Was Ireland a Colony? Economics, Politics and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2005. Pp. 356. $29.50 (cloth).

McDonough Terrence., ed. Was Ireland a Colony? Economics, Politics and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2005. Pp. 356. $29.50 (cloth).

Was Ireland a Colony? a collection of essays edited by Terrence McDonough, wastes no time in answering the question posed in the title. McDonough definitively states in his introduction that Ireland in the nineteenth century was a colony, and the bulk of the contributors to the book agree with him. Indeed, there is no lack of cohesion among the seventeen essays here; the book is strongly antirevisionist, detailing British colonial policies and abuses throughout.

While the book is cohesive, the topics covered by the essays are by no means narrow in scope. While the first two sections of the book focus on the economic and political situation of nineteenth-century Ireland, the third and fourth sections of the book focus on culture, including essays analyzing the works of Maria Edgeworth and John and Michael Banim. The contributors to Was Ireland a Colony? take a variety of approaches, and as such the book provides a good overview of the variety of work being done in the field of Irish Colonial studies.

What is missing from the book is a full consideration of the question asked in the title. While some of the essays do not focus directly on the structures of imperial control, none question the basic colonial status of nineteenth-century Ireland. The contributors to Was Ireland a Colony? either argue for Ireland's colonial status or accept it as an established fact. The quite obvious issue with the choice of title aside, more problematic is the fact that Ireland's colonial status in the nineteenth century is more ambiguous than...