As Christine Kinealy points out, the Rising of 1848 in Ireland has often been treated as a fiasco, a risible counterpoint to the major revolutions that swept through much of continental Europe. It is easy to see why. The Irish rebellion collapsed when a band of Young Ireland revolutionaries were driven off by a squadron of policemen who had taken refuge in Mrs. McCormack's farmhouse in Ballingarry, County Tipperary, inviting mocking jibes about the cabbage-patch revolt in Widow McCormack's garden.

The central purposes of Kinealy's book are to rehabilitate the revolutionaries, to show that they were men and women of “vision and honour” (292), and to demonstrate that their legacy went far beyond the events of a few disastrous hours in Ballingarry. Among other things, they laid the groundwork for the Fenian Brotherhood, the Home Rule movement, the Land War of 1879–82, the literary revival of the late nineteenth century, and the participation of women in radical nationalist politics during the early twentieth century. In their own time, against the background of the Famine and European revolution, they presented a major challenge to British rule in Ireland and had significant popular support; the government took them seriously, Kinealy argues, and so should we.

She traces the emergence of Young Irelanders within Daniel O’Connell's Repeal Association, their increasing frustration with O’Connell's gradualism, and their expulsion from the organization during the summer of 1846. A few months later, they formed their own party, the Irish Confederation, which itself became divided between constitutional and revolutionary nationalists. But the French Revolution of February 1848, and its knock-on effect throughout Europe, brought the Confederates back together; revolution in Ireland, they believed, was not only desirable but possible. Their plans, however, were derailed by a number of factors—the absence of European war, divisions over tactics and timing, the opposition of the Catholic Church, the difficulties of mobilizing a famine-stricken people, and the preemptive actions of the British government, which forced the Young Irelanders to choose between submission and premature rebellion. Submission was out of the question; the only remaining option was a revolutionary gesture, an act of defiance in the face of the mass death that was occurring during the Famine. Hence the road to Ballingarry.

Kinealy also highlights the ironies that ran through the politics of Young Ireland. After the split with O’Connell, we are treated to the spectacle of supposedly physical force Young Irelanders being protected by the Special Constabulary from the violent attacks of supposedly moral force O’Connellites in Belfast. In the area of Anglo-Irish relations, Kinealy mentions (but does not develop) what she calls “the paradox of Irish nationalism, namely, that it [sic] while it was seeking to sever the connection with the British parliament, it was asking the same government to give more relief to Ireland” (99). And on the question of Catholic-Protestant relations within Ireland, she notes that the nonsectarian nationalism of Young Ireland actually intensified ethno-religious divisions, as Protestant Unionists closed ranks against the revolutionary movement.

The story of Young Ireland has, of course, been told before, and historians such as Richard Davis, Kevin Nowlan, and F. S. L. Lyons have analyzed the Young Ireland movement and its legacy without succumbing to cabbage-patch condescension. But one of the things that distinguishes Kinealy's work from that of her predecessors is its discussion of the international dimensions of the Young Ireland movement, particularly in Britain and the United States. This could, in fact, have been pushed wider and deeper. It would be interesting, for example, to know how Irish communities in Australia reacted to the Young Ireland movement before its prisoners landed on their shores. And while Irish nationalism in the United States receives considerable attention, its counterpart in Canada is completely neglected; indeed, Kinealy's reference to “the Federation of Canadian States” (262) is a good example of the way American scholars sometimes view Canada through their own country's lenses.

Another point of contrast with earlier historiography is Kinealy's emphasis on the women who wrote revolutionary poems and articles for nationalist newspapers—women such as Jane Elgee, who wrote under the pen name of Speranza and who would later be the mother of Oscar Wilde. Some of these women were much more militant than the men. In this respect, Kinealy might have mentioned Jenny Mitchel's reaction to the conviction and fourteen-year sentence of her husband John under the new Treason Felony Act; the next time something like this happened, she wrote, the judge, the attorney-general, the sheriff, and the members of the jury should all be assassinated. It remains unclear, however, how grassroots Irish nationalist men reacted to the involvement of women in politics; Gary Owens's work on the Confederate Clubs suggests that traditional patriarchal attitudes were much stronger than would appear from Kinealy's concentration on the figures at the top.

All in all, Kinealy has presented a highly sympathetic view of the revolutionaries, and she tends to see mid-nineteenth-century politics through their eyes. Like the Young Irelanders before her, she regards Daniel O’Connell as a flawed hero and treats his son John as the villain of the piece, scheming to supplant Young Ireland ecumenicalism with his own narrow brand of Catholic nationalism. She also appears to accept the view that the Young Ireland prisoners in Australia were harshly treated, when much of the evidence suggests otherwise. At least we know where Kinealy stands; Brendan Bradshaw would have approved.

There are also, it must be said, some technical problems with the book. It has far too many typographical errors, it is occasionally repetitive, and it has a hit-and-miss index. The author must take some of the responsibility for this, but Manchester University Press needs to get its copyediting act together.