Description
Book SynopsisIreland's story is amazingly dramatic and intense - and today the influence of Irish culture can be felt around the globe. This book helps explain why, taking readers on the rollercoaster journey through the highs and lows of Ireland's past including invasions, battles, executions, religious divide, uprisings and emigration.
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1
Part I: The Snakes Leave Ireland 9
Chapter 1: No Man Is an Ireland 11
Chapter 2: The First People Arrive 21
Chapter 3: The Early Irish Kings 35
Chapter 4: Snakes Alive! Christianity Comes to Ireland 45
Part II: The Normans Are Coming! The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 63
Chapter 5: The Vikings Arrive First 65
Chapter 6: Irish vs Norman Invaders But Who’s in Charge? 79
Chapter 7: Boy Meets Gael: The Norman-Irish Alliance 93
Part III: The Invading English Kings: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 109
Chapter 8: The Scottish-Irish Rebellion and Its Aftermath 111
Chapter 9: From Richard II to Henry IV: More Turmoil in Ireland 127
Chapter 10: Family Feuds I: The Wars of the Roses 139
Part IV: Religious Wars and Family Feuds: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 155
Chapter 11: Popes Versus Archbishops: The Reformation and Ireland 157
Chapter 12: Religious Roundabouts and Irish Rebellion 169
Chapter 13: James I and the Plantations; Charles I and Chaos 185
Chapter 14: Family Feuds II and III: The English Civil War, then William and James 201
Part V: Catholic and Protestant: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 217
Chapter 15: Going Irish? Grattan’s Parliament and Wolfe Tone’s Rebellion 219
Chapter 16: Going British: The Act of Union 231
Chapter 17: Three Strikes for Irish Independence: O’Connell, Davis, and Mitchel 247
Chapter 18: The Great Hunger and the Land War 263
Chapter 19: The Fight Over Home Rule 283
Part VI: Divided in Two: Life from the 1880s 299
Chapter 20: Balls and Books in Irish: The Cultural Revival 301
Chapter 21: Fighting Against Britain: The Revolution 315
Chapter 22: One Land, Two Systems: Partition 329
Chapter 23: Troubles Begin Again And Maybe Finish 347
Part VII: The Part of Tens 369
Chapter 24: Ten Top Turning Points 371
Chapter 25: Ten Major Documents 375
Chapter 26: Ten Things the Irish Have Given the World 379
Chapter 27: Ten Great Irish Places to Visit 385
Chapter 28: Ten Irish People Who Should Be Better Known 391
Index 397
