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The Origins of the Irish
An essential new history of ancient Ireland and the Irish, written as an engrossing detective story
About eighty million people today can trace their descent back to the occupants of Ireland. But where did the occupants of the island themselves come from and what do we even mean by “Irish” in the first place?
This is the first major attempt to deal with the core issues of how the Irish came into being. J. P. Mallory emphasizes that the Irish did not have a single origin, but are a product of multiple influences that can only be tracked by employing the disciplines of archaeology, genetics, geology, linguistics, and mythology.
Beginning with the collision that fused the two halves of Ireland together, the book traces Ireland’s long journey through space and time to become an island. The origins of its first farmers and their monumental impact on the island is followed by an exploration of how metallurgists in copper, bronze, and iron brought Ireland into increasingly wider orbits of European culture. Assessments of traditional explanations of Irish origins are combined with the very latest genetic research into the biological origins of the Irish.
122 illustrations
About eighty million people today can trace their descent back to the occupants of Ireland. But where did the occupants of the island themselves come from and what do we even mean by “Irish” in the first place?
This is the first major attempt to deal with the core issues of how the Irish came into being. J. P. Mallory emphasizes that the Irish did not have a single origin, but are a product of multiple influences that can only be tracked by employing the disciplines of archaeology, genetics, geology, linguistics, and mythology.
Beginning with the collision that fused the two halves of Ireland together, the book traces Ireland’s long journey through space and time to become an island. The origins of its first farmers and their monumental impact on the island is followed by an exploration of how metallurgists in copper, bronze, and iron brought Ireland into increasingly wider orbits of European culture. Assessments of traditional explanations of Irish origins are combined with the very latest genetic research into the biological origins of the Irish.
122 illustrations
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 21, 2013
71 people are currently reading
758 people want to read
About the author
J.P. Mallory
21 books43 followersJames Patrick Mallory is an Irish-American archaeologist and Indo-Europeanist. Mallory is a professor at the Queen's University, Belfast.
Born in 1945, Mallory received his A.B. in History from Occidental College in California in 1967, then served three years in the US Army as a military police sergeant. He received his Ph.D. in Indo-European studies from UCLA in 1975. He has held several posts at Queen's beginning in 1977, becoming Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology in 1998.
Professor Mallory's research has focused on Early Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe, the problem of the homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and the archaeology of early Ireland. He favors an integrative approach to these issues, comparing literary, linguistic and archaeological evidence to solve historical puzzles.
One consequence of this preference for an integrated approach is that Professor Mallory has been strongly critical of the widely publicised theory of Indo-European origins held by Colin Renfrew which locates the urheimat or homeland of this language family in early Neolithic Anatolia and associates its spread with the spread of agriculture. A key element of his criticism has been a vigorous defence of lingustic palaeontology as a valid tool for solving the Indo-European homeland problem, arguing that Renfrew is sceptical about it precisely because it offers some of the strongest evidence against the latter's own model. Professor Mallory recently published a new book with D.Q. Adams, entitled The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World and published by Oxford University Press, where doubtless the debate with Renfrew will resume in earnest.
He is the editor of the Journal of Indo-European Studies, published by the Institute for the Study of Man of which Roger Pearson is the founding editor.
Born in 1945, Mallory received his A.B. in History from Occidental College in California in 1967, then served three years in the US Army as a military police sergeant. He received his Ph.D. in Indo-European studies from UCLA in 1975. He has held several posts at Queen's beginning in 1977, becoming Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology in 1998.
Professor Mallory's research has focused on Early Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe, the problem of the homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and the archaeology of early Ireland. He favors an integrative approach to these issues, comparing literary, linguistic and archaeological evidence to solve historical puzzles.
One consequence of this preference for an integrated approach is that Professor Mallory has been strongly critical of the widely publicised theory of Indo-European origins held by Colin Renfrew which locates the urheimat or homeland of this language family in early Neolithic Anatolia and associates its spread with the spread of agriculture. A key element of his criticism has been a vigorous defence of lingustic palaeontology as a valid tool for solving the Indo-European homeland problem, arguing that Renfrew is sceptical about it precisely because it offers some of the strongest evidence against the latter's own model. Professor Mallory recently published a new book with D.Q. Adams, entitled The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World and published by Oxford University Press, where doubtless the debate with Renfrew will resume in earnest.
