Robert Kee (1919–2013)

Until his thirteen episode History of Ireland started its broadcast run on BBC2 in 1980 I had only known Robert Kee as a British journalist who sometimes appeared on the news reporting on some incident or news item. When his documentary on Irish history started he became someone I have admired to this very day. If I were someone who used the term I would say he is one of my heroes.

Robert Kee was the first British journalist I came across who reported facts about the troubles in Northern Ireland without bias. He told it as it was. He didn’t push one side of a story over another. In The Most Distressful Country: Volume One of The Green Flag, he has taken the same approach to reporting the history of Ireland. I know it’s unbiased as the facts he presents, well supported with detailed references to relevant documentation, would equally upset any Irish Republican or Loyalist extremist.

This volume covers the period from 1170 to the 1860s. The earlier parts of the book present information intended to answer the question of who are the Irish while the rest of the book addresses the issue of how the political concept of Irish nationhood came about.

Robert Kee has done a masterful job in showing the contradictions in Irish history, highlighting the stupidity and confusion surrounding many of the famous events that took place, and demonstrating the tragedy of the poorest people in the country, the peasants, who worked on the land and who were treated as little more than slaves or chattel by most of the landowners.

Kee has also been skilful in showing how the comfortable middle-class, while responsible for generating all the political hype for insurrection in the name of Irish home rule, was totally out of touch with the peasants who constituted the majority of the population and who were the people the nationalist politicians were depending on to make their political dreams a reality.

Irish history of the time is set in context with events such as the French Revolution(s) and the American War of Independence. This book also spells out the horrors of the potato famine and the blind eye turned by the English parliament on the occasion of Irelands darkest hour.

In 1994 I had the great pleasure of attending the launch of Robert Kee’s book on Charles Stewart Parnell, “The Laurel and the Ivy”, and I was delighted to have had the opportunity of informing Mr Kee of how highly I regard his work and to thank him for the wonderful service I believe he has done for Ireland and the Irish people.

In case you have not worked it out by now, I think this book is wonderful and would strongly recommend it to anyone wishing to gain a good introduction to Irish history.… (meer)