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A Pocket History of Ireland

By Joseph McCullough

Gill & Macmillan Books, 2016, Hard cover, 256pp, colour insets on almost every page, ISBN: 978-0-7171-4729-8.

In this centenary year of the Irish Rising, it’s refreshing to see a history book that covers more than just the last hundred years. Ireland’s history is rich and ancient, though the current state is less than 100 years old.

This new edition in the popular Pocket series, remarkably covers the period from the Tomb Builders, who arrived sometime between 8,000 and 7,000 BC, to modern day’s Riverdance in a small pocket-sized book of 256 pages. Clearly written for the tourist trade, it is a really useful manual to the historic significance of everything in this magical country from Neolithic structures, to Celtic carvings, early Christian monasteries and saints, Vikings, Normans, British, Plantation, The Flight of the Earls, Cromwell’s terror, The rise of Irish Nationalism, the Famine, The Rising, the Black and Tans, the Civil War and so much more. There isn’t much detail on any of the periods, but there is enough to impart an understanding of why certain things are as they are.

And if you are driving around the countryside, it will help you notice and appreciate features you might otherwise miss.  It will colour your experience with myths and legends and true stories of a country rich in history and culture.