The Critic Magazine

The rich and varied past of our islands

USE OF THE TERM “BRITISH ISLES” to describe what some now refer to as “The Atlantic Archipelago” is dodgy, given that a sizeable chunk of the archipelago’s second-largest island cannot be described as “British”. Indeed it is particularly peculiar given that the author, Laurence Bristow-Smith, challenges anglocentric versions of the history of these islands that downplay, distort, or simply ignore the contributions of the various cultures and peoples which shaped what appears to be an increasingly unstable present.

The author574) appears to have been that of Áedán, of the Cenél nGabráin lineage, as King of Dál Riata, by St Colum Cille (Columba, c521–97), an event noted by the Saint’s biographer, Adomnán (c.624–704), in his .

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