The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People


John Kelly - 2012
    Measured in terms of mortality, the Great Irish Potato Famine was the worst disaster in the nineteenth century--it claimed twice as many lives as the American Civil War. A perfect storm of bacterial infection, political greed, and religious intolerance sparked this catastrophe. But even more extraordinary than its scope were its political underpinnings, and The Graves Are Walking provides fresh material and analysis on the role that Britain's nation-building policies played in exacerbating the devastation by attempting to use the famine to reshape Irish society and character. Religious dogma, anti-relief sentiment, and racial and political ideology combined to result in an almost inconceivable disaster of human suffering.This is ultimately a story of triumph over perceived destiny: for fifty million Americans of Irish heritage, the saga of a broken people fleeing crushing starvation and remaking themselves in a new land is an inspiring story of revival.Based on extensive research and written with novelistic flair, The Graves Are Walking draws a portrait that is both intimate and panoramic, that captures the drama of individual lives caught up in an unimaginable tragedy, while imparting a new understanding of the famine's causes and consequences.

The Rocky Road


Eamon Dunphy - 2013
    

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe


Thomas Cahill - 1995
    The great heritage of western civilization - from the Greek and Roman classics to Jewish and Christian works - would have been utterly lost were it not for the holy men and women of unconquered Ireland. In this delightful and illuminating look into a crucial but little-known "hinge" of history, Thomas Cahill takes us to the "island of saints and scholars, " the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells. Here, far from the barbarian despoliation of the continent, monks and scribes laboriously, lovingly, even playfully preserved the west's written treasures. With the return of stability in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning. Thus the Irish not only were conservators of civilization, but became shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on western culture.

Irish Civil War: A History from Beginning to End (Irish History Book 5)


Hourly History - 2020
     Free BONUS Inside! The Irish War of Independence which ended in July 1921 led directly to the agreement of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, an agreement that provided Ireland with a measure of independence. The Irish Free State was created, and Ireland was granted a level of autonomy it had not enjoyed for more than one hundred years. However, the treaty contained a clause which was to divide Ireland, literally and politically. The six counties in the north which formed Ulster were allowed to opt-out and to remain a part of the United Kingdom. The island of Ireland became two separate countries for the first time—The Irish Free State in the south and west and Northern Ireland in the north. This division caused bitterness among many Irish people who had fought for independence. Some even viewed the signing of the treaty and the creation of a separate Northern Ireland as a betrayal of all they had fought for. Others accepted that the treaty was not perfect but saw the creation of the Free State as an important first step on the road to complete independence for Ireland. In late June 1922, growing animosity between Pro and Anti-Treaty factions erupted into armed conflict in the center of Dublin. For the next ten months, the Irish Free State was wracked by a bitter, bloody, and brutal civil war between those who sought to protect the new government and those who wished to destroy it. This is the story of the Irish Civil War, its origins, and its consequences. Discover a plethora of topics such as The War of Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty The Attack on the Four Courts Civil War Breaks Out The Deaths of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins Executions and Assassinations The End of the Civil War And much more! So if you want a concise and informative book on the Irish Civil War, simply scroll up and click the "Buy now" button for instant access!

My Name Is Bridget: The Untold Story of Bridget Dolan and the Tuam Mother and Baby Home


Alison O'Reilly - 2019
    Alone and pregnant. Bridget gave birth to a boy, John, who died at the home less than two years later. Her second child was once again delivered into the care of the nuns and was taken from her. She would go on to marry a wonderful man and have a daughter Anna Corrigan, but it was only after Bridget's death that Anna discovered she had two brothers her mother had never spoken about. Anna became compelled to try and uncover any information she could about her baby brothers. What followed was the revelation that the remains of 796 babies were buried on the site of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. Anna was left to wonder, were her brothers among them? Here, with Alison O'Reilly, she pieces together the mystery.

Hungry for Home


Cole Moreton - 2000
    Cole Moreton tells the story of the Blaskets through the eyes of the Kearney family, who lived there for generations until 1947 when they paid a terrible price for their isolation-a young man's life. Moreton discovers a few survivors still alive within sight of the Great Blasket, but most had left Ireland for America, settling in Massachusetts. Hungry for Home is a beautifully written and gripping account of a quest for a vanished people, and the Kearneys' incredible journey into the twentieth century is "a moving, atmospheric testament to the mythic lure of home". Entertainment Weekly.

