Bartlett, Thomas

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Queens University of Brighton, B.A., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—History Department, University College Dublin, Belfield Campus, Dublin 4, Ireland. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: National University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, professor of modern Irish history.

WRITINGS:

Macartney in Ireland, 1768–72: A Calendar of the Chief Secretaryship Papers of Sir George Macartney, PRONI (Belfast, Ireland), 1979.

The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation: The Catholic Question, 1690–1830, Barnes & Noble Books (Savage, MD), 1992.

Theobold Wolfe Tone, Dundalgan Press (Dundalk, Ireland), 1997.

(With Kevin Dawson and Daire Keogh) The 1798 Rebellion: An Illustrated History, Robert Rinehart Publishers (Niwot, CO), 1998.

(With Kevin Dawson and Daire Keogh) Rebellion: A Television History of 1798, Gill & Macmillan (Dublin, Ireland), 1998.

Contributor to numerous books, including Men, Women, and War: Papers Read before the XXth Irish Conference of Historian, Held at Magee College University of Ulster, 6-8 June 1991, edited by T. G. Fraser and Keith Jeffery, Lilliput Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1993; Wicklow: History and Society, edited by K. Hannigan and W. Nolan, Geography Publications (Dublin, Ireland), 1994; Nations and Nationalisms: France, Britain, Ireland, and the Eighteenth-Century Context, edited by M. O'Dea and K. Whelan, Voltaire Foundation (Oxford, England), 1995; and The Mighty Wave: The 1798 Rebellion in Wexford, edited by D. Keogh, Four Courts Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1996. Also contributor to scholarly journals and magazines, including Tipperary Historical Society Journal and History Ireland.

EDITOR

(With D. W. Hayton) Penal Era and Golden Age: Essays in Irish History, 1690–1800, Ulster Historical Foundation (Belfast, Ireland), 1979.

(With others) Irish Studies: A General Introduction, Barnes & Noble Books, 1988.

(With Keith Jefferey; and contributor) A Military History of Ireland, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Gillian O'Brien) History and Environment: The Lord Edward Fitzgerald Memorial Fund Bursary: Selected Essays of Award Winners, Lord Edward Memorial Fund Board of Management, University College Dublin (Dublin, Ireland), 1998.

Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone, compiled and arranged by William Theobald Wolfe Tone, Lilliput Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1998.

(With others) 1798: A Bicentenary Perspective, Four Courts Press (Portland, OR), 2003.

(And annotator and author of introduction) Revolutionary Dublin, 1795–1801: The Letters of Francis Higgins to Dublin Castle, Four Courts Press (Portland, OR), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Thomas Bartlett is one of the foremost scholars of the Irish rebellion of 1798 and he has written and edited several books focusing on the rebellion as well as other aspects of Irish history. In his 1992 book The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation: The Catholic Question, 1690–1830, the author focuses on the political issues and ramifications of the "Catholic Question" that dominated Irish politics for nearly a century and a half. The "question" was whether or not Irish Catholics should have their political rights restored. Bartlett explores the origins of the Catholic Question and its ongoing development as he explains how Catholics ultimately came to be thought of as the "Irish People" by the time of the Catholic Emancipation in 1829. By 1830, the Catholic Question was replaced by the "Irish Question," which focused on when and how the Irish would control their own political fates.

Noting in a review in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History that "a major reappraisal of eighteenth-century Ireland is under way," Jim Smyth commented that The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation "will probably be numbered among the cornerstone texts of a new interpretive framework." Writing in the Historian, Arthur Wheeler praised Bartlett's work, noting: "This careful study of tortuous political negotiations assumes a healthy familiarity with the Irish history of the period." Victor Treadwell asserted in the English Historical Review that "Bartlett has produced a study which is lucid, thought-provoking and (more simply) extremely useful."

In A Military History of Ireland, which Bartlett edited with Keith Jeffery, readers are presented with nineteen essays accompanied by illustrations, maps, and tables analyzing Irish conflicts and the Irish military tradition over more than a thousand years. The essays also discuss the relationship between armies and Irish society. Writing in Foreign Affairs, Eliot A. Cohen called the book a "comprehensive and engrossing study of interest not only to students of the history of Britain's former empire, but of military culture in general." New Statesman contributor Sarah Benton commented that, "If all these studies have a link, it is to reveal the unique power of organized violence both to effect change and to paralyse societies." Writing in the English Historical Review, T. C. Barnard found fault with some of the essays, commenting that in one case "the complex interplay between ideas of citizenship and patriotism and the obligation to join in defence of the state is handled disappointingly." Nevertheless, Barnard also attested that, "with its handsome format, numerous memorable and often unfamiliar illustrations and excellent text, the collection immediately establishes itself as the essential work for all curious to know of the Irish experience of fighting within and beyond their homeland." Calling A Military History of Ireland an "impressively presented volume," Australian Journal of Politics and History contributor Jennifer Harrison pointed out that both editors contributed essays "providing strong highlights and setting the standard for the volume."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Australian Journal of Politics and History, March, 1998, Jennifer Harrison, review of A Military History of Ireland, p. 145.

Choice, May, 1993, H. T. Blethen, review of The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation: The Catholic Question, 1690–1830, pp. 1526-1527.

English Historical Review, July, 1981, review of Macartney in Ireland, 1768–72: A Calendar of the Chief Secretaryship Papers of Sir George Macartney, p. 657; July, 1982, review of Penal Era and Golden Age: Essays in Irish History, 1690–1800, p. 642; February, 1996, Victor Treadwell, review of The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation, p. 205; February, 1998, T. C. Barnard, review of A Military History of Ireland, p. 258.

Foreign Affairs, March-April, 1997, Eliot A. Cohen, review of A Military History of Ireland, p. 181.

Historian, spring, 1994, review of The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation, p. 576; summer, 1995, Arthur Wheeler, review of The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation, p. 205.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, July, 1993, Jim Smyth, review of The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation, p. 506.

Library Journal, May 15, 1996, Robert C. Moore, review of A Military History of Ireland, p. 72.

New Statesman, March 29, 1996, Sarah Benton, review of A Military History of Ireland, p. 33.

Times Literary Supplement, August 2, 1996, review of The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation, p. 30.