Search results for ""author jonathan bardon""

Jonathan Bardon covers all the obvious things: the invasions, battles, development of towns and cities, the Reformation, the Georgian era, the Famine, rebellions and resistance, the difference of Ulster, partition, the twentieth century. What makes his book so valuable, however, are the quirky subjects he chooses to illustrate how history really works: the great winter freeze of 1740 and the famine that followed; crime and duelling; an emigrant voyage; evictions. These episodes get behind the historical headlines to give a glimpse of past realities that might otherwise be lost to view. The author has retained the original episodic structure of the radio programmes. The result is a marvellous mosaic of the Irish past, delivered with clarity and narrative skill.

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The Plantation of Ulster was the most ambitious scheme of colonisation ever attempted in modern Europe, and one of the largest European migrations of the period. It was a pivotal episode in Irish history, sending shock waves reverberating down the centuries. In this vivid account, the author punctures some generally held assumptions: despite slaughter and famine, the province on the eve of the Plantation was not completely depopulated as was often asserted at the time; the native Irish were not deliberately given the most infertile land; some of the most energetic planters were Catholic; and the Catholic Church there emerged stronger than before. Above all, natives and newcomers fused to a greater degree than is widely believed: apart from recent immigrants, nearly all Ulster people today have the blood of both Planter and Gael flowing in their veins. Nevertheless, memories of dispossession and massacre, etched into the folk memory, were to ignite explosive outbreaks of intercommunal conflict down to our own time. The Plantation was also the beginning of a far greater exodus to North America. Subsequently, descendants of Ulster planters crossed the Atlantic in their tens of thousands to play a central role in shaping the United States of America.

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The first history of the special relationship between Ireland and Scotland from acclaimed historian Jonathan Bardon, based on his BBC Radio series Based on the popular BBC Ulster radio series of the same name, A Narrow Sea traces the epic sweep of Ireland’s relationship with Scotland, exploring the myriad connections, correlations, personalities and antagonisms that have, over the centuries, defined the relationship between these two spirited neighbours. In 120 brief, episodic chapters, A Narrow Sea offers a stirring and panoramic view of a connection that has shaped the course of history. Roving freely across the centuries, from the first migrations of the regions’ paleolithic tribes and their encounters with Greek and Roman explorers, to the grand colonial projects of the Vikings, Normans and Stuarts, this is the story of how a shared culture laid the basis for two very different nations. ‘Jonathan Bardon’s lively and engaging history of the interactions between Ireland and Scotland over two millennia is a vastly pleasurable read and history at its most accessible.’ Dublin Review of Books

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