An episodic history of Ireland, beginning with a brief prologue about pre-Christian Ireland, then covering:
1. The coming of Christianity to Ireland, which was then sent back into mainland Europe as learning was lost with the “Dark Ages” (although interesting, the biography of Columbanus in Europe felt out of place).
2. A little about the Irish kingdoms themselves. Perhaps there is little evidence of these, but other than Dal Riata (Scottish Isles and north Irish kingdom) and what became Ulster, there was too little about this.
3. The coming of the Viking, and how this was similar, but different from in England/Britain.
4. The coming of the Normans/Angevins, including the creation of the Pale, which was interesting as although I knew that this had happened, I did not know any detail.
5. The reformation, Cromwell (“By 1660 famine, fighting and disease had wiped out between a fifth and a quarter of the Irish population”) and protestant settlements, mainly Presbyterians from Scotland. I really had not understood how Ulster’s protestants were separate from English interests. Also the start of emigration, with Catholics emigrating to Europe (the “wild geese”).
6. The Act of Settlement (1652) – “an attempt at social engineering on a vast and revolutionary scale, dispossessing landowners in order to hand their estates over to newcomers; and it was underpinned by the hope that, in the end, the Irish would depart for good. The effect was the creation of the Ascendancy in Ireland: a Protestant class of five thousand-odd families that would control the lion’s share of the land – and this was the great shift that would dominate the country’s affairs for the next 270 years.” But then too little about the Ascendancy.
7. The Battle of the Boyne (1690) – “though it was certainly not the great decisive engagement of Irish myth, has provided one enduring image: that of William on a white charger, his vast force wholly outnumbering, outgunning and outflanking the Jacobites” (Catholics from various countries).
8. More emigration “The eighteenth century witnessed the first mass emigration in Irish history: between 1717 and 1776, a quarter of a million Presbyterians sailed from Belfast, Derry and the smaller ports of Ulster for a new life in North America. Some made for Canada, leaving a lasting imprint on the culture and politics of Ontario in particular; the majority, however, chose to settle in the United States, where they came to be known as the Scots-Irish.”
9. The potato famine (1845-49), a European wide blight, but “It was only in Ireland, however, that such a high proportion of the population was so utterly dependent on a single crop.” And the “Irish Question” – trying (unsuccessfully) to bring the Catholic majority into the administration of Ireland in the 19th century.
10. Moving to the late nineteenth and twentieth century there was useful explanations (to me) of the personalities and significance of Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Collins and de Valera, the policies of Unionism and Nationalism, the Free State’s brief civil war, the impact of the Irish “diaspora” upon Irish politics and culture, the influence of the Catholic Church from the 1920’s onwards and neutrality during the second world war.
11. There are brief mentions of Irish culture once we reach the late nineteenth century, although the majority of this was produced by Irish emigrants. It was sad/interesting/appalling to read that “at the end of the 1920s, a massive 93 per cent of children were in receipt of no secondary education at all.”
12. With regard to the analysis of late twentieth century and later politics (in the Afterword), it is perhaps difficult to stand back from this with sufficient perspective, as it is still too close in time to be history, rather than memory. However, a brave attempt is made at providing an outline analysis without being partisan. Some of this was familiar to me from news reports from the 1970’s onwards and it was interesting to read about these events as history and from a southern Irish perspective
Perhaps inevitably, there is much about the relationship with England/Britain, as well as with other countries, especially Scotland and France. As noted above, there is too little about the indigenous Irish themselves and more about “immigrants”, especially for early periods.

Overall, despite some weaknesses, especially with pre-Christian Ireland, I have learnt much and the book is a good, readable introduction to Ireland’s history. ( )

Another one of those books you buy when you make a trip to a country and want to learn about it's history. This one I bought on a 10 day trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland in May/June 2011. It seems to be an extension of a BBC TV series about Ireland.
While visiting Ireland the country looked to me like a slightly different version of the UK but it became clear when you did hear people talk about their history that there is way more story behind this. The book starts out with the early settlements in Ireland and this is where it almost lost my interest. Reading about the Vikings plundering and the early influence of the Catholic Church seems slow and rather boring. It really starts to get interesting with the times of Henry VIIIth like most stories about the British Isles. The separation from the Catholic Church really put an interesting spin into Ireland's history. Now the pace of the book picks up and what the European continent went through with the religious wars seem to be reflected in a smaller scale in Ireland.
The book explains why Oliver Cromwell is not considered a hero but rather a murderer in Ireland. Drogheda was one of the first cities he visited in Ireland and created a massacre amongst the population to set an example to all Irish. By the way visting Drogheda (before or after reading the book) is definitely worth while. The fortification tower on the hill played an important role through different times (Cromwell captured it and it was destroyed again by the British in the 20th century during the revolution). Visiting the tower also allows you to look at the area where the battle of Boyne between William of Orange and the British King happened (amazing that William, a Dutch Protestant at that time supported the English against their King who was supported by the Irish, all described in detail in the book).
Another interesting piece of Irish history is how Northern Ireland as we know it came about. From the early settlements by London businessmen (financially encouraged by the crown) in Derry (hence Londonderry) over the Presbyterian (interestingly not Anglican) settlers from Scotland to the separation as we know it today (1613)
The book also goes into detail to introduce some of the main characters that enabled Ireland to be the Republic it is today. The ones that really stick in your mind after readying this book are Jonathan Swift, Patrick Praige (the main force in the Easter Rising, later executed by the British), Michael Collins (assassinated in 1922) and Ramon deValera (the first president of the republic). Surprisingly the republic was extremly conservative and compared to other countries only opened up very late to be more liberal.
Overall this book is extremly interesting (you have to make it through the first few chapters though). I would have liked a more detailed chapter on the Bloody Sunday events (you can get those through wikipedia if interested). ( )