The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising


Dermot McEvoy - 2014
    Among the commoners in the GPO was a young staff captain of the Irish Volunteers named Michael Collins. He was joined a day later by a fourteen-year-old messenger boy, Eoin Kavanagh. Four days later they would all surrender, but they had struck the match that would burn Great Britain out of Ireland for the first time in seven hundred years.The 13th Apostle is the reimagined story of how Michael Collins, along with his young acolyte Eoin, transformed Ireland from a colony into a nation. Collins’s secret weapon was his intelligence system and his assassination squad, nicknamed “The Twelve Apostles.” On November 21, 1920, the squad—with its thirteenth member, young Eoin—assassinated the entire British Secret Service in Dublin. Twelve months and sixteen days later, Collins signed the Treaty at 10 Downing Street, which brought into being what is, today, the Republic of Ireland.An epic novel in the tradition of Thomas Flanagan’s The Year of the French and Leon Uris’s Trinity, The 13th Apostle is a story that will capture the imagination and hearts of freedom-loving readers everywhere.

Quench The Lamp


Alice Taylor - 1990
    Her tales of childhood in rural Ireland hark back to a timeless past, to a world now lost, but ever and fondly remembered. The colorful characters and joyous moments she offers have made her stories an Irish phenomenon, and have made Alice herself the most beloved author in all of the Emerald Isle.

For the Love of My Mother


J.P. Rodgers - 2005
    After giving birth to a son, John, Bridie's child was taken away from her, and she was sent to one of Ireland's infamous Magdalene Laundries. This was only the beginning... They took her freedom. They took her innocence. They took her child. But they couldn't take her spirit.

Mary: Spirit Woman of the Old West


Janis Hoffman - 2016
    There are many corrections and many notes stuck between the pages, and the ink and pencil are faded and often difficult to read. I have had to guess at the meaning a few times and hope I haven’t done too much harm to her intent. Many changes were made in punctuation, spelling, paragraphing and chapters, and I’ve updated a few words, like Black Feet to Blackfoot. She made a few mistakes I did not correct, like mixing up the locations of the Little Blue and Big Blue rivers. The name Mary Faraday Huntington does not appear in any of the old records. Whoever wrote the words was neither shy nor humble, has a very foul mouth, and shamelessly talks about things rarely mentioned in stories of the Wild West. Her story is the way it was long ago, not the sugar coated fairly tales of book and film. Her story reminds me of something Jamake Highwater wrote: “The outward rusticity of primal behavior makes Western people devise a self-serving ideal of themselves as civilized, which sets them widely apart from other peoples and from nature. Their withdrawal from an awareness of their place in nature is nearly complete…primal peoples live among animals and vegetation constantly in close contact with the sources of nourishment and death, understanding their environment and expressing their ideas and feelings in terms of the natural world. In contrast, people in the West have created an idealization of their relationship with nature which has neither life nor spirit.” ADVENTURES IN THE WILD WEST OF LONG AGO Mary Faraday Huntington I’ve led a wild life and had a hell of a good time. I still have my nose, all my fingers and my scalp thanks to my high intelligence, strength, quickness, excellent judgment, and a little help from all my many, many friends. I promise not to lie too bad. If you are a prissy little thing, best to pass on by. If you are a refined gentleman, pass on by. 1. You’re just a girrrrrrl 2. The Under Water People 3. Fort Childs 4. Rising Wolf 5. The second best whorehouse in town 1 YOU’RE JUST A GIRRRRRL “You can't race. You’re just a girrrrrrl!” I bounced him a good one and he shrieked and jumped up and down with blood spurting out of his big, ugly nose. Oh my, how he did carry on. I got on my pony and went to the line. The flag dropped and off we went. No problem, I promised Charlie 3 cobs if we win. He got his corn and I got a shiny silver dollar and a tin can full of chewing tobacco. I traded the can for a bunch of fancy ribbons at old man Bailey’s haberdashery. ____________________ My name is Mary Faraday Huntington and I was born in 1834 at Independence, Missouri. My mother died when I was 9 months old and an Indian woman working at a whorehouse was the only one Christian enough to take me in. Don’t know who my father was but he must have been big, strong, and sharp as a whip. Probably an army man having a little fun. Sure they call me a bastard, but they learned quick enough not to do that to my face. Jennie is a Blackfoot spirit woman and a real good mother who cooks and cleans at Polly’s Paradise. We have a little room in the basement. Her real name is Aokii’aki, Water Woman. She taught me sign and Blackfoot, how to live off the land, and how to fight with my hands and feet and knife. And she is teaching me the ways of a spirit woman.