He is the editor of the Journal of Indo-European Studies, published by the Institute for the Study of Man of which Roger Pearson is the founding editor.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
March 31, 2021
This book is dense as hell and occasionally a slog to get through, but considering it's trying to trace the entire prehistory of Ireland, starting with the geological formation, in about 300 pages it's impressive how readable it is. It's a fascinating, thorough overview of Irish prehistory, which most books on Ireland like to skip over, and Mallory isn't afraid to say when we just don't have the archaeological records to answer questions. Also has a few "fuck white supremacists, racial purity doesn't exist" moments in polite academic language, which is very appreciated.
October 26, 2020
This is, I would say, a difficult book made more palatable by the occasionally flippant tone of the writer. Using paragraph headings such as partition and reunification, he takes us from the emergence of the country in two separate parts (north and south) billions of years ago and its slow passage across the planet via Australia to its arrival at its current position, heading onwards during the next 250 million years towards Siberia. It seems that it will already be uninhabitable in about 10,000 years as an ice-age descends on it. Global Warming be damned.
Settlers arrived around 8,000 BCE (subsequent archeology suggests 10,500 BCE) and he surveys the Bronze and Iron Ages to figure out where we are. The knowledge is, to say the least, sketchy but intriguing. it seemed to me that some of our ancient forebears were more in contact with our continental cousins than the Irish of the mid-20th century.
Really interesting was his claim that the notion of a Celtic past is a largely romantic 17th century invention of the Irish, Scots and Welsh in an effort to distinguish themselves from our English neighbours. As he said, he avoided the C word until chapter 9 but had to address it finally. I liked the following quotation he cites:
< blockquote >A Celt is someone who:
either speaks a Celtic language
or produces or uses Celtic art or material culture
or has been referred to as one in historical records
or has identified himself or been identified by others as such &c.
Hence the expression “… or whatever you’re having yourself”.
Conclusion, a difficult but engaging read.
Settlers arrived around 8,000 BCE (subsequent archeology suggests 10,500 BCE) and he surveys the Bronze and Iron Ages to figure out where we are. The knowledge is, to say the least, sketchy but intriguing. it seemed to me that some of our ancient forebears were more in contact with our continental cousins than the Irish of the mid-20th century.
Really interesting was his claim that the notion of a Celtic past is a largely romantic 17th century invention of the Irish, Scots and Welsh in an effort to distinguish themselves from our English neighbours. As he said, he avoided the C word until chapter 9 but had to address it finally. I liked the following quotation he cites:
< blockquote >A Celt is someone who:
either speaks a Celtic language
or produces or uses Celtic art or material culture
or has been referred to as one in historical records
or has identified himself or been identified by others as such &c.
Hence the expression “… or whatever you’re having yourself”.
Conclusion, a difficult but engaging read.
April 8, 2019
A book looking at where the Irish came from. As someone whose recent DNA tests revealed that I am carrying around about 49% Irish/Scottish ancestory from mostly Leinster and Munster, when I saw this on the shelf at the airport bookshop, I had to have it.
Written with a dry, sometimes wry, wit, J. P. Mallory goes right back to the formation of the earth itself to try and track down the forces that shaped the land and its inhabitants.
A delightful and interesting read.
Written with a dry, sometimes wry, wit, J. P. Mallory goes right back to the formation of the earth itself to try and track down the forces that shaped the land and its inhabitants.
A delightful and interesting read.
February 25, 2019
A great overview of Irish prehistory. I plan on reading it again sometime soon.
February 8, 2022
A good overview, but important to keep in mind that much of the evidence in genetics and linguistics that Mallory discusses in the last two chapters has already been outpaced by more recent research. (Later editions of the book include some updates in the concluding chapter, though I wish these had been included instead in the relevant earlier chapters.)
