Calling All Bookworms: Need Advise on History Book (Vanity)

11/29/02 | yankeedame

[yankeedame]

Hey gang!

Can anyone recommend a good, user-friendly book on Irish history? You know, one that's neither particularly (or too obviously) pro-this or anti-that? There's no "motive" in this, just that my knoweldge of Irish history is so woeful. (Hanging my head in shame)

LOL! I mean, I'm not trying to become a scholor or anything, just that I'd rather have poeple say, "Oh yeah? You think so, huh?" instead of "You don't have any idea what we're talking about, do you?"

[Argh]

Irish, can you help here?

[IronJack]

If you want a fictional treatment of the conflict, try reading Leon Uris' Trinity. It is told mostly from the Catholic point of view, and takes some dramatic license, but if you're willing to overlook those features, it can provide background on the religious conflict.

[JennysCool]

There's a Dame what needs a Gal! :-)

[miss marmelstein]

You could try "The Great Hunger," a history of the 19th Century potato blight. It will give you some insight into the Irish people's continuing anger towards Great Britain. For a wonderfully evocative book about growing up in Ireland try Hugh Leonard's "Home Before Night" - a much better book than "Angela's Ashes."

[spycatcher]

"How the Irish Saved Civilization" by Thomas Cahill

Check out the links under...Customers who bought this book also bought:

Saw a new one coming out in Dec: The Story of the Irish Race by Seamus MacManus

[thinktwice]

Irish history isn't grand and attractive like that of Greece, Rome, the British Empire, and modern giants; so I'd say your best picture of Irish history might come from Irish writers -- satirists Swift, Wilde; and Shaw; and poets Moore, Russell and Yeats. Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is an unforgettable work from a series about Irish grievances against England.

[Bommer]

"The History Of Whiskey! How it Kept the Irish from Ruling the World" by Jack Daniels. :^)

[maica]

LOL! I mean, I'm not trying to become a scholor or anything, just that I'd rather have poeple say, "Oh yeah? You think so, huh?" instead of "You don't have any idea what we're talking about, do you?"
*****

Part of a joke that tries to define the Welsh, Irish, Scots and English claims for the Irish: "They don't know what they want, but they are willing to fight for it anyway."

I bring this to your attention to help you realize that you could never find a 'definitive' history of Ireland that will suit all Irish people.

Another story on a more personal level:
Until just a few years ago my father thought that the expression "The Fightin' Flaherty's" referred to his great aunts named Flaherty who could not bear to be in the same room at the same time. Then on a trip to Ireland he learned that it was a historic nickname for the whole Flaherty clan in Galway!

PS: I love Ireland, Irish people and my Irish heritage.

[WOSG]

I agree with "How the Irish Saved Civilization" I liked it so much, I read it in one sitting. Very Readable and tells an excellent truth about how Western Civ. came about.

"The Story of the Irish Race" is about as thick as "War and Peace", and hardly a fast read.. It's not new, (maybe a reissue), but a classic.

"The Great Hunger" good, but depressing and repetitive. The simple lesson is British misgovernance and a simple potato pest conspired to kill off a million Irish, due to the fact that the Irish were so heavily dependent on that one vegetable for sustinence. The book recounts the many ways the British engaged in prejudice, folly and outright disdain for the Irish, worsening a crisis into a slaughter.

All btw have a viewpoint!

[x]

Conor Cruise O'Brien has written many books on Ireland. Judging by what he's written on other subjects, I suspect he's very opinionated and with a strong personal bias and severe judgements, but I don't know if that translates into absolute, unquestioning support for one side or the other.

"Aristocrats" by Stella Tillyard is the story of three English sisters, one of whom as the mother of an Irish patriot-martyr. It doesn't seem like great material for a best seller, but it did have some success, and was made into a PBS "Masterpiece Theater" program.

[jimtorr]

While I'm sure there are lots of good books on Irish history, I don't know of them. I've never paid any attention to Irish history. Perhaps I should amend that.

I do have several books that do touch on Irish history

One is "How the Irish Saved Civilization", by Thomas Cahill, a not entirely objective look at how the Irish Church sent missionaries and scholars to rebuild the Church and scholarship in Europe after the turmoil of the wars of conquest by the German tribes.

This was in the late sixth and seventh centuries. It seems that of all Christendom, only Ireland was spared invasion and war, and preserved learning in Europe.

I also have a historical fiction account of St. Columba (of the Celtic Church), the Irish noble who exiled himself, along with a band of Irish missionaries, from Ireland and brought Christianity to what would become Scotland. This book is "Columba", by Nigel Tranter. It is fiction, but Tranter is very good on historical accuracy. Of course, some of the details of the story are fiction, as is the dialogue. The outline is spot on, though, to the best of the known history.

Columcille, as he is known in Ireland, or Colum mac Felim O'Neill, as he was named in 521. Colum was abbot of Kells and Derry, prince of the Northern O'Neills. He was offered a Bisopric and the High Kingship of all Ireland, twice. He turned both down, and after becoming involved in a war and killing a man, he chose exile as a missionary to the Scots instead.

[spycatcher]

Yeah, the Story of the Irish Race is a paperback re-issue. This one looks interesting, with a couple great reviews:

Modern Ireland, 1600-1972 by R. F. Foster

[Noumenon]

Try For the Cause of Liberty: A Thousand Years of Irelands Heroes, by Terry Golway. Outstanding volume. The struggle for liberty is the common theme throughout Irish / Celtic history. This is a pretty even-handed exposition, although it does lean towards the pro-Irish side of things with respect to their 700 year long struggle with the English.

The other common theme that emerges is that Irish have a habit of making breath-takingly bad decisions in the course of their struggles, especially when it came to making alliances.

[Happygal]

Ummm..ehhh...this is kinda embarrassing, but I can't think of a 'definitive' Irish history off the top of my head.
The history I learned was beaten into me by the nuns! *L*

I have a friend who is an historian himself, I'll give him a call and see what he can reccommend

[Happygal]

Any reccomendations Colosis? :-)

[johnny7]

I have a great history book called... A History of America, written by Charles Goodrich in 1848.

Why I enjoy it so much is because it was written while the founding of the nation was still fresh in the mind.

Columbus is treated as a brave explorer and not a plaque borne from Europe.

The early Indian wars in CT and MA are extensively covered.

When you read it, you realize how tenuous our foothold on the new world was.

[Publius6961]

*sigh*

I just wish more people did this about Islam.

[Happygal]

Can I ask...is there any aspect of Irish history that you are particularly interested in?

I mean do you want to know about Irish mythology (like the stories of Setanta, Cu Chulainn and na Fianna). Do you want to go back to the Book of Kells? Or learn about when St. Patrick came to Ireland? Do you want to know about St. Bridget and St. Killian?

Are you interested in the potato famine, and the resulting Irish diaspora? The British in Ireland? Cromwell?

Or are you more interested in the modern day conflict? The Civil Rights movement of 1969? Bobby Sands and the Hunger Strikers of the 1980's?

Do you want to know about the Foundation of the State? The 1916 Rising, and what happened at the GPO?

Or do you want to go back further to go back to the days of Fr. Murphy and 1798?

Do you want to learn of Ireland's famous literary giants like Goldsmith, Synge, Swift, Beckett, Yates, Wilde, Kavanagh, O'Casey, Joyce and Shaw?

The reason I ask is because Irish history goes back so far, it's difficult to think of a book that covers every aspect adequately :-)

[maica]

Your post looks like a profile for a Degree in Irish History! You are so right about the depth of history that belongs to Ireland.