline in influence of the Catholic Church which forms another touchstone in a rapidly changing Ireland.

The hideous abuse of boys and girls committed by clerics was greeted with indifference and lack of understanding by the institutional church. 

By way of illustration, Ferriter relates the story of the young woman who told her priest of the childhood abuse she had suffered. The response was that she was “forgiven”.

Ferriter tackles head-on what he describes as ‘the perils of contemporary history’, noting historian FSL Lyons assertion that it suffers from “fundamental disabilities which place it firmly and irredeemably outside the cognizance of the historical profession”.

Ferriter disagrees: “I do not claim any special virtuousness in confronting those challenges, but I do believe that, despite these drawbacks, there are legitimate reasons for historians to attempt to make sense of recent events, including to challenge the infuriating mantra ‘We are where we are’, which invites a closing down of a much needed historical perspective.”

In other words, history is too important to be confined to history.