Malachy McCourt's History of Ireland (paperback)

by Malachy McCourt

Overview

New York Times bestselling author Malachy McCourt offers an authoritative and engrossing one-volume chronicle of Ireland from pre-Christian times to the present, told with Irish flair by the gifted storyteller.

The pages are populated with figures from myth, history, and the present-from Saint Patrick to Oliver Cromwell, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Charles Parnell to Sinead O'Connor and Bono. Some beloved, some controversial-each influenced the course of Irish and world history. While McCourt vividly describes Ireland's turbulent history, he also offers a cultural survey with fresh insights to the folklore, literature, art, music, and cuisine of Ireland, producing an irresistible tour through the Emerald Isle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762431816
Publisher:	Running Press Book Publishers
Publication date:	01/29/2008
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	159,370
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

County Limerick native Malachy McCourt is the authority to tell the history of Ireland. He has written several books, including the bestselling A Monk Swimming, Singing My Him Song, Danny Boy, Voices of Ireland, and The Claddagh Ring. Complementing his literary work, McCourt is also a skilled actor. He appeared in the television series Oz and in feature films such as The Bonfire of the Vanities. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

	Ireland Before Patrick
Chapter I	Peig Sayers: A Modern Look at an Ancient World	9
Chapter II	Cuchulainn, Fionn mac Cumaill, and Deirdre	13
	The Land of Saints and Scholars
Chapter III	Patrick: From Slave Boy to Patron Saint	26
Chapter IV	Brigid: "The Mary of the Gael"	32
Chapter V	Columcille: The Dove of the Church	35
	The Viking Invasion and the High Kings of Ireland
Chapter VI	The Vikings and Brian Boru	45
Chapter VII	High Kings and High Villains--Turlough O'Connor, Rory O'Connor, and Dermot MacMurrough	56
	The Norman Invasion to Henry VIII: 1169-1537
Chapter VIII	"Strongbow"--Richard de Clare	68
Chapter IX	The Earls of Kildare--Gerrold Mor, Gerrold Og, and Silken Thomas	76
	The Tudor Conquest and the Fall of the Gaelic World
Chapter X	Hugh O'Neill, the Battle of Kinsale, and the Escape of the Earls	102
Chapter XI	Grace O'Malley--Granuaile	118
	The Seventeenth Century: Destruction, Chaos, and Loss
Chapter XII	Rory O'More and Owen Roe O'Neill	133
Chapter XIII	A Short Biography of an Odious Gatecrasher of Irish History	145
Chapter XIV	Patrick Sarsfield, the Wild Geese, and the Penal Laws	146
Chapter XV	Oliver Plunkett	156
	The Great Patriots
Chapter XVI	Wolfe Tone	163
Chapter XVII	Robert Emmet	177
Chapter XVIII	Daniel O'Connell	181
	Ireland after the Great Hunger
Chapter XIX	Charles Stewart Parnell: The Uncrowned King of Ireland	194
Chapter XX	Michael Davitt	209
Chapter XXI	Douglas Hyde	214
	A Terrible Beauty is Born: Proclaiming the Republic
Chapter XXII	Maud Gonne	225
Chapter XXIII	Padraig Pearse	240
Chapter XXIV	James Connolly	248
	A Century of Irish Voices
Chapter XXV	William Butler Yeats	262
Chapter XXVI	James Joyce	272
Chapter XXVII	Samuel Beckett	282
	Birth Pangs of a New Nation
Chapter XXVIII	Michael Collins	291
Chapter XXIX	Eamon de Valera	304
	Ireland in the Modern World
Chapter XXX	Jack Lynch	315
Chapter XXXI	Conor Cruise O'Brien	322
Chapter XXXII	F. H. Boland	327
	People of Passion
Chapter XXXIII	Bernadette Devlin	331
Chapter XXXIV	Bobby Sands	337
	People of Peace
Chapter XXXV	Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams	347
	A Chance for Reconciliation
Chapter XXXVI	John Hume	353
Chapter XXXVII	David Trimble	360
Chapter XXXVIII	Gerry Adams	364
	The Celtic Tiger and the New Ireland
Chapter XXXIX	Mary Robinson and Bertie Ahern	371
Chapter XL	Bono	379
	Epilogue	386
	List of Works	387

