Implementing political agreement in Northern Ireland: Planning issues for Irish language policy

This paper examines the place of the Irish language in the context of the political agreement recently reached in Northern Ireland. Language planning issues are seen to turn on critical relationships between the emergent legislative framework and local Irish-speaking communities in the region. A model for community-based language planning initiatives is proposed as a means of ensuring the effective engagement of language policy with Irish-speakers. It is suggested that the issue of language rights is likely to become much more pressing as the new institutions of state seek to reflect the socio-political diversity of the region.     

Book reviews

The Grand Strategy of Philip II by Geoffrey Parker. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp.xx + 446, illus. £25.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–300–07540–5.

Milton and the Imperial Vision edited by Balachandra Rajan and Elizabeth Sauer. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1999. Pp.vi + 376. £49.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–8207–0303–6.

If the Irish Ran the World: Montserrat, 1630–1730 by Donald Harman Akenson. Kingston and Montreal: McGill‐Queen's University Press, distributed in Britain by Liverpool University Press, 1997. Pp.x+273. £29.95 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 085323–952–5; 985323–962–2.

Pleasure and Guilt on the Grand Tour: Travel Writing and Imaginative Geography 1600–1830 by Chloe Chard. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999. Pp.ix + 278. £45.00 (hardback); £16.00 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–4804–4; 0–7190–4805–2.

Sir Robert Chambers: Law, Literature and Empire in the Age of Johnson by Thomas M. Curley. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998. Pp.xxii + 698, illus. £69.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–299–15150–6.

The Oxford History of the British Empire, Volume II: The Eighteenth Century edited by P.J. Marshall. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp.xxi + 639. £30.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–19–820563–5.

Pacific Empires: Essays in Honour of Glyndwr Williams edited by Alan Frost and Jane Samson. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1999. Pp.viii + 334, illus. £29.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–522–84791–9.

The Search for the North West Passage by Ann Savours. London: Chatham Publishing, 1999. Pp.x + 342, maps, illus. £25.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–86176–059–0.

Earl Bathurst and the British Empire 1762–1834 by Neville Thompson. Barnsley, Yorkshire: Leo Cooper, 1999. Pp.xii + 308. £25.00 (hardback), ISBN 0–85052–650–0.

Imperial Cities: Landscape, Display and Identity edited by Felix Driver and David Gilbert. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999. Pp.xvii + 283, illus. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7190–5413–3.

Work and Community among West African Migrant Workers since the Nineteenth Century by Diane Frost. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999. Pp.viii + 278. £32.00 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 085323–523–6; 0853222–533–3.

Carnival, Canboulay and Calypso: Traditions in the Making by John Cowley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.xv + 293, illus. £37.50 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–48138–4; 0–521–65389–4.

Steel, Ships and Men: Cammell Laird, 1824–1993 by Kenneth Warren. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1998. Pp.xiv + 313, maps and illus. £29.95 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85323–912–6; 0–85323–992–3.

Embassies in the East: The Story of the British Embassies in Japan, China and Korea from 1859 to the Present by J.E. Hoare. Richmond: Curzon, 1999. Pp.xvi + 238, illus. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7007–0512–0.

The New Cambridge History of India, IV.2: Women in Modern India by Geraldine Forbes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996 and 1999. Pp.xix + 290. £35.00 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–26812–5; 0–521–65377–0

Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa, 1830–1914 by Bruce Vandervort. London: UCL Press, 1998. Pp.xviii + 274, maps. £45.00 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 1–85728–486–0; 1–85728–487–9.

Disease and Empire: The Health of European Troops in the Conquest of Africa by Philip D. Curtin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xiii + 256. £45.00 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–59169–4; 0–521–59835–4.

Frontiers of Medicine in the Anglo‐Egyptian Sudan 1899–1940 by Heather Bell. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999. Pp.xvi + 261, maps. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–19–820749–2.

The South African War 1899–1902 by Bill Nasson. London: Arnold, 1999. Pp.xvi + 304, maps. £45.00 (hardback); £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–340–74154–6; 0–340–61427–7.

Managing the South African War, 1899–1902: Politicians v. Generals by Keith Terrance Surridge. Woodbridge: Boydell Press for the Royal Historical Society, 1998. Pp.ix + 205, maps. £30.00 (hardback). ISBN 086193–238–2.

Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape by K.S. Inglis, assisted by Jan Brazier. Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Press, 1998. Pp.xvi + 522, illus. $49.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–522–84572–8.

Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldiers’ Letters, 1914–18 selected and edited by David Omissi. Pp.xx + 382, illus., maps. £40.00 (hardback); £17.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–333–75144–2; 0–333–75145–0.

Mandates and Empire: The League of Nations and Africa, 1914–1931 by Michael D. Callahan. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1999. Pp.ix + 297, map. £55.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–902210–23–9.

