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The Shortest History of Ireland
'After his masterpieces on Germany and England, James Hawes has done it again... a wonder to behold' PROFESSOR CIARAN MARTIN
From the Ice Age to the present, here is the real story of Ireland.
In The Shortest History of Ireland, James Hawes turns his attention to Ireland, reaching beyond the clichés to tell a dramatic new story, backed up by the latest scholarship.
Irish history is often seen as a mere catalogue of colonial repression. Yet Hawes shows that Ireland, its unique culture rooted in millennia of continuity, has always been able to assimilate would-be invaders. He reveals how the Irish, ever since the roaming saints and scholars of the early Middle Ages, helped shape Europe, then America. And he argues that, with its natural wealth, its extraordinary magnetism and its exiled children across the globe, the island only needs to sidestep the last, toxic wreckage of the British Empire for its turbulent past to flow into a bright future.
With 100s of maps and images, this is popular history at its best -- a timeless drama of freedom and persecution, riot and revolution, empire and independence.
From the Ice Age to the present, here is the real story of Ireland.
In The Shortest History of Ireland, James Hawes turns his attention to Ireland, reaching beyond the clichés to tell a dramatic new story, backed up by the latest scholarship.
Irish history is often seen as a mere catalogue of colonial repression. Yet Hawes shows that Ireland, its unique culture rooted in millennia of continuity, has always been able to assimilate would-be invaders. He reveals how the Irish, ever since the roaming saints and scholars of the early Middle Ages, helped shape Europe, then America. And he argues that, with its natural wealth, its extraordinary magnetism and its exiled children across the globe, the island only needs to sidestep the last, toxic wreckage of the British Empire for its turbulent past to flow into a bright future.
With 100s of maps and images, this is popular history at its best -- a timeless drama of freedom and persecution, riot and revolution, empire and independence.
377 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 3, 2026
About the author
James Hawes
37 books81 followersJames Hawes grew up in Gloucestershire, Edinburgh and Shropshire. He took a First in German at Hertford College, Oxford, then did a postgrad theatre studies in Cardiff, Wales. Having failed as an actor, he worked as an English teacher in Spain. In 1985-6 he was in charge of CADW excavations at the now-UNESCO World Heritage site of Blaenavon Ironworks. He took a PhD on Nietzsche and German literature 1900-1914 at University College, London 1987-90, then lectured in German at Maynooth University (Ollscoil Mhá Nuad) in Ireland between 1989 and 1991 before doing so at Sheffield University and Swansea University.
James has published six novels, all with Jonathan Cape. He turned to creative non-fiction with a Kafka anti-biography, Excavating Kafka (2008) which became the subject of a BBC documentary. In 2015, Englanders and Huns was shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political Books of the Year 2015. The Shortest History of Germany, published in May 2017, reached #2 in the Sunday Times bestseller charts in April 2018, being pipped for #1 only by Noah Yuval Harari. The Shortest History of England appeared in October 2020 and reached #4 in the Times bestseller charts in July 2021.
James has reviewed and/or written for every UK broadsheet, on topics from DIY to Prince Philip. His journalistic high-points to date were the cover-story for The New Statesman in September 2017 and the long read The England Delusion in Prospect in August 2021; this was publicly described by Prof Ciaran Martin, CB, founding Chief Executive of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, as “a really brilliant essay on the historical origins of UK constitutional tensions”. He has appeared on Radio 4 Today, Channel 4 News, Sky News and GB News.
In 2022, he was “series story consultant” and key on-screen commentator in the eight-part BBC TV series “Art that Made Us”. He also wrote the accompanying book.
His next book will be The Shortest History of Ireland.
James has published six novels, all with Jonathan Cape. He turned to creative non-fiction with a Kafka anti-biography, Excavating Kafka (2008) which became the subject of a BBC documentary. In 2015, Englanders and Huns was shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political Books of the Year 2015. The Shortest History of Germany, published in May 2017, reached #2 in the Sunday Times bestseller charts in April 2018, being pipped for #1 only by Noah Yuval Harari. The Shortest History of England appeared in October 2020 and reached #4 in the Times bestseller charts in July 2021.
James has reviewed and/or written for every UK broadsheet, on topics from DIY to Prince Philip. His journalistic high-points to date were the cover-story for The New Statesman in September 2017 and the long read The England Delusion in Prospect in August 2021; this was publicly described by Prof Ciaran Martin, CB, founding Chief Executive of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, as “a really brilliant essay on the historical origins of UK constitutional tensions”. He has appeared on Radio 4 Today, Channel 4 News, Sky News and GB News.
In 2022, he was “series story consultant” and key on-screen commentator in the eight-part BBC TV series “Art that Made Us”. He also wrote the accompanying book.
His next book will be The Shortest History of Ireland.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 2, 2026
This is a hyper-partisan book, it talks of "the inevitability of a United Ireland" and how it will be accompanied by the "dissolution of the UK". My excitement at seeing a book about my home island at the front of an English bookshop was quickly turned to disappointment at the pronouncements the English readers will take as fact, this being a history book.
As an Irish catholic I have always found it frustrating how people assume that a UI is the "natural" state of affairs and also that we are being prevented from exorcising our freedom by the oppressive British state and how this is something presumably that I am very upset about. This book only aids that perception.
As an Irish catholic I have always found it frustrating how people assume that a UI is the "natural" state of affairs and also that we are being prevented from exorcising our freedom by the oppressive British state and how this is something presumably that I am very upset about. This book only aids that perception.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Fantastic. A brilliant look at Irish history from an Irish perspective while still respecting its standing in the world. Irish people should absolutely give this a read
May 4, 2026
A short review of The Shortest History of Ireland: The English suck.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews