Malachy Mccourt's History of Ireland
New York Times best-selling 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...
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An irresistible tour through the Emerald Isle
\ \ \ 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\ \
\ Publishers WeeklyMcCourt (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.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalEgads, 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.\ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsA 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\ \
