and ecclesiastical history of Ireland. This work contributed in to An impartial history of Ireland, from the period of the English invasion to the present time in four volumes (1809–11). It was denounced, in a published counterblast, by the loyalist cleric John Graham as "false and traitorous". Taaffe's history rejected religion as the principal cause of division in Ireland, insisting that the real cause "clashing interests and national antipathies necessarily subsisting between a conquering and an oppressed nation". Citing David Hume's History of England (1754–62) as a case in point, Taaffe argued that British writers on Irish affairs had generally "brandished the pen of defamation with a mind no less hostile than that of the warrior yielding the sword in battle"(Impartial history, i, p. iv). Taaffe died 30 July 1813 in Dublin, reconciled to the Catholic Church, and was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St James's church. Works The probability, causes, and consequences of a union between Great Britain and Ireland, 1798 "Julius Vindex", Vindication of the Irish Nation, and particularly its Catholic Inhabitants from the Calumnies of Libellers, 1801 An Address to the Roman Catholic Nobility and Gentry of Ireland (1804) Succinct views of catholic affairs in reply to McKenna's thoughts (1805) A defence of the catholic church, against the assaults of certain busy sectaries (1808) An impartial history of Ireland from the period of the English invasion to the present time, 4 vols., 1809–11. Available at Internet Archive References Murray Smith, ‘Taaffe, Denis (bap. 1759, d. 1813)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 21 Dec 2007 External links 1759 births 1813 deaths 18th-century Irish historians 19th-century Irish historians Irish political writers United Irishmen