Dark Rosaleen


Michael Nicholson - 2015
    Historically accurate, it is a story of murder and betrayal, of a failed rebellion, and the love of a national scandal.  Charles Trevelyan was Secretary of the Treasury, and Director of the Famine Relief Programme at a time when famine raged and antipathy in English politics towards the plight of those affected raged equally. Kathryn, Charles' daughter, likewise felt no sympathy until the very scale of the tragedy became apparent. Joining the underground, she preached insurrection, stole food for the starving, and became the lover of the leader of the rebellion. She became known as Dark Rosaleen, the heroine of banned nationalist poem, was branded as both traitor and cause celebré. This is her story.

Dead Wake: : The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson | Summary & Analysis


aBookaDay - 2015
    This review follows along the chronological storyline of the book, and includes special attention to the extensive detail offered by the author. The summary is followed by an analysis of the book’s strengths and weaknesses. Larson weaves this story by offering alternating views of the captain of the Lusitania, the commander of the sub that sank it, the passengers aboard the ship, British naval intelligence officers, and President Wilson. The general story line is chronological and the various perspectives alternate throughout the telling. Two central thesis are developed throughout the book. The first is that the author is sympathetic to the captain of the Lusitania who was somewhat maligned after the event by those who sought to blame the sinking of the ship on his incompetence. The second concerns the suggestion that there was deliberate negligence on the part of British intelligence and leadership who recognized strategic advantage in the ship being attacked in terms of its potential to draw Americans into the war as allies. The author uses rich archival detail to support both claims. Larson is both an accomplished journalist and historical novelist. He has written four New York Times bestselling books on subjects ranging from serial killers to hurricanes. He has written for The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine as a staff journalist. He has been a contributing author to The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The New Yorker. His academic background includes a bachelors in Russian history, language and culture from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Masters in journalism from Columbia University. Download your copy today! for a limited time discount of only $2.99! Available on PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device. © 2015 All Rights Reserved

The Irish Civil War


Tim Pat Coogan - 1998
    And during the eleven months the conflict lasted, brother fought against brother, sundering families for generations, and opening a divide in the country's politics that only now is beginning to fade. This unrivaled pictorial record and remarkable history of the war's passage pays poignant testimony to the courageous men and women prepared to fight to the death for what they believed morally right. It also serves as a sober reminder of the excesses of political zeal and how they came to haunt future generations.

A History of Ireland


Mike Cronin - 2001
    A History of Ireland explores the story of Ireland from the 12th century to the end of the 20th century. Written chronologically, it explores the period of the English invasion of Ireland, the emergence of a Gaelic culture, the religious conflicts across the centuries, the struggle over Home Rule, and the complex nature of the modern troubles. Covering the main political narratives of the country, A History of Ireland also delves into major economic, social, and cultural events, and offers a fascinating glimpse into Ireland’s past.

The Claddagh Ring: Ireland's Cherished Symbol of Friendship, Loyalty, and Love


Malachy McCourt - 2004
    Following the success of his Running Press titles Danny Boy and Voices of Ireland, McCourt explores this beloved icon of Irish heritage through vivid anecdotes, charming folk tales, and recent documented incidents. Said to have been first crafted more than 400 years ago in a fishing village on Galway Bay, there is much more to the story of the Claddagh ring than simple popular history, and McCourt tracks it down and recounts it with his stellar storytelling finesse.