Malachy McCourt’s History of
Ireland
Running Press, Philadelphia,
2004
This history “is a series of stories: the stories of the men and women who made Ireland’s history. Each is individual in itself, and makes a wondrous tale alone. But together, as a whole, they tell a story of Ireland."
I
wish I’d had the chance to visit my Irish family; the Coyles in their small
thatch roofed stone house in rural County Cavan or the Mullanes in their more
urban home on the hillside in Clonmel, County Tipperary. I wish I could have
sat beside a fire, looked into their freckled faces, and heard the stories of
our family and tales of Ireland. Reading the stories in this book is like
hearing those stories, night after night, a new tale each evening from the early
days of the country and slowly moving to the modern world. A country is no more
and no less than the people who live and have lived there. Knowing their
triumphs and failures, their dreams and their daily drudgeries is learning the spirit
of the land.
If
you want to visit Ireland without leaving home, pick up a copy of this book
from your library. Malachy McCourt knows how to tell a story. When I read this book I can hear the rhythm
of Irish speech in the words and almost smell the wood smoke from my ancestor’s
home.
Contents
Ireland
before Patrick
The
Land of Saints & Scholars
The
Viking Invasion and the High Kings of Ireland
The
Tudor Conquest and the Fall of the Gaelic World
The
Seventeenth Century: Destruction, Chaos, and Loss
The
Great Patriots
Ireland
After the Great Hunger
A
Terrible Beauty is Born: Proclaiming the Republic
A
Century of Irish Voices
Birth
Pangs of a New Nation
Ireland
in the Modern World
People
of Passion
People
of Peace
A
Chance for Reconciliation
The
Celtic Tiger and the New Ireland
Epilogue
List
of Works
Index
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