Crown, Shamrock and Thistle?

I am reading Mary Kenny’s book, Crown and Shamrock , love and hate between Ireland and the British Monarchy.

It is about the, quite dignified, disintegration of the British Empire. Like Indian Summer it chronicles the many strands of the Irish journey to independence. She has been diligent and discursive in her background reading; the bibliography lists about two hundred books, by authors ranging from The Marquis and Marchioness of Aberdeen to Philip Ziegler by way of Barbara Cartland and two Roys (Foster and Jenkins). Some big gaps in my understanding of Anglo-Irish relations in the 19th and 20th centuries are being filled in. She avers that Daniel O’Connell was the only Roman Catholic present at Queen Victoria’s coronation. Surely many Catholic peers attended? That is the only possible error I have noticed so far. I have got as far as the Abdication crisis and Dev’s (as she calls him) Machiavellian reasons for supporting Edward VIII in his relationship with Mrs Simpson.

When it was published in 2009 it must have seemed that the subject was closed. But today it takes on a fresh relevance as Crown, Shamrock, Thistle and the EU negotiate new relationships. In November Mary Kenny will be speaking about this in London and her opinions will be worth hearing. She delivers her scholarship with a light touch that belies the amount of work she did to create such a fascinating story. It is well worth reading.