All in all, though, an excellent survey of the archeological evidence that helps to illustrate the complexity of questions surrounding Irish identity. These questions have too often been dominated in the 19th and 20th centuries by overly-simplistic (often nationalist, sometimes overtly racist) agendas, to which Mallory’s work provides a much needed counterpoint. If he errs too much on the side of “there’s really no such thing as an ‘Irishman’ if you look closely enough,” I think I’m willing to forgive his caution.
All in all, though, an excellent survey of the archeological evidence that helps to illustrate the complexity of questions surrounding Irish identity. These questions have too often been dominated in the 19th and 20th centuries by overly-simplistic (often nationalist, sometimes overtly racist) agendas, to which Mallory’s work provides a much needed counterpoint. If he errs too much on the side of “there’s really no such thing as an ‘Irishman’ if you look closely enough,” I think I’m willing to forgive his caution.
May 8, 2024
Hillforts and language trees, oh my!
January 20, 2022
This is an incredibly dense account of what the origins of the irish could be. I found the going very tough in certain points, and at times I can't deny that words were going in one eye and out the other. If I wasn't reading fiction at the same time to keep my reading interest up, it could have taken alot longer to finish this book. That isn't really a critique, but a more critique on my own interests and previous knowledge of archeology. The book does answer some questions about the origins of the irish, but I still left reading with more questions than when I went in which I think is a very positive experience. It left me pondering what exactly it means to be irish, which I had hoped would be answered by the book. But the author does do a good job of trying to answer that question with the use of archology, movements of people, linguistics and DNA, and shows why that question is so hard to answer.
February 21, 2019
J.P. Mallory must be delightful to have as a professor, because this book is not only thorough, it is fascinating and dryly witty. He begins at the very beginning of time and explores, in detail and with supporting evidence from various fields, the waves of settlers who have inhabited Ireland. My favorite chapter was Chapter 9 which deals with the Irish language. I was very pleased to note that, unlike many history books seeking a popular audience, there were no bizarre flights of fancy asserted about Goidelic substrates. For an archaeologist to have done solid linguistic research in the most up-to-date linguistic theories is always welcome. While the author discusses various ideas, he is careful not to endorse anything that is still unproven. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a comprehensive and sensible approach to the prehistoric peoples of Ireland.
January 8, 2024
The Origins of the Irish says that ‘recent studies of the DNA of some of the native Irish fauna... reveal that they are much closer to species found in Spain than to those now found in Britain’. Compared with Britain and the Continent, Ireland would have been regarded as impoverished with respect to potential food supplies. The earliest colonists in Ireland found a land lacking in many of the resources of neighbouring regions and had to import resources and devise distinctly local strategies in order to survive. Mesolithic Ireland simply lacked any wild cereal that could be domesticated and there is no evidence that any wild cattle were present in Ireland during the Mesolithic period.
Among the purported foreign objects there is one everyone agrees must have come from abroad; in the Iron Age levels of Navan fought were found the remains of the head and jaw of a barbery ape, an animal that was hardly native to Co. Armagh.
The native Irish version of history taken from the Book of Invasions (Lebor Gabole Erenn) was that the Gaels (Irish) descended (their name derived) from Gaedel Glas, whose mother (incidentally the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh) Scotta gave her name to Scotti (Irish). The Sons of Mil –’soldiers of Spain’ were descendants of Gaedel Glas and described Ireland as rich in acorns, honey, wheat and fish, with a balanced climate. The geneticist Stephen Oppenheimer notes that a series of genetic expansions from Iberia is still consistent with the narrative in Lebor Gabole Erenn, The Book of Invasions.
Isadore of Seville wrote that Ireland ‘is an island next to Britannia [but is] ...more fertile’. Perhaps this is why the potato grown in Ireland has a more dry, fluffy and floury texture compared with the English variety that has a wet and waxy texture.
The ancient Irish had a concept that kingship comprises selection by a female goddess of sovereignty and both the Irish and Gauls believed that their ancestor was the god of the dead. We also find the idea of the ancestor of mankind serving as the lord of the dead to whom the dead are called in the religion of the early Indians and Iranians. While geographically distinct both the Indians and Iranians belong to the same language family as the Irish, and many members of this language family, Indo European either share the same names for some of the deities or describe them in such a way that we expect that they were all derived from the same ancestral form.
