A History of Ireland

by Mike Cronin

A lively chronological portrait of Ireland retraces that country's turbulent, often violent history from the twelfth century to the present day, as it details the English invasion of Ireland, the rise of a Gaelic culture, the religious conflicts that have raged through the centuries, and the modern troubles. 10,000 first printing.

Genres: History, Ireland, Nonfiction, Irish Literature, European History

273 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Деница Райкова]

Майк Кронин - "История на Ирландия", изд. "Рива" 2007, прев. Аглика Маркова

Прочетох "История на Ирландия" от Майк Кронин. Преди около година ми я препоръча някой тук в групата, когато търсех книги по темата. Междувременно миналата година успях да открия и прочета една друга "История на Ирландия" - от Джон Маккормак - и сега, макар да не съм имала намерение да ги сравнявам, често се хващам, че правя сравнение между двете.

Книгата на Кронин като че ли обхваща по-малък период от време /описването на събитията започва около 1170 г./; за сметка на това като стил и начин на писане и поднасяне на информацията "звучи" по-сериозно и авторитетно. Откривам и доста неща, за които нямам спомен от другата книга.

Не знам защо, но очаквах, че ще я чета бавно и трудно. За моя изненада обаче, ми беше трудно да я оставя и я прочетох за по-малко от седмица. Честно казано, имаше някои моменти, в които се чувствах като студент, който се готви за изпит, и ме обземаше паника, че няма да успея да запомня всичко: после си спомнях, че чета заради себе си, и четенето пак ме увличаше. Книгата се състои от 6 глави /бих могла да кажа и "6 раздела, тъй като са доста обемни/, всеки от които обхваща периоди от време с различна продължителност. - от "Окупация, асимилация и съпротива" /1170-1533/ до съвремието. Купих я основно заради интереса си към най-новата история , но всичко останало също ми беше много интересно.
И понеже споменах най-новата история... Интересът ми към нея започна преди малко повече от година, породен от конкретни събития. Конкретни дати. Конкретни имена. И сега, четейки, всъщност чаках момента, в който ще стигна до тях - или поне някои от тях. И тук е може би разликата в усвояването на истински старата история и на по-новата, онази от средата на 19 в. нататък. Защото докато за другата научаваме само от стари писмени документи или археологически находки, от средата на 19 в. нататък събитията и свързаните с тях личности вече имат лице. И когато не само слушаш или четеш за един човек, а можеш да видиш и лицето му, някак е по-лесно да си представиш всичко описано и да го запомниш. Или да се разровиш още по-надълбоко. Знам го, защото и с мен - в случая с историята на Ирландия - беше така. Моите причини да се заинтересувам от нея имаха лица и имена. И затова вече повече от година продължавам да чета и да търся.
Една книга, свързана с историята на дадена страна, може да бъде написана истински сложно, "като за специалисти", или на напълно прост и разбираем език. Книгата на Кронин постига баланс между двете - достатъчно изчерпателна и информативна, но и достатъчно разбираемо написана.
Много ми хареса това, че в края е представена хронология на събитията по дати и години. Така човек си спестява досадно заучаване, а може лесно да се ориентира в периодите.
Книгата разпали още повече интереса ми към Ирландия. И май вече ми е време за второ пътуване натам - вече с нови познания за страната, която обичам от години, а сега вече сякаш и познавам малко повече.

[Martti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Professor loendab bürokraatiat läbi ajaloo. See leping siin, eriti oluline punkt 3. Ja seal oli selline ametnik, kes saadeti Iirimaal korda pidama, ta ebaõnnestus ja siis saadeti krahv-lord too. Null huumorit ja kaasahaaravust vaid niipalju, et tulevad tuttavad kohad ja nimed kohati meelde. Huumorit siit otsida pole mõistlik. Samuti ei räägita eriti midagi keltidest või enne neid toimunust. Suurema osa moodustabki suure naabri rõhumise bürokraatiast jutustamine.

[Riley Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good read—was helpful to get me up to speed on basic history before my Ireland trip in October + is fun to compare based off what I’ve recently learned about my family lineage. Also an ice juxtaposition to a lot of the fiction I’ve been reading :)

[Mesoscope · Rating 4 out of 5]

A serviceable general survey of Irish history that focuses almost entirely on political and military events pertaining to the organization and control of the state.

In some stretches it seemed like it could use better editing - for some reason there was a 50-page stretch where very similar statements were repeated 2-3 times on the same page, sometimes in the same paragraph. In one section I recall the authors made three nearly-identical statements in two pages, that emigrants to Ireland from England who had been sent to support the Protestant culture of the land often were Gaelicized, thus undermining the very purpose of their emigration.

