Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution

by Robbie McVeigh, Bill Rolston

A groundbreaking examination of the colonial legacy and future of Ireland, showing how Ireland’s story is linked to and informs anti-imperialism around the world. 

Colonialism is at the heart of making sense of Irish history and contemporary politics across the island of Ireland. And as Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston argue, Ireland’s experience is central to understanding the history of colonization and anti-colonial politics throughout the world. Part history, part analysis, Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution charts the centuries of Irish colonial history, from England’s proto-imperial engagement with Ireland in 1155 to the Union in 1801, and the subsequent struggles for Irish independence and the legacies of partition from 1921. 

A century later, the plate tectonics of Irishness are shifting once again. The Union is in crisis and alternatives to partition are being seriously considered outside the Republican tradition for the first time in generations. These significant structural changes suggest that the coming times might finally see the completion of the decolonization project – the finishing of the revolution. In the words of the revolutionary Pádraig Anois ar theacht an tSamhraidh – now the summer is coming.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ireland, Politics

850 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2023

Reviews

[Damilola Ojikutu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides long historical context and perspectives on Irish politics surrounding republicanism and unionism and sits it in a modern view of the Irish state. I found the prose very post-gradish and a lot of the colonial history of Ireland have been told in detail in other books but no other book I have heard of details of these histories so thoughtfully and in proper context. Highly recommended.

[Natalie]

This behemoth is about Ireland in the colonial context and the many different identities both inside Ireland and within the diaspora. There is an entire genealogy of colonialism/imperialism outlined in chapter two of the first section, that is quite a clear takedown on the British Empire and its many horrors. It would be an understatement to declare that the British Empire irrevocably ruined the world. This book also goes into the very tedious account of various political moments in Ireland's past, and also does a relatively good job at explaining how the partition between Ireland and Northern Ireland has had consequences still not accounted for in contemporary times. The authors are very intentional in contextualizing Irish history/colonialism with an international focus on shared struggles, and the Unfinished Revolution mentioned in the title is meant to be taken as the global one against imperialism. How the colonial past and ghosts of empire have worked their way into the 'liberal' Western world is pretty obvious, as these authors lay it out for us to see.

Besides the readability of this text, such as the gratuitous use of footnotes, my handful of complaints are directed towards the authors' obsessive attempt to appropriate the term mestizaje in application to Ireland. I found this repeated demand incredibly misguided (and rather long-winded). There is essentially an idea here that mestizaje will create a third race in a post-colonial world, where no one is purely settler or purely native of any place. I cannot quite articulate why I found this such a ridiculous idea, but needless to say, I disagree with this analysis. Perhaps because I cannot get over the idea that mestizaje was a term created in Latin America for a specific reason, and to use it as a global context misses the mark entirely. I also found that while the idea of the Irish having the concept of 'whiteness' imposed upon them is interesting in a colonial context, the authors try (foolishly) to explain how the Irish must 'unwhite' themselves for liberation (?). There's other terms I wasn't so sure about in this book either, such as the phrasing of the American Revolution as an 'anti-imperial' struggle (?) or the footnote that refers to Pakistan and India as Black dominion (??). Overall, my frustration is all the focus this book diverts away from Ireland. And for all the struggle within it, the pivotal battles such as the hunger strikes or any various uprisings in the twentieth century get utterly sidelined to footnotes and in passing, as if we as the readers should already know the details. 

This book starts off by explaining it's not a history book, not a political one, but to be honest, I'm not sure what else this book is trying to be. It asks a bunch of rhetorical questions in the end and answers practically none of them. I'm still happy I read this because I did learn a lot of history, but I think the authors should've minimized their scope so that a reader could have a clearer idea of what they just read, and most importantly: why. 

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An illuminating look at Irish history and colonialism, undermined by the esoteric writing, that falls flat on the "what comes next" portion.

Although I learned much about Irish history I didn't know, this book was a struggle to read because of the heavily academic style, and I'm a reader who likes to pick up academic reads occasionally for a good mental workout. If the writers want a large number of people to take their work to heart, they should publish a more accessible version.

The work also struggles in the third and final portion, that which focuses on "what is to be done next in Ireland about colonialism." It falls apart there and wastes time repeating points satisfactorily argued in the previous two sections without laying out much of a roadmap on what they'd like to see next. The authors also fall into the trap, the second book I've seen lately, of over-romanticizing the Haitian Revolution and blaming all of Haiti's subsequent problems solely on the response by the West (which was no doubt a factor, but largely ignores the tendency of post-revolutionary leaders in Haiti to aim for lifetime dictatorships).

I do give them kudos for choosing to use footnotes rather than endnotes. I don't think I could have made it through this book if it had used endnotes.

[Tim Briedis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ambitious book charting Ireland’s colonial history and present. I learnt a lot here, such as about Protestant Wolfe Tone and the rebel United Irishmen movement, informed by the republicanism of the late 18th century. This challenges the notion that anti-colonialism was exclusively a sectarian religious affair.

The book did a good job at covering history from the 12th century to present. I didn’t realise that England’s initial invasion of Ireland was motivated by bringing the Irish church in line, or that it was only with Cromwell’s invasion that the whole island was bought under British sway. There are bits of broader anti-colonial and colonial history, such as the horrific fact that Columbus’s colonisers cut off the hands of Taino people who didn’t pay tribute and watched them die. Inevitably there are sections of the history that could have been covered more - for instance the Tan War and the Irish Civil War could have been dealt with in more depth.

Overall an illuminating and informative read.

[JC Sevart · Rating 4 out of 5]

really a 4.5. A great breakdown on the colonial and revolutionary history of Ireland while also addressing the part Ireland plays in British colonialism elsewhere and Ireland's neoliberalism during the later 20th century. it's very dense and took me awhile to read

[Devyn Chase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, gives a in depth review of Irish history and its ties to colonialism, past and present, and gives a great genealogy of imperialism and anti imperialism. Definitely worth a read.