Leading us into the year 2009 is an intriguing new book on the British Monarchy by an avowed Irish republican.

You might think that it’s bound to be critical, even abusive. However, this particular Irish republican just happens to be Mary Kenny, an excellent journalist and author with an always sensitive but nevertheless robust view of the world.

She writes admiringly about the Monarchy through the times of Irish unrest and heaps praise on our present Queen. It’s an interesting point of view from an unusual perspective.

Mary Kenny has written a pre-publication article about her book in the Daily Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt:

Perhaps it takes someone with a genuinely republican background to appreciate the value of the British monarchy. I was brought up in Dublin as an Irish nationalist, and I retain that stamp of Irish patriotism. I am proud of the constitution of the Irish Republic, a pioneering document in 1937. … I came to my appreciation of the British monarchy sideways, through examining the historical archives of the role played by the British monarch in Anglo-Irish relations over the 20th century.

I don’t know about you but I shall get my order in early at Amazon.

Finally, a very happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year to all our Readers.

Crown and Shamrock: ­Love and Hate between Ireland and the British Monarchy will be published in spring 2009.

Read the article here.