{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.018742058449809404, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0028589580686149934, 'mean_word_length': 5.506198347107438, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Ireland’s Czar: Gladstonian government and the Lord Lieutenancies of the Red Earl Spencer, 1868–86

which tend to be unreflective on the problems of the past. In fact, it could be convincingly argued that the history of Irish psychiatry is exceptionally well developed, especially when compared to other aspects of Irish medical history. As Brennan’s introduction itself acknowledges, critical research that engages with broader literature on medical professionalisation and the socio-cultural dimensions of historical diagnoses is vast, as evidenced by the work of a number of historians including Oonagh Walsh, Pauline Prior, Elizabeth Malcolm and Catherine Cox. If Brennan’s agenda is to challenge presumptions that the Irish had a deep-rooted psycho-biological propensity to go mad, then it would have been useful to outline precisely who believes in this Irish predisposition to insanity, if anyone. Throughout his book, Brennan persistently re-asserts that the idea that the Irish are mentally fragile is unsustainable, but provides no evidence that research has been undertaken which supports this view. Nor are historical claims on the matter fully described or contextualised. Brennan essentially sets out to provide a counter-argument to a claim that no historian seems to have seriously raised. This is a shame. Irish Insanity is a missed opportunity to pit sociological and biological determinist arguments against one another in an interesting, more meaningful, fashion. Could it have been the case that physical and psychological trauma did in fact manifest in mental illness in a country that experienced the culling of its population during the Famine, mass emigration, widespread unemployment and deep socio-political tumult? Perhaps not, but surely the biological and psychosocial fallout of Irish historical experiences needs to be at least mentioned and, preferably, carefully considered? Medical researchers constantly highlight close links between job loss and mental decline, emigration and psychological disorder and civil conflict and mental distress. The idea that an “epidemic” of mental illness once occurred in Ireland is certainly exaggerated, but can we really altogether discard the idea that the Irish might have been vulnerable to mental disorder with no reflection whatsoever? By refraining from engaging with the elusive alternative perspectives which he claims to be challenging, Brennan fails to cement his point that the idea of a biomedical epidemic of insanity is illusory. Irish Insanity is disappointingly sparse. The vastness of the questions raised cannot be adequately dealt with in 121 pages of text (excluding appendices and bibliographies), much of which is taken up with remarkably long quotes and graphs of varying quality. The content of the chapters drifts sporadically; themes and methodological insights are introduced with little signposting to guide readers; arguments occasionally contradict one another; information is included which bears limited relevance to the main thesis. Irish Insanity addresses an interesting question but ultimately engages with well-covered themes and arguments.