A Pocket History of Ireland

by Breandán Ó hEithir

A short and entertaining history from earliest times to the present by one of Ireland's best-loved writers. This book deals with prehistory, the Celts, Christianity, the Vikings and the Normans. The various conquests and rebellions are covered, including Cromwell, Wolfe Tone and the 1916 Rising. One of its strong features is that it brings history up to date, providing an interesting account of both North and South over the past eighty years, clarifying the development and intricacies of the Northern Troubles and the many attempts to resolve them. Understanding and sympathetic, this little book gives a clear and stimulating grasp of Ireland, past and present.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Breandán Ó hEithir was an Irish writer and broadcaster. wrote in both Irish and English, and was highly regarded for the originality and liveliness of his journalism, especially his work in Irish. He was a regular columnist with the journal Comhar and also contributed a weekly column to the Irish Times. He also served as a staff journalist with RTÉ, working on the current affairs programmes Cúrsaí and Féach.

He was born in Galway City, but grew up on Inishmore (one of the Aran Islands), County Galway. His parents were national school teachers and Ó hEithir attended their school in Kilronan. He received his secondary school education at Coláiste Éinde (St Enda's College) in Galway. He attended University College Galway for three years but left without obtaining a degree.

After college, he spent a number of years working as a book manager for Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge. He served as an editor at Sáirséal agus Dill, the Irish language publishing house, and as Irish language editor for the Irish Press from 1957 to 1963 he also wrote a column for Sunday Press.

A biography of him has been written by Liam Mac Con Iomaire.

Reviews

[Shauna Finnegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this little pocket book history of Ireland, it was put in quite simple terms even though I believe some of the language and phrasing of words were not where they needed to be. It is a very condensed, short version of Irish history and I expected to learn more about famous political figures such as Michael Collins, Kitty Kiernan and Eamon De Valera(probably the most mentioned throughout the book). It is a great start if you want to understand Irish history and the economical, financial and social aspects that contributed to the anglo-irish war.

[Isa (Pages Full of Stars) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book #1 for the March 2018' Irish Readathon which I participated in and found through Aoife's youtube channel - for the prompt "read a book based or focused on an event in Irish history". In the past couple of months I've been partially reading or browsing through a lot of books about history of Ireland or Celts for my dissertation, so I thought I would read this one fully and count it for the readathon :) (I do hope it counts, since it generally talks about Irish history).

After finishing, I would say that it's good for gaining general knowledge about Irish history, especially the origins. However, the latter part started to drag a bit for me and there was too much of politics mentioned, at least for my taste. Still, I quite enjoyed it and found it informative.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

A nice way to whet my appetite for Irish history.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quick read, but doesn't go into much detail. It did provide a little background on some of the places we visited and people we heard about.

[C-chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book makes for a good, short, informative primer to Ireland's past. Short enough that I can manage to read it in a commute, and makes me want to learn far more about the subject!