The largest physical type in Ireland in the 1930s was those with dark hair, blue eyes and long heads, but there were also other types such as Nordic Mediterranean and Dianerics (Southeast Europeans) which were the findings of a Harvard University mission. Attempts to compare the teeth of Irish people with a world database found Ireland most similar to populations in North Africa, Western Europe, India and even East Africa. The Irish and Scots are found to occupy a single periphery branch of the genetic tree whereas the English were subgrouped with the Dutch and Danes and somewhat more distantly with the Swiss, German, Belgians and Austrians i.e. broadly the same geographical and linguistic group. Generally Ireland was found to be closely linked with Scotland (and Wales when the data was included) but not to possess markedly clear connections with other Europeans other than Iberia.
Often one imagines that a small foreign population may have assumed leadership and brought about language change. When this happens there is no expectation that the process of language shift be accompanied by a high degree of genetic admixture, although this can of course sometimes also be the case.
There is an Irish saying that ‘there is no country without a language’ and In the 17th century there were much more massive plantations of English speaking settlers and a combination of restrictive laws against the Irish language, the confiscation of Irish lands and the later introduction of an English based school system , coupled with the famine, all played a part in reducing the numbers of Irish speakers.
Old Norse and old English were two branches of the same family tree. The closest language to English is Fresian a language spoken in the north of the Netherlands and adjacent area of northern Germany. The next closest is low German.
Indo European languages share a series of common words for domesticated plants and animals as well as some of the material culture associated with agriculture. This includes the names for animals introduced into Ireland at the beginning of the Neolithic. For example there are several words associated with a cow in Irish that are cognate (i.e. share the same ancestral word) with the names for these same animals in other Indo European languages, eg old Irish ‘dam’ bull and Sanskrit ‘damya’ young bull.
The Neolitihic woman found in Ireland(c3300-3000 BC) revealed a predominantly Near Eastern origin and she was, as so many other Neolithic samples are, most similar to a modern Sardinian, who has become the genetic archtype for the first farmers in the Meditterenean and Atlantic Europe, She had dark brown hair and brown eyes.
The 3 males also found in Ireland (c2000-3000 BC) had light coloured hair and brown eyes whose ancestors lay in the distant steplands of the Ukraine and Southern Russia.
A minority of Irish genes carry a legacy derived from the spread of the first farmers from the Near East and analysis of the genetics of modern Irish populations suggest that some of them derived from South West Asia.
Among the purported foreign objects there is one everyone agrees must have come from abroad; in the Iron Age levels of Navan fought were found the remains of the head and jaw of a barbery ape, an animal that was hardly native to Co. Armagh.
The native Irish version of history taken from the Book of Invasions (Lebor Gabole Erenn) was that the Gaels (Irish) descended (their name derived) from Gaedel Glas, whose mother (incidentally the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh) Scotta gave her name to Scotti (Irish). The Sons of Mil –’soldiers of Spain’ were descendants of Gaedel Glas and described Ireland as rich in acorns, honey, wheat and fish, with a balanced climate. The geneticist Stephen Oppenheimer notes that a series of genetic expansions from Iberia is still consistent with the narrative in Lebor Gabole Erenn, The Book of Invasions.
Isadore of Seville wrote that Ireland ‘is an island next to Britannia [but is] ...more fertile’. Perhaps this is why the potato grown in Ireland has a more dry, fluffy and floury texture compared with the English variety that has a wet and waxy texture.
The ancient Irish had a concept that kingship comprises selection by a female goddess of sovereignty and both the Irish and Gauls believed that their ancestor was the god of the dead. We also find the idea of the ancestor of mankind serving as the lord of the dead to whom the dead are called in the religion of the early Indians and Iranians. While geographically distinct both the Indians and Iranians belong to the same language family as the Irish, and many members of this language family, Indo European either share the same names for some of the deities or describe them in such a way that we expect that they were all derived from the same ancestral form.
The largest physical type in Ireland in the 1930s was those with dark hair, blue eyes and long heads, but there were also other types such as Nordic Mediterranean and Dianerics (Southeast Europeans) which were the findings of a Harvard University mission. Attempts to compare the teeth of Irish people with a world database found Ireland most similar to populations in North Africa, Western Europe, India and even East Africa. The Irish and Scots are found to occupy a single periphery branch of the genetic tree whereas the English were subgrouped with the Dutch and Danes and somewhat more distantly with the Swiss, German, Belgians and Austrians i.e. broadly the same geographical and linguistic group. Generally Ireland was found to be closely linked with Scotland (and Wales when the data was included) but not to possess markedly clear connections with other Europeans other than Iberia.
Often one imagines that a small foreign population may have assumed leadership and brought about language change. When this happens there is no expectation that the process of language shift be accompanied by a high degree of genetic admixture, although this can of course sometimes also be the case.
There is an Irish saying that ‘there is no country without a language’ and In the 17th century there were much more massive plantations of English speaking settlers and a combination of restrictive laws against the Irish language, the confiscation of Irish lands and the later introduction of an English based school system , coupled with the famine, all played a part in reducing the numbers of Irish speakers.
Old Norse and old English were two branches of the same family tree. The closest language to English is Fresian a language spoken in the north of the Netherlands and adjacent area of northern Germany. The next closest is low German.
Indo European languages share a series of common words for domesticated plants and animals as well as some of the material culture associated with agriculture. This includes the names for animals introduced into Ireland at the beginning of the Neolithic. For example there are several words associated with a cow in Irish that are cognate (i.e. share the same ancestral word) with the names for these same animals in other Indo European languages, eg old Irish ‘dam’ bull and Sanskrit ‘damya’ young bull.
The Neolitihic woman found in Ireland(c3300-3000 BC) revealed a predominantly Near Eastern origin and she was, as so many other Neolithic samples are, most similar to a modern Sardinian, who has become the genetic archtype for the first farmers in the Meditterenean and Atlantic Europe, She had dark brown hair and brown eyes.
The 3 males also found in Ireland (c2000-3000 BC) had light coloured hair and brown eyes whose ancestors lay in the distant steplands of the Ukraine and Southern Russia.
A minority of Irish genes carry a legacy derived from the spread of the first farmers from the Near East and analysis of the genetics of modern Irish populations suggest that some of them derived from South West Asia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 7, 2014
Mallory displays a masterful grasp of the diverse literature at his disposal. That said the work is highly accessible and at times almost chatty. Mallory is at his best as a skeptic, detailing the limitations of evidence from archaeology, genetics, mythology and linguistics. Yet in the end he does advance a tentative sketch of how Ireland may have been populated plus how and when the Irish language may have arrived.
February 24, 2015
This is absolutely one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. It's an academic work, so it could seem dry if that's not what you're expecting. It was exactly what I was expecting, though. Geology, archaeology, linguistics, genetics, and Irish folklore all rolled into one, with humor and wit.
August 21, 2018
In short, neither the author nor archaeologists in general have any idea where the Irish came from. There are many questions about our past raised in the book, but next to no answers given. There were some interesting side points, but also a lot of irrelevant parts that I skipped.
March 17, 2014
for now just let me say: great!
November 5, 2015
The survey of the meso and neo lithic periods were, for me, particularly helpful & enjoyable. An overall solid resource.
July 7, 2023
Difficult but really interesting !
August 6, 2023
Where did the Irish come from? The complex mixture of mythological origin stories and Church influenced genealogies means that any attempt to determine who inhabited Ireland when, and where they originally came from is anything but easy. It predates the problem of the origins of the “Celtics” (various European peoples linked linguistically and culturally), with nothing less than Irish pride at stake.
But in this 2017 paperback edition of J.P. Mallory’s book “The Origins of the Irish” the problem is tackled in all the ways it can – and should be – to come to sensible conclusions according to modern scientific techniques. Mallory traces the creation of the continent from the breakup of the supercontinent of which it was a part. He tells the story of the first humans to inhabit Ireland as revealed by archaeology. He also tackles the problem of misinformation relayed through classical accounts (written by individuals who had never been to Ireland) which suggested origins for the Irish which haven’t withstood close examination and excavation.
