A new study on the Great Irish Famine finds that the predominant ideological doctrine guiding British policy in Ireland was one of divine Providentialism, writes Mic Moroney.
In seeking to visually and cartographically reconstruct Famine Ireland, the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine deploys the full geographical and archival artillery of Cork University to produce a vivid, full-colour, perversely sumptuous, 700-page directory that few starvelings could hoist aloft. Threaded through by Professor Willie Smyth’s assiduous surveys, the Atlas unpicks the cataclysm through a cat’s cradle of perspectives from 60-odd essayists, including Thomas Keneally, Christine Kinealy, Peter Gray, Kerby Miller, Mary Kelly, John Feehan, Christopher Morash, Liam Kennedy, Dympna McLoughlin, Willie Nolan, Regina Sexton, Cathal Póirtéir and David Nally, whose emphasis on colonial, legitimised state violence, along with Smyth’s searching, lyrical excavations of the period, sets the radical tone.
The realm of faith illustrated in the Book of Kells can be elusive to modern audiences; however, a new study by Bernard Meehan provides valuable insights into this peerless manuscript