Writing West Indian Histories by B.W. Higman. Basingstoke: Macmillan, Warwick University Caribbean Studies, 1999. Pp.xiv + 298. £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–333–73296–0.

Uganda's Katikoro in England by Ham Mukasa with notes and introduction by Simon Gikandi. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998. Pp.xvii + 211, maps. £40.00 (hardback), £13.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–4898–2; 0–7190–5437–0.

Imperialism, Race and Resistance: Africa and Britain, 1919–1945 by Barbara Bush. London: Routledge, 1999. Pp.xviii + 394, illus. £17.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–415–15973–3.

Alan Lennox‐Boyd: A Biography by Philip Murphy. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1999. Pp.xi + 276, illus. £24.50 (hardback). ISBN 1–86064–406–6.

A History of Selangor (1766–1939) by J.M. Gullick. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1998. Pp.vi + 220. Paperback (no price given). ISBN 967–9948–10–2.

The End of Empire and the Making of Malaya by T. N. Harper. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.xviii + 417. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–59040‐X.

Isle of Discord: Nationalism, Imperialism and the Making of the Cyprus Problem by Yiannis D. Stefanidis. London: Hurst, 1999. Pp.xi + 315. £40.00. ISBN 1–85065–415–8.

Free Trade, Free World: The Advent of GATT by Thomas W. Zeiler. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Pp.xi + 288. $39.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–8078–2458–5.

Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1999. Pp.xxviii + 529. £21.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–520–21511–7.

Militarism in India: The Army and Civil Society in Consensus by Apurba Kundu. London: I. B. Tauris, 1998. Pp.viii + 230, maps, tables. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–86064–318–3.

Freedom, Trauma, Continuities: Northern India and Independence edited by D.A. Low and Howard Brasted. New Delhi and London: Sage Publications, 1998. Pp.237. £35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7619–9225–1.

Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India by Gyan Prakash. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999. Pp.xiii + 304. $49.50/£31.00 (hardback), $17.95/£11.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–691–00452–8; 0–691–00453–6.

Refashioning Futures: Criticism after Postcoloniality by David Scott. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999. Pp.233. $49.50/£29.95 (hardback); $16.95/£10.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–691–00485–4; 0–691–00486–2.     

Book reviews

Empire and Order. The Concept of Empire, 800–1800 by James Muldoon. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999. Pp.viii + 209. £42.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–65013–1.

The Ideological Origins of the British Empire by David Armitage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.xii + 239. £35.00 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–59081–7; 0–521–78978–8.

England's Maritime Empire: Seapower, Commerce and Policy, 1490–1690 by David Loades. Harlow: Longman, 2000. Pp.xi + 277, maps. £50.00 (hardback); £15.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–35622–6; 0–582–35628–8.

Theatre and Empire: Great Britain on the London Stages under James VI and I by Tristan Marshall. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. Pp.viii + 211. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7190–5748–5.

Elusive Empires: Constructing Colonialism in the Ohio Valley, 1673–1800 by Eric Hinderaker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 and 2000. Pp.xii + 293. £45.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–56333‐X; 0–521–66345–8.

Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754 by Timothy J. Shannon. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp.xv + 263. No price given (hardback). ISBN 0–8014–3657–5

An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. Pp.xviii + 357, maps, tables, illus. $55.00/£41.00 (hardback); $22.50/£17.00 (paperback). ISBN 0–8122–3558–4; 0–8122–1732–2.

A Voyage round the World by George Forster, edited by Nicholas Thomas and Oliver Berghof assisted by Jennifer Newell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. 2 vols. Pp.xlvii + 860, illus., maps. ISBN 0–8248–2091–6.

General History of the Caribbean, Volume VI: Methodology and Historiography of the Caribbean edited by B.W. Higman. London and Oxford: Unesco Publishing/Macmillan, 1999. Pp.xxii + 948, illus. £45.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–333–72460–7; 0–333–72461–5.

The Cultural Politics of Sugar: Caribbean Slavery and Narratives of Colonialism by Keith A. Sandiford. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.221. £37.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–64233–7.

History and Memory in the Age of Enslavement: Becoming Merina in Highland Madagascar, 1770–1822 by Pier M. Larson. Portsmouth, NH, Oxford, and Cape Town: Heinemann, James Currey and David Philip. Pp.xxxii + 414, maps. £40.00 (hardback); £16.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85255–689–6; 0–85255–639‐X.

West Indians in West Africa, 1808–1880: The African Diaspora in Reverse by Nemata Amelia Blyden. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 2000. Pp.xii + 258. $75.00/£50.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–58046–0461.

A Concise History of Australia by Stuart Macintyre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.xiv + 320, maps, illus. £30.00 (hardback); £10.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–62359–6; 0–521–62577–7.

