Dublin Loyal Walking Tours Ethos

Countless number of historians, principally those committed to Marxism Socialism, reject the idea that history consists of the lives of great men or women, preferring to concentrate instead on economic trends, social structures and institutional frameworks to explain the past. Conversely, we can see in the writings of Herbert Butterfield, the great twentieth-century British historian and scholar, subscribed to a completely different perspective.

Butterfield contended: "It is men who make history". Karl Marx had an infinitely more sophisticated awareness of history than many of his adherents in modern historical profession. He recognised that there was soundness, in taken both approaches to the study of history, and both views had to be held in balance and creative tension.

When one studies the work of many Irish historians, we can find a selective approach to historical events surrounding Irish History, specially the "The Irish Question" (British Irish relations). Many Irish historians fail to seek or even allow this creative tension when it comes to Irish history. Unionism (loyalty to one's British Identity) is portrayed as a bigoted invalid political science, on which Irish Nationalist aspirations are smashed upon.

Likewise, the 1916 Rebellion is presented as the birth of the modern Irish state, this approach fails to question the motives of the leaders and the events which emanate from the week long Rebellion.

A Nations identity is developed over centuries, not out of any single event or mono cultural political body. If I can paraphrase the words of the poet W.B Yeats like a 'great oak tree' growing and maturing Nation with a confident pride, rather than an insecure vanity. In 1926 the first census to be taken in the Irish Free State showed that one hundred and seven thousand Protestants had left the Irish State.

This represents the largest movement of a single ethnic population in Europe before WW2.'These people weren't all British Military or wealthy land owning classes characterized as non-Irish'. One only has to look at parish records to see that many were hard working people, the small shop keeper and trades man, the middle ground of southern Irish society, and when they left the Free State (Irish Republic) was the poorer for it. Dublin Loyal Guided Walking Tours is committed to shining a light into the dark corners of Irish History.