This is a well-written, well-researched study on an interesting theme. The author is unduly modest when she categorizes her book as “a small contribution” to the considerations of Patrick Pearse's ability to appropriate cultural discourses on history, masculinity, and citizenship for imperial sources and to reinvent them as national traditions. The book is, in fact, an authoritative study to which the author brings a vast range of relevant reference in support of her argumentation. Elaine Sisson comes across as having a good knowledge of her period and a very good familiarity with ideological trends, conventional mores, and the literature and iconography of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The focus of the study is not on the political impact of Pearse but, rather, on his educational achievements and, most particularly, on his creation of a prototype model of Irish boyhood reflective of the bardic and Christian traditions of Ireland. He achieved this while transmuting many contemporary concepts of the British and Germanic imperialist view of boyhood, athletic youth, and homoerotic imagery into cultural nationalist formats.

The book is well structured. The opening two chapters provide a concise and informative context for Pearse's school experiment—St. Enda’s. The author demonstrates the distinctive character of St. Enda's and highlights its contrast to much prevailing school provision. Convincingly, she argues that the combination of curricular innovation, child-centered learning, the input of a range of writers and artists, the inspiring location, and the mode of governance meant that the quality and vibrancy of the education offered in St. Enda's “was far in excess of the standards offered by the average Irish classroom.” While this was so, in setting St. Edna's against the foil of education policy in the early twentieth century Ireland, the author does not do justice to the richness of the policy that prevailed. At the time, the national schools were the vehicle of formal education for the vast majority of the people, and many pupils stayed in these schools up to ages fourteen to sixteen. The curriculum introduced for these schools in 1900 was probably the most progressive and child-centered curriculum in Europe at that time. Significant problems of implementation existed, but worthwhile progress was made. Pearse in The Murder Machine made no reference to this, for his own reasons, but Sisson should not be led by him on this. Textbooks were also now very different in their content than they had been in the nineteenth century and had more content relating to Ireland. Neither does the author make any mention of the highly relevant Bilingual Programme authorized for national schools in 1904, which allowed Irish as the medium of instruction in Irish-speaking districts. The author could also, with benefit, have paid more attention to secondary education policy, and she seems to have mixed up the abolition of payments by results for primary schooling in 1899 with secondary schooling, where it continued until 1922 (26). Some treatment of St. Enda's in relation to this examination system would also have been desirable.

However, the author's main interest lies in the question posed at the end of chapter 2—how is an Irish boy made? What ought the model of masculinity be? In a sequence of chapters, detailed and well-informed analysis occurs on how Pearse developed his ideal model. In “Saints and Scholars,” we learn how Pearse used the Passion Play, images of Christ, and the role model of St. Colmcille, of the golden age of Irish Christianity, to explore the Christian dimension. This is followed by an analysis of Pearse's early writings, stories and plays such as Iosagan and The King, for images of idealistic boyhood. Pearse's view of the golden-haired, ethereal, and asexual boy is very sustained. Pearse seems altogether unaware of the contemporary psychoanalytic work of Freud, which gave rise to controversial perspectives on children's sexual urges.

In developing from the Christian imagery to the pagan, heroic imagery of Cuchulainn and the mythical Red Branch Knights, the author indicates how Pearse was indebted to imperial visual and literary discourses of heroism and masculinity. The linkage from Carlyle through Standish O’Grady to St. Enda's is particularly illuminating, with other intriguing influences from the Germanic and Nordic heroic sagas and Pearse's love of Wagner's operatic dramas. Pearse was also urged by the domination of the juvenile market by English historical fiction and English school stories to provide an alternative literature drawing inspiration from Irish heroic tales of the Red Branch and Na Fianna, as well as contemporary adventure stories, located in Ireland. The extensive use of plays and pageants in St. Enda's helped boys to internalize the values and mores being exhibited.

Internationally, there was a revived interest in sports and athletics in the late nineteenth century, most symbolically represented by the reinauguration of the Olympic Games in 1896. Twelve years earlier, in 1884, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was founded. By the time St. Enda's was established in 1908, the GAA had become very successful and, as well as a sporting body, was consciously promoting cultural nationalism. St. Enda's warmly embraced this movement and actively engaged in GAA competitions. Fianna Eireann was set up in 1909 as alternative to Baden-Powell's “imperial” Boy Scouts of 1908, but with a more political orientation. Under the influence of Con Colbert, a teacher in St. Enda’s, pupils there joined the Fianna Eireann movement.

In chapter 8, “The Erotics of Boyhood,” the author gives a series of well-judged and informed reflections on homoerotic images of childhood in contemporary culture, and on Pearse's attitudes toward children. Eschewing a sensationalist or prurient approach, the author draws attention to the complexity involved. The evidence suggests that if Pearse had homoerotic tendencies they were sublimated through a visual or literary sensibility, which resulted in his literary and artistic output. Contemporary preoccupation with sexual proclivities should not obscure the rich legacy of Pearse. As the author concludes, “it is a humbling process to acknowledge all that he managed to achieve in his thirty-six-year span.”

The illustrations in the book are very pertinent to the theme and are well utilized by the author. Cork University Press is to be congratulated for the production quality of this book, which is a welcome addition to the literature on Pearse and this eventful period of Irish history.