It's hard to say anything neutral about Irish history, and the authors do a good job of remaining more or less objective throughout, though they do not resist the temptation to periodically render judgment on some events. I think the work would only be stronger if they had resisted such temptations, but there you are.

I would recommend this book for the general reader looking for a digestible overview of the major events of Irish history.

[Michael Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love it. The Irish got royally screwed by the English. Ireland was, in fact, the first British colony. America's first sin was slavery, and Britain's was Ireland. This books dissects exactly how Gaelic Ireland was erased, Anglicanism choked Catholicism, and brutality became common practice for the British overseers.

[Mathieu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clear and factual but rather dull and unequal in style.
Quite exhaustive though

[Marilyn Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful history and the chronology at the back is excellent to place the events and movements clearly in order. I took a long time to read this, and as a result, the shifts over the centuries were quite organic. A great reference.

[Margaret Bussiere · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is short in pages but long in information and details. If you are looking for a concise overview of Irish history this is a great text. It’s stomach churning at times. It could easily be titled “1,000 Years of Misery: A History of Ireland”.

[April Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of the history of Ireland, the 700 years of subjugation by Britain, how religion shaped Ireland, its culture and its art.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall I assume it covered all I would really need to know, it seems to really struggle with recency bias. Took me about forever to finish.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was probably not the best history of Ireland ever written, but it was informative to say the least. I felt that the author could have used a thesaurus, as certain terms were used quite repetitively to the point of exhaustion of the term (the words "concomitant" and "launch pad" come to mind here). Also, he implies that the 20th century, while perhaps not being the most important period in the history of Ireland, certainly is the most relevant, yet I felt that was the period he did the worst job with. He was fairly detailed with the rest of the history, but its like he got bored or tired by the time he reached the 20th century and kind of just slouched through it to get it done, with not as much detail as I felt was necessary.

Overall, the book offered an informative overview of Irish history, which is really what I was looking for, not really knowing much at all about the history of the country.

[Ashley]

This is an awesome overview, but it's a super difficult read, to be honest, and not from a language standpoint - it's short and compact, but because it focuses just about exclusively on the sociopolitical timeline of Ireland, it's extremely bleak. This might have been a largely personal element, since my Catholic family left Northern Ireland in the early 1920s and I was getting a full picture of the magnitude of what they were probably facing. I'd imagine this would all still be a punch in the gut to anyone, though.

That said, I think of it as a highly detailed timeline and I think it's going to be extremely useful to me as a comparison point when I start diving in to some more specialized areas of study.

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough survey of Ireland's history, from prehistory through the invasions by the Celts to the birth of Christianity and the take over by the English; ends with the Good Friday agreement with Britain that hopefully signaled an end to "The Troubles" in the North. Fascinating portraits of great Irish leaders like Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera, and Ireland's complicated relationship with Britain during centuries of "Union". Heavy on the politics and light on the cultural aspects of Ireland.

[Phil Toop · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took longer than I expected to get through this. I was keen to learn the background of the issues with Northern Ireland and this helped but didn't fully answer the question for me. It does provide a good introductory history of the country and it's people. I image there are other books that go into more detail but this covers the basics. It does seem to emphasise a lot of the political aspects which are doubtless important, but it possibly misses some other dimensions of the history of Ireland.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me forever to read, but that was mostly because I kept getting distracted. The book itself was quite good. Considering the amount of history Ireland has, and how complex the politics have been (for centuries, not just recently), such a short book can only touch on a lot of it. However, it also makes for a quicker pace than something more in-depth would have done, and for someone who is not a scholar of Ireland, it's a pretty good introduction.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compact and dense history of Ireland. Because this is a thin volume (250 pages), every page packs a lot of information and so took me much longer to read than expected. This book is a good primer for Ireland, made better by the 6 page "Chronology" and "Further Reading" sections. For those who felt it didn't cover enough or go into enough depth, the "Further Reading" section offers many other titles to get as deep into Irish history as you could want.

[Macklin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It read very much like a textbook, but it did sum up everything very succinctly. To me, it was a lot of names, terms, and places coming at me at once. It would make a very good reference, but I wouldn't mind a little more elaboration and interesting writing.

[Ed Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is it perhaps a tragedy for a people to "have too much history"?

[JP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Respectable history, but not overly engaging. There were sections where I felt more was needed to help me understand.

[Sean McGowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history.

[Russell King · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overly detailed, awkwardly presented history.