The other island

This massive volume weighs in at seven pounds on the bathroom scales and cost The Spectator £14.50 in stamps to send out for review. If it is difficult to write about, this is not because of its size and weight but because the eye is constantly caught and distracted by fascinating pieces of information, so that a reviewer reads on and postpones writing about it. (Which is, I suppose, the best mini-review such a compilation can hope for.)

The general editor, Brian Lalor, says in his preface that ‘16 senior consultant editors and 50 consultant contributors have guided a standing army of 950 writers in four continents…’ and that the whole enterprise was able to be compressed into four-and-a-half years only because of email. This is important because it gives the work a surprisingly up-to-date feel. If the process had taken too long some of the larger articles, on government, arts, crafts, theatre and so on — all attractively broken into sub-headings signed by different contributors — would have been inadequate before the book reached the press.

Lalor admits another difficulty. There are, after all, two Irelands: the Province of the North and the Republic.

Individual contributors experienced considerable difficulties with the concept of being asked to write on a unitary island …. For 70 years both territories have led parallel lives, while their peoples developed multiple ambiguities in mutual disregard, ranging from official posturing to private amnesia.

In this respect I have only one complaint. Obviously Irish names, of books, organisations, people, have to be printed in Irish.