Welsh Journals

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amongst nineteenth-century farm labourers in Wales, in widely-differing regions of the country. Gareth Williams's succinct note examines the proposals of the egregious Professor E. W. McBride and others for the compulsory sterilization of the miners in the inter-war years, while J. Graham Jones writes on Evan Davies, Aneurin Bevan's predecessor as M.P. for Ebbw Vale. A welcome and appropriate preface to this Llafur is a brief, eloquent tribute by Gwyn A. Williams to Dai Francis, 'people's remembrancer', miners' leader and a notable figure in the world of Welsh labour studies. Appropriately too, his son, Hywel, is joint author of an interesting discussion of some aspects of the politics of the coalfield after the advent of nationalization in 1947. Irish Historical Studies appears in these sad times in somewhat truncated form, but the journal continues vigorously to uphold its distinguished scholarly traditions. The issue for March 1981 (Vol. XXII, No. 87) includes an excellent discussion by David Hayton on the Irish crisis and the disintegration of the Oxford-Bolingbroke administration under Queen Anne in 1714; an article by Norman Vance on Anglo-Irish literary relations, 1780-1820; and a critical account by F. M. A. Hawkings on the role of Erskine Childers concerning the defence issue in the Irish treaty negotiations between Sinn Fein and the Lloyd George government in 1921. The issue of September 1981 (Vol. XXII, No. 88) features Ciaran Brady's article on the origins of the Desmond rebellion of 1579, and a good, richly-documented account by Deirdre McMahon on British policy towards the de Valera government of 1932-35, with particular emphasis on the mis-named 'economic war' of that period.