ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between historiographical revisionism and the contemporary political debate, and attempts to detect any revisionist political agenda. Nationalists, by definition, believe in the reunification of Ireland. In Ireland history has been traditionally a battlefield in the contest for cultural and political hegemony. Paul Dixon asserted that both nationalists and unionists have different interpretations of history that justify their political positions. John Regan expounds further on this democratic state formation narrative. When it came to challenging republican violence on the grounds of its illegitimacy, however, the problem remained concerning the states own origins in an unmandated revolutionary struggle. Desmond Fennell brands the work of anti-nationalist revisionism as the historiography of the Irish counter revolution. The popular image of historical revisionism, Fennell believes, is a retelling of history stating that British rule in Ireland was not a bad thing and Irish resistance to it not a good thing.
