The Shortest History of Ireland

by James Hawes

Genres: History

Hardcover

About the author

James 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.

Reviews

[Leon Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of all of 'The shortest history...' books, they give you a broad understanding of a given topic that is both accessible and, for the most part, reliable.

The Ireland book is slightly different for two reasons:

1. It's very clear that Irish history is amazingly complex with group after group assimilating or migrating that is hard keep track of in a short book. I think the author is trying to give an impression of 'it's complicated' and he does this well, but it's not paricularly easy to follow.

2. Other 'Shortest Histories' are written in a more neutral tone and are much the better for it, this edition much less so, for example the author describes Brexit as "a cabal of Tories scaremonger(ing) the poor and uneducated English in to voting to leave the EU". (Incidentally, I have a great deal of sympathy for what the author has written, I'm just not sure it's the right tone for this book.)

Strangely enough, I think this is the first time I've read a 'Shortest History' and thought it need re-reading. Other editions prepare you for deeper reading, this one makes you feel that you're not there yet.

[Rory Bergin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I strongly recommend this to any Irish person or, indeed, and English person wishing to understand Irish history. It’s a quick canter through all known history of the island of Ireland and of course is dominated by the relationship between Ireland and its cantankerous neighbours. I studied Irish history as a teenager and the startling revisions to Irish history and its relationship to the Catholic Church, made possible by an upturning of the relationship between Church and State demonstrates how the Church abused its relationship with the Irish people centuries before more recent abuses came to light. English politics, particularly Tory politics comes in for close scrutiny but that was entirely permissible when I was a teenager. Criticism of the church wasn’t. How much can change in a few decades.

[Alejandro Paulovitch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Incredibly biased. I love these books but James Hawes a supposed Brit is incredibly anti English, anti British and anti white. Abdominal writing to describe British history to gaslight Irish people into thinking they're a mismash of people.

It is incredibly disingenuous and leftwing coded smothered in self hate. sorry Hawes, you're not any better than your Brown immigrant who hates the UK and white European culture.

Even the story telling of Irish history reads like shit with cherry picked data, a shame a guy went this low writing a book (Jew coded). Really pissed me off.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Hawes does it again, with a whistlestop tour of a nation's history. Previously, it was England and Germany, this time it's Ireland. The chapters covering the period prior to 1200s are strong, with fresh and engaging interpretations. Unfortunately, thereafter, the tour doesn't work as well with Ireland as it did in the books on Germany and England. Firstly, the book is too indulgent of a pro-Irish, 'aren't we awful victims altogether' way of thinking. Secondly, the book gets too tied up in recent politics and history and embraces a very left-liberal interpretation of Irish history, where the poor oppressed people were trampled by the Church and the conservative State. The reality is far more complicated.

For those interested in a short history of Ireland, The Irish Difference by Fergal Tobin is a better choice being both more detached and less indulgent of the myths of victimhood with which us Irish coddle ourselves.

[Jan Maciejewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit *too* much of a whistlestop tour. Some odd choices of which events in Irish history to emphasise and which to skim over. Does a decent job overall, but perhaps bit off more than it could chew