Best of all, at the end of each chapter, the conclusions of the densely packed, detailed arguments are summarised in chapter end dot points that have been established (or demolished) by the author in the preceding pages. If you don’t have time to read the entire book to find the author’s view on some key point, just skip to the chapter ends to find what you’re looking for. You can then go back and read whatever additional detail you require. The book as many maps and black and white illustrations including archaeological drawings of artefacts and monuments springled throughout each chapter. It also has a Bibliography and Index and extensive Notes.
Accounts like Mallory’s are inclined to date rapidly with the development of more exacting testing methods for ancient bones, artefacts, soils, and food residues which provide the tell-tale signs of likely origins. With the speed at which such testing methods has improved, there are likely to be plenty more revelations to come in the story of the Origins of the Irish.
But in this 2017 paperback edition of J.P. Mallory’s book “The Origins of the Irish” the problem is tackled in all the ways it can – and should be – to come to sensible conclusions according to modern scientific techniques. Mallory traces the creation of the continent from the breakup of the supercontinent of which it was a part. He tells the story of the first humans to inhabit Ireland as revealed by archaeology. He also tackles the problem of misinformation relayed through classical accounts (written by individuals who had never been to Ireland) which suggested origins for the Irish which haven’t withstood close examination and excavation.
Best of all, at the end of each chapter, the conclusions of the densely packed, detailed arguments are summarised in chapter end dot points that have been established (or demolished) by the author in the preceding pages. If you don’t have time to read the entire book to find the author’s view on some key point, just skip to the chapter ends to find what you’re looking for. You can then go back and read whatever additional detail you require. The book as many maps and black and white illustrations including archaeological drawings of artefacts and monuments springled throughout each chapter. It also has a Bibliography and Index and extensive Notes.
Accounts like Mallory’s are inclined to date rapidly with the development of more exacting testing methods for ancient bones, artefacts, soils, and food residues which provide the tell-tale signs of likely origins. With the speed at which such testing methods has improved, there are likely to be plenty more revelations to come in the story of the Origins of the Irish.
March 20, 2024
What a challenging book! Lol. I made steady progress through the first half of the book, but then it became a slog to finish the second half. Still glad I did though!
I knew next to nothing about archaeology, and I’ve learned so much in the process of reading this book. Thank god Google maps and chatgpt were around to aid me!
I loved learning about how people have spotted the remnants of ancient Irish cultures. How Ireland has pretty much a date certain for when it was most recently continuously populated (10,000 years ago when the ice retreated… or more recently discovered maybe 12,500 years ago, but chilly). I loved learning a bit about the spread of Celtic and pre Celtic languages. I loved seeing how this all ties into European archaeology and considering its pre-Colombian American counterparts.
Probably my biggest problem with this book is how eager the author was to explain that all that we know is difficult to know. I get that that’s important, but it left me quite confused at times and unmotivated. Plowing through 5 different theories on one subject, knowing that the author will pick one in the end, was tough.
So, maybe I wasn’t the target audience. But that’s ok. I feel very proud of myself for finishing this. I’ve got a bunch of lines of ideas I’d love to know more about in the future. And I’m putting this next to “Pox Americana” as a book that was a tough go but through which I learned a ton. And that’s high praise!
I knew next to nothing about archaeology, and I’ve learned so much in the process of reading this book. Thank god Google maps and chatgpt were around to aid me!
I loved learning about how people have spotted the remnants of ancient Irish cultures. How Ireland has pretty much a date certain for when it was most recently continuously populated (10,000 years ago when the ice retreated… or more recently discovered maybe 12,500 years ago, but chilly). I loved learning a bit about the spread of Celtic and pre Celtic languages. I loved seeing how this all ties into European archaeology and considering its pre-Colombian American counterparts.
Probably my biggest problem with this book is how eager the author was to explain that all that we know is difficult to know. I get that that’s important, but it left me quite confused at times and unmotivated. Plowing through 5 different theories on one subject, knowing that the author will pick one in the end, was tough.
So, maybe I wasn’t the target audience. But that’s ok. I feel very proud of myself for finishing this. I’ve got a bunch of lines of ideas I’d love to know more about in the future. And I’m putting this next to “Pox Americana” as a book that was a tough go but through which I learned a ton. And that’s high praise!
December 13, 2018
The author attempts to find out where the Irish came from, when they started inhabiting Ireland, and their history prior to Niall of the Nine Hostages who died in 405 AD.
The author starts with the formation of the solar system and Earth and how Ireland was formed when the north and south sections joined during the movement of the continents. Fortunately, he does not linger in that history for long. Mostly, he discusses Ireland from the last ice age to the age of Niall, who he considers the first real Irishman. Even though Niall’s mother was British.
I learned a lot about Ireland, mostly that there is little evidence of early Irish history. The author clearly pointed this out by presenting different scenarios, then discrediting them all for lack of archeological data.
While the author added some of his dry humor at the start of the book, by the end he became technical. He attempted several times to come up with a conclusion to where the Irish came from, but in the end discredited even what he tried to conclude due to a lack of data.
I did come away with my own conclusions of the Irish, which I think are plausible. At least, I had conclusions.
The author starts with the formation of the solar system and Earth and how Ireland was formed when the north and south sections joined during the movement of the continents. Fortunately, he does not linger in that history for long. Mostly, he discusses Ireland from the last ice age to the age of Niall, who he considers the first real Irishman. Even though Niall’s mother was British.
I learned a lot about Ireland, mostly that there is little evidence of early Irish history. The author clearly pointed this out by presenting different scenarios, then discrediting them all for lack of archeological data.
While the author added some of his dry humor at the start of the book, by the end he became technical. He attempted several times to come up with a conclusion to where the Irish came from, but in the end discredited even what he tried to conclude due to a lack of data.
I did come away with my own conclusions of the Irish, which I think are plausible. At least, I had conclusions.
June 6, 2021
This was a fantastic overview of the history of Ireland, from the geological formation of the island to the current theories of human populations and development through time. Mallory expertly poses the question "What does it mean to be Irish?" and splendidly complicates the answer through archaeological and historical evidence. Were the Picts the original Irish? or the Celts? None of whom were indigenous to Ireland itself. Migrations back and forth across the channels enabled trade routes that continued to mold and change what we might want to consider as distinctly "Irish" culture. In fact, many of our current ideas of what being Irish means is actually a resurgence of nostalgia within the nation of Ireland, claiming "irishness" of artefacts, languages, and histories that had not originally been thought of as definingly part of the Irish heritage.
I did love this book but got rid of it as I am moving and don't plan to re-read the histories here at any future time.
I did love this book but got rid of it as I am moving and don't plan to re-read the histories here at any future time.
February 13, 2018
Archeologo e Linguista, autentico luminare nel suo campo, il Professor Mallory ha scritto qui un libro ricco; ricco di idee, mappe, disegni, ragionamenti ben ponderati e perfino ricco di humour...irlandese! L'argomento è, come si può capire dal titolo, la ricerca delle origini del popolo irlandese. La premessa è che l'Irlanda è uno dei territori di questo pianeta che per ultimi sono stati abitati dall'uomo a causa dei ghiacciai che la ricoprivano, ghiacciai che hanno permesso l'arrivo dell'essere umano solo 10.000 anni fa.
La domanda sorge dunque spontanea: "Da dove arrivavano i primi colonizzatori dell'isola?"
Le risposte possono essere molteplici e non vi voglio comunque svelare il finale sulla "Madrepatria" originaria dei simpatici irlandesi, ribadisco che è davvero una bellissima sorpresa trovare una lettura così piacevole in un saggio così specialistico
La domanda sorge dunque spontanea: "Da dove arrivavano i primi colonizzatori dell'isola?"
Le risposte possono essere molteplici e non vi voglio comunque svelare il finale sulla "Madrepatria" originaria dei simpatici irlandesi, ribadisco che è davvero una bellissima sorpresa trovare una lettura così piacevole in un saggio così specialistico
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January 6, 2025Used this in a presentation at work. Finished reading it on the bus from Charleroi into Brussels.
