Telling the Truth Is Dangerous reviewed by Nicholas Canny
Published in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 2025.
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Abstract

, This book is something a labour of love in which Neasa MacErlean stakes a claim for her maternal grandfather Robert Dudley Edwards (1909–1988), to be accorded greater recognition for his work and achievements than has been conceded to him heretofore. MacErlean details how her grandfather made his contribution to the betterment of society through teaching, publishing, and extramural lecturing, as well as through cajoling those who happened to be in power in state, Church, and academia to support the various enterprises [End Page 619] he espoused. Much of the book concerns what Edwards did accomplish, but MacErlean also explains that he remained keenly aware that his achievements fell short of his ambitions and that his interpersonal behaviour was sometimes questionable. She is in a position to tabulate his regrets because she draws not only on the recollections of family members, colleagues, and former pupils, but also on the voluminous notes and diaries, many of them confessional, that Edwards left to posterity., In reviewing this book, I should state that I was never taught by R. Dudley Edwards and never heard him lecture. I did however observe him perform from the floor at public lectures, and, during my student days at University College, Galway, I came into contact with him through the Irish University Students’ Association (now the Irish History Students’ Association) to which he was greatly dedicated. Later, as a member of the history staff at Galway, I met Dudley intermittently and always found him supportive, if critical, of my work. Later again I worked closely with him as a member of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, even if he was about to leave that body as I joined it., The principal achievements with which Neasa MacErlean credits her grandfather are:, The shortfalls in publication that MacErlean acknowledges are Edwards’s failure to deliver the Stuart sequel to Church and State he had intended; the delay in publishing The Great Famine, which did not appear in print until a decade after the centennial of the famine; and his production of no more than a popular book on Daniel O’Connell instead of the comprehensive biography that the subject deserved. MacErlean, guided by the explanations offered by Edwards himself, attributes both...