Men That God Made Mad

Apr 21, 2025 2:03 AM

Author:Derek Lundy

In this remarkable book, Belfast-born Derek Lundy uses the lives of three of his ancestors as a prism through which to examine what memory and the selective plundering of history has made of the truth in Northern Ireland.

In Ulster the name 'Lundy' is synonymous with 'traitor'. Robert Lundy was the Protestant governor of Londonderry in 1688, just before it came under siege by the Catholic Irish army of James II. Robert Lundy ordered the city's capitulation. Crying 'No Surrender', hardline Protestants prevented it and drove him away in disgrace. William Steel Dickson's legacy is a little different. A Presbyterian minister born in the mid-eighteenth century, he preached with famous eloquence in favour of using whatever means necessary to resist the tyranny of the English. Finally there is 'Billy' Lundy, born in 1890, the embodiment of what the Ulster Protestants had become by the beginning of World War I - a tribe united in their hostility to Catholics and to the concept of a united Ireland.

The lives of Robert Lundy, William Steel Dickson and Billy Lundy encapsulate many themes in the Ulster past. In telling their stories, Derek Lundy lays bare the harsh and murderous mythologies of Northern Ireland and gives us a revision of its history that seems particularly relevant in today's world.

Reviews

Vivid, and so subtly drawn

—— The Times

A distinguised work: erudite, earnest, elucidative, even-handed in its attempt to probe the Northern Ireland Protestant Mind and memory-box

—— Independent on Sunday

Absorbing...it projects the experience of the province through a fascinating and thought-provoking prism... the writing throughout is terse, idiomatic and arresting, and the control of the material impressively assured

—— Guardian

Lundy proves an excellent guide to his people

—— Financial Times

[Lundy] has an undeniably vivid flair for anecdote

—— Sunday Telegraph

Personable and flavoursome

—— Literary Review

Aslan offers an invaluable introduction to the forces that have shaped Islam [in this] eloquent, erudite paean to Islam in all of its complicated glory

—— Los Angeles Times Book Review

Wise and passionate . . . an incisive, scholarly primer in Muslim history and an engaging personal exploration

—— The New York Times Book Review

Acutely perceptive . . . For many troubled Muslims, this book will feel like a revelation, an opening up of knowledge too long buried

—— The Independent

Thoroughly engaging and excellently written . . . While [Aslan] might claim to be a mere scholar of the Islamic Reformation, he is also one of its most articulate advocates

—— The Oregonian

A revelation, an opening up of knowledge too long buried, denied and corrupted by generations of men ... Muslim keepers of the latter will rage against Reza Aslan as his careful scholarship and precise language dismantles their false claims and commands ... Aslan is acutely perceptive

—— The Independent

A rather beautiful account of the birth and evolution of Islam ... Lucid and illuminating ... Fascinating

—— Metro

Aslan is an engaging writer, his strength lies ... as an observer of contemporary challenges facing Islam ... Sensitive and generous

—— FT Magazine

Enthralling. A book of tremendous clarity and generosity of spirit

—— Jim Crace

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