Really interesting book on a topic I had been long interested in. Reads like a complete overview of what is by its nature an essentially impossible question to answer. Particuarly interesting is how Mallory basically discounts linguistics or DNA as being useful in determining Irish Origins. DNA research may have come a long way in the last decade so I wonder if that's changed at all, it certainly gets more media traction than academic articles on the historiography of early Irish history. Mallory uses those other aspects as slight indicators weighed alongside the more concrete (but also completely ambiguous) archaeological record. Mallory is a good writer which makes a dense subject an easy read and he touches on bascially every question I had about the lead up to Christianisation.
Really interesting book on a topic I had been long interested in. Reads like a complete overview of what is by its nature an essentially impossible question to answer. Particuarly interesting is how Mallory basically discounts linguistics or DNA as being useful in determining Irish Origins. DNA research may have come a long way in the last decade so I wonder if that's changed at all, it certainly gets more media traction than academic articles on the historiography of early Irish history. Mallory uses those other aspects as slight indicators weighed alongside the more concrete (but also completely ambiguous) archaeological record. Mallory is a good writer which makes a dense subject an easy read and he touches on bascially every question I had about the lead up to Christianisation.
April 27, 2019
Coming to this book after reading “Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past” by David Reich, I found myself spoiled. First by the hard evidence in the Reich book vs the constant “on one hand…” musings of Mallory. Second the DNA discoveries of the last five years would seem to obsolesce much of this 2013 book, am I wrong?
March 8, 2020
I read this book in anticipation of an upcoming trip to Ireland. Not being of Irish decent, the intent was to gain a better understanding of the Irish heritage. From that standpoint, I would say this book is a much deeper drive than I was expecting and thus, my three star rating has more to do with me and less to do with the book.
January 9, 2024
A good read of how my ancestors came about and done with a little humour too. Thankfully he puts a few pages at the end of the book telling about the big DNA shift that happened in Ireland around 2,500 BC that makes up 80% of Irish males today. Recommended. Almost as good as his In Search of the Indo Europeans.
October 12, 2019
I bought this book as research material for a new project and found it extremely helpful. If you have an interest in Pre-Celt Ireland, this book is a great source. It's written with a sense of humor and language even an archaeology novice like myself can handle.
January 18, 2020
Extremely conservative in overdrawing inferences from a still-mysterious historical record and therefore less than fully conclusive, still an informative and enjoyable walkthrough of the subject matter.
March 3, 2025
not what i expected although i guess that’s on me for not reading the whole description. i didn’t realize that it would never get further than 500 AD and go as far back as the big bang. nevertheless it was interesting although quite dense and dry at times making it hard to follow.
January 10, 2018
Good Detail. Tremendous research!
Great research. Thank you very much for all the incredible detail and history. If you are interested in unbiased Irish history, start here.
Great research. Thank you very much for all the incredible detail and history. If you are interested in unbiased Irish history, start here.
December 9, 2018
This was rough. I knew I was in trouble when the author started with the shifting of the tectonic plates and formation of the continents.
But. I was headed to Ireland and wanted a sense of the place beyond fairy stories, Maeve Binchy novels, and Rebellion on Netflix. I learned so much about the island and the pride of its people. I got to visit standing stone circle and ring forts that were described in this book and my experience was richer for it.
The author really wants this to be more engaging than it is, that much is clear. But he also makes a valiant (and successful) effort to present scholarly arguments that don’t ever into the realm of myth, and unfortunately that made this book a bit of a slog.
But. I was headed to Ireland and wanted a sense of the place beyond fairy stories, Maeve Binchy novels, and Rebellion on Netflix. I learned so much about the island and the pride of its people. I got to visit standing stone circle and ring forts that were described in this book and my experience was richer for it.
The author really wants this to be more engaging than it is, that much is clear. But he also makes a valiant (and successful) effort to present scholarly arguments that don’t ever into the realm of myth, and unfortunately that made this book a bit of a slog.
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