12 AUGUST 1955, Page 28

CUE CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION CRISIS IN IRE-

LAND, 1823-29. By James A. Reynolds. (Yale

University Press. Geoffrey Cumberlege, 30s.) Ir is odd that historians have paid so little attention to the campaign for Catholic Emanci- pation in Ireland; for it was the most spectacu- lar instance of revolution by moral force in the history of these islands. Daniel O'Connell, too, was the prototype of the demagogue-dictator; a figure whose influence on subsequent Euro- pean history has yet to be properly assessed. Mr. Reynolds has provided a valuable account of the last round in the battle; the structure of his work is unnecessarily complex, but the research has clearly been painstaking, and his judgements are eminently fair.

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