Eyewitness to Irish History

by Peter Berresford Ellis

The history of Ireland told through the words of the people who lived it Eyewitness to Irish History draws upon original source materials to capture the tumultuous events and rich texture of Irish history like no other book. Comparing the readings compiled here to snapshots, the renowned Celtic scholar Peter Berresford Ellis offers what is, in essence, a family album of Ireland and the Irish people—beginning with Golamh, the legendary leader of the band of Iberian Celts who settled the island more than three thousand years ago, and concluding with gripping firsthand accounts by those on both sides of the bloody civil conflict in Northern Ireland. Through sources ranging from ancient forsundun (praise songs) and the hero kings to newspaper accounts, public decrees, and even graffiti, Eyewitness to Irish History touches on virtually every major event and offers vivid portraits of everyday life in Ireland through the centuries. 

Genres: History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

About the author

Peter Berresford Ellis is a historian, literary biographer, and novelist who has published over 90 books to date either under his own name or his pseudonyms Peter Tremayne and Peter MacAlan. He has also published 95 short stories. His non-fiction books, articles and academic papers have made him acknowledged as an authority on Celtic history and culture. Under Peter Tremayne, he is the author of the international bestselling Sister Fidelma mystery series. His work has appeared in 25 languages.

He began his career as a junior reporter on an English south coast weekly, becoming deputy editor of an Irish weekly newspaper and was then editor of a weekly trade journal in London. He first went as a feature writer to Northern Ireland in 1964 for a London daily newspaper which had a profound effect on him. His first book was published in 1968: Wales: a Nation Again, on the Welsh struggle for political independence, with a foreword by Gwynfor Evans, Plaid Cymru's first Member of Parliament. In 1975 he became a full-time writer. He used his academic background to produce many popular titles in the field of Celtic Studies and he has written numerous academic articles and papers in the field for journals ranging from The Linguist (London) to The Irish Sword: Journal of the Irish Military History Society (UCD). He is highly regarded by academics in his own field and was described by The Times Higher Education Supplement, London, (June, 1999) as one of the leading authorities on the Celts then writing. He has been International Chairman of the Celtic League 1988–1990; chairman of Scrif-Celt (The Celtic Languages Book Fair in 1985 and in 1986); chairman and vice-president of the London Association for Celtic Education 1989–1995, and now is an Hon. Life Member); He was also chairman of his local ward Labour Party in London, England, and was editorial advisor on Labour and Ireland magazine in the early 1990s. He is a member of the Society of Authors.

Apart from his Celtic Studies interests, Ellis has always been fascinated by aspects of popular literature and has written full-length biographies on H. Rider Haggard, W. E. Johns, Talbot Mundy as well as critical essays on many more popular fiction authors. His own output in the fictional field, writing in the genre of horror fantasy and heroic fantasy, began in 1977 when the first "Peter Tremayne" book appeared. Between 1983 and 1993 he also wrote eight adventure thrillers under the name "Peter MacAlan". Ellis has published (as of January, 2009) a total of 91 books, 95 short stories, several pamphlets, and numerous academic papers and signed journalistic articles. Under his own name he wrote two long running columns: 'Anonn is Anall' (Here and There) from 1987–2008 for the Irish Democrat, and, "Anois agus Arís" (Now and Again) from 2000–2008 for The Irish Post. His books break down into 34 titles under his own name; 8 titles under the pseudonym of Peter MacAlan and 49 titles under his pseudonym of Peter Tremayne. He has lectured widely at universities in several countries, including the UK, Ireland, American, Canada, France and Italy. He has also broadcast on television and radio since 1968. With the great popularity of his 7th Century set Sister Fidelma Mysteries, in January, 2001, an International Sister Fidelma Society was formed in Charleston, South Carolina, with a website and producing a print magazine three times a year called The Brehon. In 2006 the Cashel Arts Fest established the first three-day international gathering of fans of the series which is now held bi-annually and receives the full support of the Society

