The Aubane Historical Society (AHS) is a

historical society A historical society is non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and promoting the history of a particular place, group of people, or topic. They play a crucial role in promoting historical awareness and understan ...

amateur historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

s based in

Millstreet Millstreet () is a town in north County Cork, Ireland. As of the 2022 census, it had a population of 1,722. Millstreet is within the civil parish of Drishane, and within a Poor Law Union also called Millstreet. The Millstreet Union encompasse ...

, County Cork in Ireland, focusing on

local history Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural history, cultural and social history, social aspects of history. Local history is not mer ...

and the

Irish revolutionary period The revolutionary period in Irish history was the period in the 1910s and early 1920s when Irish nationalist opinion shifted from the Home Rule-supporting Irish Parliamentary Party to the republican Sinn Féin movement. There were several ...

Brendan Clifford Brendan Clifford (born 1936) is an Irish historian and political activist. Early life and education He was born in the Sliabh Luachra area of Munster, Republic of Ireland. Career As a young man, Clifford emigrated to the United Kingdom and ...

and Jack Lane, members of both the AHS and

British and Irish Communist Organisation The British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO) was a small group based in London, Belfast, Cork, and Dublin. Its leader was Brendan Clifford. The group produced a number of pamphlets and regular publications, including ''The Irish Commu ...

(BICO), grew up in the Aubane area of north Cork. The AHS has published numerous pamphlets on local history matters, often in relation to the Home Rule politician

William O'Brien William O'Brien (2 October 1852 – 25 February 1928) was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of ...

, the novelist Canon Patrick Sheehan, and the local poet Ned Buckley. According to Jack Lane, the AHS was originally intended to be a local history organisation, but later expanded into the role of opposing the "revisionist" movement in

Irish history The first evidence of human presence in Ireland dates to around 34,000 years ago, with further findings dating the presence of ''Homo sapiens'' to around 10,500 to 7,000 BC. The receding of the ice after the Younger Dryas cold phase of the Qua ...

. The Society has been highly critical of Peter Hart, whom it accuses of falsifying interview material, with denunciations of Roy Foster, Brian Hanley,

Paul Bew Paul Anthony Elliott Bew, Baron Bew (born 22 January 1950), is a British historian from Northern Ireland and a life peer. He has worked at Queen's University Belfast since 1979, and is currently Professor of Irish Politics, a position he has he ...

, and Henry Patterson. The AHS regularly attacks

Hubert Butler Hubert Marshal Butler (23 October 1900 – 5 January 1991) was an Irish essayist who wrote on a wide range of topics, from local history and archaeology to the political and religious affairs of eastern Europe before and during World War II. ...

(whom it accuses of being a quasi-racist defender of Protestant Ascendancy) and

Elizabeth Bowen Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen ( ; 7 June 1899 – 22 February 1973) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer notable for her books about "The Big House in Ireland, the Big House" of Irish Landed gentry, landed ...

, whom it claims acted as a British spy in Ireland during the Second World War and hence lacking any Irish identity. AHS has worked with some writers who might be seen as representing a more traditional republican perspective, including

Desmond Fennell Desmond Carolan Fennell (29 June 1929 – 16 July 2021) was an Irish writer, essayist, cultural philosopher, and linguist. Throughout his career, Fennell repeatedly departed from prevailing norms. In the 1950s and early 1960s, with his extensi ...

, Brian P. Murphy, Eoin Neeson and

Meda Ryan Meda Ryan is an Irish historian. She has written extensively on the Irish revolution of 1916–23. Among her books are ''The Tom Barry Story'' (1982)- later updated and revised as ''Tom Barry, IRA Freedom Fighter'' in 2003 - ''The Day Michael Co ...

. AHS has also denied that the killing of two young

Cooneyite The Cooneyites are a Protestant sect which split from the nameless church commonly known as Two by Twos; the church was originally called "the Tramps" or "the Go-Preachers" founded by William Irvine, often referred to today as "The Truth" or, c ...

Protestant farmers at Coolacrease, Co. Offaly in 1921 was sectarian (it claims''Coolacrease: The True Story of the Pearson Executions'' edited by Philip O'Connor, AHS, 2008. they were properly executed for attacking the forces of the legitimate, democratically elected ( Dáil) government). It has been associated with commentators and the Roger Casement Foundation who argue that the diaries ascribed to

Roger Casement Roger David Casement (; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), known as Sir Roger Casement, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish nationalist executed by the United Kingdom for treason during World War I. He worked for the Britis ...

were forged by British Intelligence while arguing that Casement's published opposition to England and participation in the First World War was a correct position for Irish people to take. It often presents itself in

populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

terms as a group of amateurs speaking for the plain people of Ireland as against academic historians, whom it presents as elitist snobs with sinister political agendas. The AHS's interpretation of Irish history has been criticised by some Irish academics.Anthony Coughlan reviews the AHS' book ''James Connolly Re-Assessed''.
''Irish Democrat''

References

Citations

External links

* {{Authority control Anti-Revisionism (Ireland) History of County Cork Irish historians Irish Marxist historians Historical societies based in the Republic of Ireland Millstreet