Ships, Furs, and Sandalwood: A Yankee Trader in Hawai'i, 1823–1825 by Charles H. Hammatt, edited by Sandra Wagner‐Wright. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. Pp.xxxii + 96. $39.00 (hardback); $18.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8248–2258–7 (pb).

Mission und Gewalt: Der Umgang christlicher Missionen mit Gewalt und die Ausbreitung des Christentums in Afrika und Asien in der Zeit von 1792 bis 1918/19 (Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv, vol. 6) edited by Ulrich van der Heyden and Jürgen Becher. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000. Pp.557. DM 160,‐ (hardback). ISBN 3–515–07624–7.

Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism by Richard H. Grove. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp.xiv + 540. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–40385–5.

Nature and the Orient: The Environmental History of South and South East Asia edited by Richard H. Grove, Vanita Damodaran, and Satpal Sangwan. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp.xviii + 1,036. £35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–195–63896–4.

Ecology, Climate and Empire: Colonialism and Global Environmental History, 1400–1940 by Richard H. Grove. Knapwell: White Horse Press, 1997. Pp.237. No price given. ISBN 1–874267–18–9 (hb). 1–874267–19–7 (pb).

Weltmacht oder Untergang: Die Weltreichslehre im Zeitalter des Imperialismus by Sönke Neitzel. Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2000. Pp.453. DM 98,‐(paperback). ISBN 3–506–76102–1.

The Shaping of the West Indian Church, 1492–1962 by Arthur Charles Dayfoot. Kingston, Jamaica: University Press of the West Indies, 1999; Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999. Pp.xvii + 360, maps, illus. US$30.00 (paperback); US$49.95 (hardback). ISBN 976–640–061‐X (paperback); 0–8130–1626–6 (hardback).

Making Saints: Religion and the Public Image of the British Army, 1809–1885 by Kenneth E. Hendrickson III. Madison and London: Associated University Presses, 1998. Pp.197. £27.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–8386–3729–9.

Negotiating India in the Nineteenth‐Century Media edited by David Finkelstein and Douglas M. Peers. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000. Pp.xi + 285. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–71146–7.

Cultures of Empire: Colonizers in Britain and the Empire in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: A Reader edited by Catherine Hall. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. Pp.x + 390, photographs. £47.00 (hardback); £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–5857–0; 0–7190–5858–9.

Indians in Britain: Anglo‐Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880–1930 by Shompa Lahiri. London: Frank Cass, 1999. Pp.xviii + 249. £42.50 (hardback); £17.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–7146–4986–4; 0–7146–8049–4.

Bausteine eines zukünftigen deutschen Mittelafrika: Deutscher Imperialismus und die portugiesischen Kolonien by Rolf Peter Tschapek. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000. Pp.475. DM 144,‐ (paperback). ISBN 3–515–07592–5.

The Treasury and British Public Policy, 1906–1959 by G.C. Peden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp.xiv + 581. £65.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–19–820707–7.

Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914: Ein Handbuch edited by Hermann Joseph Hiery. Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2001. Pp.880. DM 198,‐ (hardback). ISBN 3–506–73912–3.

An Economic History of Malaysia, c. 1800–1990: The Transition to Modern Economic Growth by John H. Drabble. Basingstoke: Macmillan (in association with the Australian National University), Canberra, 2000. Pp.xxiii + 316. £19.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–333–55300–4.

The Making of Modern Burma by Thant Myint‐U. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp.284. £45.00 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–78021–7; 0–521–79914–7.

East African Doctors: A History of the Medical Profession by John Iliffe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.336. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–63272–2.

India's Prisoner: A Biography of Edward John Thompson 1886–1946 by Mary Lago. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001. Pp.xi + 388, illus. $39.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–8262–1299–9.

Kuwait, 1950–1965: Britain, the al‐Sabah, and Oil by Simon C. Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1999. Pp.167, map, illus. £20.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–19–726197–3

The Business of Decolonization: British Business Strategies in the Gold Coast by Sarah Stockwell. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. Pp.ix + 265. £48.00. ISBN 0–19–820848–0.

Defence and Decolonisation in Southeast Asia: Britain, Malaya and Singapore 1941–68 by Karl Hack. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000. Pp.xiv + 341. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7007–1303–4.

British Documents on the End of Empire, Series A, Volume 4: The Conservative Government and the End of Empire, 1957–64, Parts I and II, edited by Ronald Hyam and Wm. Roger Louis. London: The Stationery Office, 2000. Pp.cix + 825 (Part I); Pp.xxxvii + 811pp (Part II). £80.00 each (hardback). ISBN 011–290578–1 (Part I) and 011–290579‐X (Part II).

Travel Writing and Empire: Postcolonial Theory in Transit edited by Steve Clark. London: Zed Books, 1999. Pp.viii + 264. £45.00 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 1–85649–627–9; 1–85649–628–7.