Reviews

[J.C. Paulk · Rating 4 out of 5]

While an excellent read on Irish history, make sure you know what you're getting here as it may not be the smooth narrative some Gaelophiles may be wishing for. It is still concise and well researched.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some topics that it is hard to find a good example of, and Irish history is one of those. It is not hard to find a good Irish history because Ireland's history is not easy to know about. Ireland, for all of its issues, has a lot of documented historical information that people could use to make a good history--and this book certainly is an example of the wealth of materials that survives--the problem is that it is hard to find people who can write competently about Irish history without delving into victimology. This book at least contains generally primary sources from eyewitnesses of Irish history, if it is edited and editorialized in a highly skewed and biased fashion, and so it is better than the usual standard of works on Irish history, but it is still a book that should be a lot better than it is. There is no excuse for the fact that Irish history is written mostly by people with axes to grind against the English, since its material would be accessible to plenty of people who would simply like to know more about the country. It is a shame that more people aren't interested in simply telling about the way things are without trying to stir up the reader against the English or to be partisans of the Irish nationalists.

This book is about 300 pages long and is divided between 22 different topics that are mostly focused on Irish political and military history from a primary document perspective. And so we begin with acknowledgements and an introduction that frankly admit the bias that exists and seek to justify it. This leads to sources on such areas of Irish history as ancient Ireland (1) and its myths, early Christian Ireland (2), the age of Viking incursions (3), and Ireland's relationship with Angevin England (4) and the Anglo-Norman lords (5). There is a look at the Tudor conquests (6), the flight of the Irish princes to European mercenary service (7), obedience more or less to English rule (8), the insurrection of 1641 (9), the Cromwellian (10) and Williamite (11) conquests, the establishment of the penal laws (12), and then the insurrection of 1798 (13). This is followed by a look at the period of the early 19th century from Union to the Emancipation of 1829 (14), the famine and the insurrection of 1848 (15), the insurrection of 1867 and the land league (16), the insurrection of 1916 (17), the war of Independence (18) and the civil war that immediately followed the establishment of the Irish Free State (19), before closing with the discussion of Irish benign neutrality in World War II and the establishment of the Irish Republic (20), the Protestant state and the issue of civil rights (21), and the long war between north and south (22), as well as a conclusion, suggestions for further reading, and an index.

The editor of this book at least is honest enough to admit what he is doing. This is not a book that hides its bias or tries to disguise it in any way, but rather a book that goes out of its way to express the way that the Irish frequently revolted in some fashion against English and then British rule over the course of centuries of attempted domination on the part of the English against the Irish. A writer with some sense of balance would understand that Ireland's internal divisions and violence against itself--a problem that persists to the present day--is at least as big a factor as the English in the general backwardness that Ireland has faced over centuries, and that is not even getting into the backwardness that resulted from a poor work ethic as well as the general backwardness that tends to come with Catholicism. But the author does not want to reflect upon the problems of the Irish among themselves, but rather wishes to paint the English and the Protestant Ascendancy in as dark as terms as possible, focusing on all the possible atrocities that people like Cromwell committed while being as mum as possible about Irish atrocities, and even praising them because the right side did them. Obviously, those who do not have the same partisan identity are not going to feel the same way as the author does

[C.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody. Best. Ever.

[Argum · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is what it says it is but still disappointed me. Eyewitness means eyewitness. The back cover starts by saying it draws on primary sources which is true except that it draws on nothing else. There is very little story telling in this book more a collection of primary sources with a few sentences to set the scene. I was hoping that the author of Sister Fidelma would draw these sources together and tell me a story but instead he just compiled an excellent range of primary sources with no coherent thread being drawn. So if you want a collection of primary documents this is the book for you, if you want a solid historical analysis relying on primary sources it is not. I think it is better suited as a resource rather than for sitting down to read. This though is mostly my own fault as the book didn't lie I jsut wanted to read a different book into that description.