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Over de Auteur

Des Ekin is a historian and journalist. His book The Stolen Village was short listed for the Argosy Irish Nonfiction Book of the Year and for Book of the Decade in the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards. He lives in Dublin.

Werken van Des Ekin

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Algemene kennis

Geboortedatum
unknown
Geslacht
male
Nationaliteit
UK
Ireland
Geboorteplaats
Co. Down, Northern Ireland, UK
Woonplaatsen
Dublin, Ireland
Beroepen
journalist
editor
Korte biografie


Des Ekin is an Assistant Editor with The Sunday World. As well as researching investigative news articles, he writes a popular column that reaches more than a million readers every weekend. He was born in County Down, Northern Ireland and spent a decade reporting on Troubles in Northern Ireland before moving to Dublin, where he now lives with his wife and three children.

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Des Ekin’s The Stolen Village is a good popular history based upon archival material and thoughtful analysis.
Ekin’s writing style is readable and straightforward—he’s a trained journalist.
Arguably, in the genre of corsair pirates of North Africa, this book is one of the better studies on the market.
I did enjoy reading it.
I felt that Ekin is trying to make an honest and fair attempt to understand why the raid took place and who was behind it. And more importantly, how it impacted on the lives of the innocent English captives.
Ekin’s work is balanced and extensive – the story moves from southern Ireland to Morocco and Algiers, and Holland to Istanbul –, and his arguments are reasonable and considered (including the conspiracy theory view noted in the final chapter).
The author covers the motivations of the (ethnically diverse) pirates, renegade seamen, the Irish Catholic elites, the Protestant settlers in Baltimore, Ireland, the English elites, and the slave dynamics of the 17th century.
He emphasises the multicultural and multilingual nature of Algiers and seeks to capture the spirit and politics of Muslim society in North Africa (and to a lesser extent in the Ottoman metropolis of Istanbul).
His conclusions are established upon plausible arguments and he highlights the complexity of the ‘stolen village’ story.
His research is more than adequate for the task at hand. We can only feel empathy for the English settlers torn way from their homes and families.
The main characters from all sides are discussed and their personal and political histories considered. Irish and English national and local histories of the period are reviewed too. There are some very engaging accounts of individuals in this book; the author displays an ability to recreate events and to provide a human element to the narrative. The explanations of the pirate legacy in North America, and particularly New York, are fascinating to read.
I have some critical points to note concerning Ekin’s work.
While he makes a good attempt at linking the events of June 1631 CE with contemporary politics and criminal actions, I am not totally convinced that some of the language used was suitable, its rather speculative and emotive, and might be deployed in the wrong context; furthermore, the author fails to define his terminology. This leaves the book, in places, open to an ambiguous interpretation. For instance: “Islamist jihad” (p. 9); “endless jihad” (p. 10); “Islamist empire” (p. 10); “invasion” (p. 10); “ethnic cleansing” (p.10); “Islamist invasion” (p. 118).
Also, some of the language used is arguably orientalist: “curved slippers”; “the plumes” (p. 19); “crescent moon” (p. 23).
Nonetheless, I repeat myself here, I did enjoy reading this book; Ekin explores ideas and concepts freely and does not stifle debate.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
Sevket.Akyildiz | 10 andere besprekingen | Jan 10, 2024 |
Ireland’s Pirate Trail tells stories of freebooters and pirates from every corner of our coast over a thousand years, including famous pirates like Anne Bonny and William Lamport, who set off to ply their trade in the Caribbean. Ekin also debunks many myths about our most well-known sea warrior, Granuaile, the ‘Pirate Queen’ of Mayo. Thoroughly researched and beautifully told. Filled with exciting untold stories
 
Gemarkeerd
kirstenlund | Mar 27, 2023 |
I would love to think this book may have been worth a thumb through, but it is completely obscured by the tabloid style of the Sunday World qualified author. Some interesting information, some very good research, a whole lashing of speculative accounts of piracy used misleadingly and in the end a very poor book. The writing and descriptions are sensationalised and woeful. Shame.
 
Gemarkeerd
ephemeral_future | 10 andere besprekingen | Aug 20, 2020 |
Though the subject of considerable attention at the time, the raid on the Irish coastal village of Baltimore on June 20, 1631 is an event that has been long overlooked by most histories of the era. Yet as Des Ekin demonstrates in this absorbing book, it is an event that offers an interesting window into life in the early 17th century. While such raids were uncommon they were not unheard of, as Barbary pirates started ranging out into the Atlantic and raiding settlements along the coast. It was one of these raids which fell upon Baltimore, sacking the village and capturing over a hundred men, women, and children. These captives were then taken to Algiers and sold into slavery, a fate from which few of them would ever escape.

Ekin’s book is an entertaining account of this traditionally obscure event. A journalist and author of two novels, Ekin conducted considerable research to underneath the lives and experiences of the Baltimore captives. Where the directly relevant sources ended Ekin turned to the accounts of others who dealt with the Barbary pirates or underwent similar experiences in an effort to understand better what life was like for the villagers of Baltimore. Though this occasionally comes across as padding, it results in a more generally informative portrait of the early 17th century, the economics of slavery, and life during those times.

Yet these strengths are offset by several problems. While his research into the village of Baltimore, the captives, and their lives is thorough, his coverage of the broader context is weaker, with descriptions of such groups as the Janissaries often dependent on a couple of sources, often dated and bearing errors as a consequence. Moreover, while Eakin claims in his preface that he has made nothing up, the text is peppered with assumptions and suppositions that strain such an assertion. Stitching all of this together is an overwrought prose style that gets in the way of a naturally exciting tale. These flaws detract from what is otherwise an interesting account of the sack of Baltimore and the fate of its survivors.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
MacDad | 10 andere besprekingen | Mar 27, 2020 |

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Werken
8
Leden
243
Populariteit
#93,557
Waardering
½ 3.4
Besprekingen
12
ISBNs
23

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