Editorial Reviews

McCourt (A Monk Swimming) breaks down Ireland's history into 16 sections and, through biographical vignettes, uses famous Irish men and woman to define each epoch. For example, he explores ancient Ireland by profiling the three most prominent Irish saints: Patrick, Brigid and Columcille. Each brief, colloquial sketch provides not only historical background but also colorful conjectures. Moving through history, readers encounter Brian Bor , the Irish king credited with expelling the Vikings and unifying Ireland; Strongbow, who led the Norman invasion of Ireland; and Hugh O'Neill, who battled Elizabeth for Irish freedom before succumbing in the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. Modern Ireland is represented by the likes of Theobald Wolfe Tone, a member of the (Presbyterian) United Irishmen, who led the unsuccessful revolution of 1798; and Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, who brought religious freedom to Ireland's Catholics. Of course, modern revolutionary Ireland is represented by Michael Collins and Eamon De Valera, and there are also looks at writers W.B. Yeats and Samuel Beckett. McCourt takes us up to the present with portraits of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and rock star Bono. Interesting for the neophyte, this volume will be old news for the veteran reader of Irish history. Agent, Laurie Liss at Sterling Lord Literistic. (Oct.) Forecast: A $25,000 marketing campaign will include a 10-city author tour, 30-city radio satellite tour and a 50,000-copy first printing. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Egads, another History of Ireland? McCourt (Singing My Him Song) discusses roughly 50 Irish legends and personalities that, taken together, could be considered a history of Ireland. The title states precisely what the reader will find; this is not a scholarly work. Beginning with Cuchulainn, wading into politics and the Troubles, and finishing with Bono, the text reads like a transcript of an evening's chat at Malachy's bar. His tales flow smoothly and quickly, most just a few pages long, mixing a brief retelling of the known history with personal anecdotes. There are some odd gaps: e.g., why does McCourt discuss Maude Gonne but ignore Constance Markiewicz? McCourt acknowledges such questions but makes no attempt to respond. He finds something good to say about all his subjects, so one may guess that among the missing are those who strained his sense of hospitality. This is a very readable and entertaining book for public collections that have McCourt's other books, shelved with them, not under Irish History.-Robert Moore, Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging, N. Billerica, MA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A celebrity-driven, dumbed-down, whirlwind tour of Hibernian history. History is about social movements, about catastrophe and conflict, about accidents, about misperceptions and misunderstandings. It's about power. McCourt (Singing My Him Song, 2000, etc.), brother of fellow nostalgia-monger Frank McCourt, knows this, but he puts on the blarney at the outset: "To anyone who knows me, it's no secret that I was never much for the formal schooling when I was a young fellow, paying scant attention when I did happen to attend, remembering little, and leaving it off completely at the ripe old age of thirteen." Q.E.D. What follows are textbook-glossing sketches on such matters as the Cattle Raid of Cooley, the Flight of the Earls (which McCourt sensibly proposes be rechristened "The Escape of the Earls"), and the recent Troubles, some rendered with only a passing command of the facts. (The word "bride," for example, does not come from the name of St. Brigid. It's pleasant to think that without the Irish there would be no such civilizing touches as marriage, but that's Thomas Cahill's territory.) These sketches hinge on individual personalities-Hugh O'Neill, Wolfe Tone, the inevitable James Joyce-whom McCourt approaches with reverential awe. The results are not helpful. Of one writer we learn, for instance: "Samuel Beckett was a fascinating man, who gave the world a great body of work." Of Bernadette Devlin, surely one of the more controversial figures in recent Irish history: "As a young university student, she turned to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for inspiration. In future years some young person, perhaps, will turn to her in the same way." Over U2 he swoons: "Passionate and thoughtful, theband brought intelligence back to rock-and-roll after what seemed like decades where stupidity in popular music was the norm." And so on, all in the manner of an enthusiastic village explainer-helpful if you're a village, otherwise not. Cliffs Notes for a barstool chat. Anyone with an inkling of the subject, though, will know that there are shelves full of better sources. First printing of 50,000; $25,000 ad/promo; author tour

Kirkus Reviews