The Catholics of Ulster: A History [Hardcover]

Marianne Elliott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2001

There can be few European communities more soaked in their bloody history than the Province of Ulster, but the Catholic and Protestant communities' faulty understanding of their past has had ruinous effects on the lives of its inhabitants. In The Catholics of Ulster, Marianne Elliott slices through this dense thicket of obscuring myth, lies, and half-truths and emerges into the relative clarity of history.Some of Elliott's provocative claims include: There was no such thing as a Gaelic Catholic race. The Catholic gentry was decimated through conversion to Protestantism, not exile and dispossession. Catholic landowners often welcomed Scottish and English tenant farmers in Ulster. The English were not as culpable as previously claimed in exacerbating the Potato Famine.Arriving at a fragile juncture in the uncertain peace process, The Catholics of Ulster is sure to spark great controversy, inflame passions, and provoke spirited debate.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Marianne Elliott was born a Catholic in Ulster, and this history of her people--The Catholics of Ulster--will change the world's view of the nationalist Catholics in that province of Northern Ireland. Elliott's revisionist claims are many, and they are large. She denies the proposition that there was any such thing as a Gaelic Catholic race. She argues that Catholic gentry disappeared not because they were exiled and dispossessed by their Protestant neighbors, but because they were converted. She claims that the Penal Laws were not intentionally anti-Catholic. She believes that the English were not substantially to blame for the Potato Famine. And she claims that the IRA has never enjoyed much popular support. These arguments are part of a detailed, comprehensive history of Ireland's tangled Troubles that she makes as clear as one could hope for. Elliott's unwillingness to reduce Ulster's story to any simple opposition between good and bad is unwavering. And her gift for self-criticism, suggested in the book's prologue ("I have discovered in myself lingering prejudices and sensitivities which I either believed I had left far behind or never recognized in the first place"), informs every chapter. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Library Journal

Early in the 1990s, Elliott (modern history, Liverpool Univ.) was invited to work with the Opsahl Commission, a group seeking to advance mutual understanding between belligerent factions in Northern Ireland. This book is her attempt to enhance the peace process through historical understanding. She begins with the pre-Christian era and maintains that conflicts in the geographically isolated Ulster have resulted from political, economic, and cultural differences as well as simply religious ones. Catholicism, she argues, should not be equated with political rebellion against British rule. Nevertheless, she shows that Catholicism in Ulster is caught in a Gaelic cultural trap, which locks it into a 19th-century nationalism. Unfortunately, much of the historical data that fills her book would make sense only to other historians of Ulster (as when she identifies T. Wolfe Tone, the supposed founder of Irish Republican Nationalism, only as "Tone"), and her often general conclusions seem contradictory and therefore confusing. Thus, this book will only interest academics and not the everyday readers she might have wanted to reach. Academic libraries with large collections in Irish history should consider. James A. Overbeck, Atlanta-Fulton P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 650 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First Edition edition (February 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 046501903X
• ISBN-13: 978-0465019038
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,683,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Centuries of Propaganda Wars, April 18, 2001

By 

Linda Mason Merle (Shrewsbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Catholics of Ulster: A History (Hardcover)

As a family historian, I have spent a lot of time reading history in an attempt to understand what my ancestors experienced in Ulster. Some of them were Irish Catholics, some probably Scots Catholics who immigrated with the McDonalds, and they eventually became Ulster Presbyterians. But within the Presbyterian communities of the late 1700's, early 1800's were a lot of Irish surnames. How did this happen?

This book unmasks the truth behind both "Protestant" and Nationalist propagandized histories. Many of Elliott's conclusions are born out by my own family research.

If you want to read propaganda, then you can find plenty of it out there, but if you want to look beyond received history and into a past that is very different from what is commonly held, then this is the book for you.

It is probably not the first book to buy if you are new to the history of Ulster and /or Northern Ireland because it assumes you know the basics or received version of history and it is a response to it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable - but not unbiased, August 1, 2004

By 

A reader from Houston, TX - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Catholics of Ulster: A History (Paperback)

This book should be required reading for everyone who purports to have an opinion on the causes and the solution to the Ulster conflict. The book is very much a revisionist history: Prof. Elliott's main thesis is that Ulster Catholics were not persecuted as severely as their mythology would indicate. She also shows how the actions of the Catholic Church over the past 150 years have had a negative influence on how Catholics perceive themselves. The two great strengths of the book are that it tells a coherent, though complex, story and that this story is substantiated by copious endnotes citing the sources. However, the book is not entirely objective. Furthermore, the subtle biases will be difficult to spot by anyone not already familiar with Ulster. Having been born there, I'm fairly well acquainted with Ulster history and politics. Three examples:

1) Some historical incidents of persecution are not mentioned at all, or are simply de-emphasized e.g. the savagery of the Cromwellian forces after the siege of Drogheda (1649). Thus supporting the thesis that Catholic grievances are exaggerated.

2) On p. 225 Prof. Elliott says that `...Catholics felt that they could expect little from the law. At least that is what the United Irish propaganda machine now told them...' suggesting that Catholics were being misled by those elements who favored revolt against England. But on p. 224 she states that juries consistently favored Protestant vigilantes over Catholics, so evidently this part of the Ulster Catholic myth was not without foundation.

3) One of the most notorious incidents of brutality perpetrated by Catholics during the Troubles, the barbaric murder of two British soldiers by a Catholic mob, is illustrated by a large photograph. Thus, (over) emphasizing the author's contention that Ulster Catholics are not simply victims. On the other hand, the depredations of the infamous Shankill Butchers, who were Protestant and viciously murdered 19 people, are not mentioned at all.

Despite its shortcomings, this book is an invaluable addition to the literature on Ulster and I highly recommend it.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably thorough history of a troubled province, November 19, 2002

By 

Paul J. Ditz (Shelby, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Catholics of Ulster: A History (Hardcover)

Marianne Elliot compiles an unique and thorough history of Catholocism in Ireland's most troubled province of Ulster. The information contained in this book is invaluable for anyone attempting to trace the roots of the current troubles in Northern Ireland, or with any serious interest in the history of this troubled island. This book is not for the casual reader, as Elliot's dry academic style could grow wearisome for those looking for a light, enjoyable read.