Ruth Dudley Edwards

Ruth Dudley Edwards is an Irish historian, crime novelist, journalist and broadcaster.

Background

Dudley Edwards was born and brought up in Dublin and educated at University College Dublin and Girton College, Cambridge. Her father was the distinguished Irish historian Professor Robert Dudley Edwards. Her brother Owen Dudley Edwards is a historian at Edinburgh University. She married a fellow UCD graduate, the journalist Patrick Cosgrave in 1965 but they later divorced [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010918/ai_n14406831/pg_2 Obituary: Patrick Cosgrave | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ] .

Although she has stated that she is "not in principle against Irish unification", Ms Dudley Edwards has generally taken a sympathetic approach to Unionists in Northern Ireland. This has caused her to attract considerable criticism and abuse from Irish Americans, some of whom have incorrectly alleged that she is not Irish. [Sunday Independent 6 July 2008, p 22]

Works

Her non-fiction books include "An Atlas of Irish History", "James Connolly", "Victor Gollancz: A Biography" (winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize), "The Pursuit of Reason: The Economist 1843-1993", "The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions" (shortlisted for Channel 4/The House Politico’s Book of the Year) and "Newspapermen: Hugh Cudlipp, Cecil King and the glory days of Fleet Street". Her "Patrick Pearse: The Triumph of Failure" (winner of the National University of Ireland Prize for Historical Research), first published in 1977, has just been reissued by Irish Academic Press. At present she is finishing a book about the civil case against the Omagh bombers.

Also a crime fiction writer, her novels include: "Corridors of Death", "The Saint Valentine's Day Murders", "The English School of Murder", "Clubbed to Death", "Matricide at St. Martha's", "Ten Lords A-Leaping", "Murder in a Cathedrals", "Publish and Be Murdered", "Anglo-Irish Murders", "Carnage on the Committee", and "Murdering Americans".

Reviews

Following the Cannes prize announcement, for "The Wind That Shakes the Barley", Irish Historian Ruth Dudley Edwards wrote in the "Daily Mail" on 30 May 2006 that Loach's political viewpoint "requires the portrayal of the British as sadists and the Irish as romantic, idealistic resistance fighters who take to violence only because there is no other self-respecting course," [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=388256&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source= "Why does Ken Loach loathe his country so much?"] "The Daily Mail", 30 May 2006] and attacked his career in an article containing inaccuracies. [http://ireland.indymedia.org/article/76396 "Ken Loach hits back at English tabloids"] Indymedia Ireland, 1 June 2006] The following week, Edwards continued her attack in "The Guardian", admitting that her first article was written without seeing the film (which at that stage had only been shown at Cannes), and asserting that she would never see it "because I can't stand its sheer predictability." [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ruth_dudley_edwards/2006/06/what_about_making_black_and_ta.html "What about making Black and Tans: the movie?"] "The Guardian", 6 June 2006]

References

* [http://www.ruthdudleyedwards.co.uk/RDE_cv.pdf Ruth Dudley Edwards Curriculum Vitae]
* [http://www.ruthdudleyedwards.co.uk/ Ruth Dudley Edwards Home page]