A Short History of Ireland, 1500-2000 By John Gibney
A short solid history of Ireland Amused how half the reviews complain it s too academic and half think it wasn t academic enough I thought it hit a nice sweet spot. He did gloss over England s role in the potato famine though he gives the English credit re genocidal impulses than most modern scholars do Hardcover John Gibney s A Short History of Ireland 1500 2000 provides a cursive rapid but insightful and worthwhile account of Ireland disseminated by century An essential quick read for those less aware of Irish history and an easy reference for those knowledgeable Easily recommendable Historical Notes Gibney commences with an insight into the landscape of Ireland prior to the 16th century While unaccounted monoliths point to unearthed civilisations is known about the Celtic inhabitation that extended into later centuries Accounts of Nomadic conquest failed liberation attempts by Robert the Bruce and Viking contributions to port developments especially Dublin led to a discussion of early subversive attempts to quell and contain Celtic degeneracy Statutes of Kilkenny 1366 The commentary on 16th Century Irish history predominately focused on English interventionism is best decompartmentalised into directives pronounced by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I independently Attempts to establish ruling English nobility in the Earls of Kildare culminated in the Kildare Rebellion evoked by Kildare s replacement with Surrey The reinstation of Kildare in 1526 simmered tensions transiently The divorce of Catherine of Aragon precipitating the Reformation resulted in sweeping royal efforts to command Ireland motivated by fear of Catholic descent potentially co optable by Charles V Such disregard for Celtic autonomy induced the Silken Thomas rebellion which ended up with a dominant military victory for Henry VIII greater English control in Ireland and wider distribution of the Reformation Consequently the 1541 Act of Kingly Title bestows upon Ireland the title of English Kingdom In part Celtic Lords were forced to capitulate their titles and land to the Crown to which the Crown redistributed power according to loyalty and allegiance A significant part of English attempted dominion was the expansive use of plantations to distil and distribute English techniques customs and thought via importing English workers ideals traditions and lords to Ireland Thanks to the excommunication of the Crown by Pope Pius V the transition to Elizabeth I paved the way to targetted anti catholic action by the English to Ireland The most significant threat to English authority in Ireland in the mid 1500s evolved from rising papal condemnation of the Reformation Combined with the persisting land grabbing by the Crown the Desmond Rebellion led to an abundance of death Elizabeth pursued a scorched earth policy resulting in famines in Ulster provoking further Palesman revolts Regardless plantation expansion persisted An attempt in Elizabethian Ireland to place Gaelic nobility through recognising O Neill as Tyrone Earl ephemerally eased tensions although O Neill used his position to dispense with the English The use of Spanish cavalry by the Tyrone Earl led to the nine year war which started promising for the Irish until the monumental defeat at the Battle of Kinsale Gibney poignantly remarks on the decisiveness of this conflict for Irish English relations success for the Irish at the Battle of Kinsale may have fundamentally altered the trajectory of history The failed Gunpowder plot against James I led to widespread and everlasting anti catholic sentiment in Ireland Such sentiments eventually manifested into penal laws restricting catholic ownership and political participation Immediately the retaliation against Irish Catholics dramatically ricocheted the Gaelic nobility inducing the Flight of the Earls The advent of the 17th Century under James I precipitated the foundations of religious conflict in Ireland that persists to this day The social engineering of the Tutors continued into the Stuart era through expansive plantations and controlling land ownership Beyond the tumultuous times of English strife with Charles and Cromwell permanently reshaped the social landscape of Ireland An essential cornerstone of Charles I s imprint on Ireland was embodied by Lord Deputy Wentworth s appointment The brutal authoritarian rule by Wentworth exacerbating Catholic Protestant conflict culminated in his impeachment in 1641 Attempts to quell Irish dissent instead were overshadowed by Wentworth s resentment Such resentment produced the Rebellion of 1641 whereby Wentworth turned his raised Catholic army originally designed to defend the English against the invading Scots against Irish Protestants Protestant backlash an intersectional coalition of anti Crown condemnation combined with successive Cromwellian victories against the Cavaliers saw the landscape of Ireland once again changed after the fall of the Monarchy Gibney too shallowly comments on this crucial aspect of Irish history mainly focusing on mass Catholic land confiscation by Cromwell s lackeys The alternative see sawing between pro Catholic and Protestant land and social domination fuel by retrospective persecution swung towards the Catholics during the Restoration. The Restoration of Charles II to the Crown saw the excessive redistribution of land from Protestants to Catholics to insulate against foreign Catholic French influence under Louis XIV The landscape of Europe manifested the contestation of Christianity that stands and stood as centre stage of Irish life due to contested Royal claims The succession of James II a Catholic led the Irish protestants fearing further retributive penalisation to bestow allegiance to William of Orange The military domination of William scuppered the Jacobites causing James II to flee to France Gibney scantly comments on the role of limp French support of Jacobites Thus earlier distribution once again favours the previously disaffected party the Protestants once The highly damaging problematic tensions between English dominion and allegiance heuristically sectioned by religion continued to dominate the 19th century The Williamite war in Ireland ended with the Treaty of Limerick in 1691 Still fears of future Jacobite uprisings aided by stringent anti Catholic penal laws led to the Catholic Question if when and how would Catholics be integrated into Ireland s political and social stage Meanwhile Catholic politics in Ireland evolved into Irish patriotism coinciding with the American revolution Burgeoning movements like the Volunteers successfully lobbied for reductions in anti Catholic penal laws related to land ownership consolidation and voting rights Early renditions of the Volunteers placed the English American conflict centre stage in domestic Irish politics unsurprising considering Irish trade with the colonies Under the banner of speedy revolution or free trade successive pro Irish movements successfully achieved legislative independence for Ireland in 1782 More radical elements of the Volunteers began to emerge with Gibney lacking much needed causative characterisation alas expectable from a short history style book Unlike the Volunteers such groups like United Irishmen boasted greater cross sectional diversity between religions classes and nationalities Some English lords gradually identified with Galiec identity than historical ties These radical elements emboldened by the legislative reform called for complete Irish independence looking once to France for aid Despite their revolutionary mindset the French retained limp backing of previously catholic pro independence Irish movements While some military conflict like the 1798 Rebellion was French backed their brutal suppression crippled the Irish independence movement albeit not permanently The English retaliated by dissolving the Irish parliament and subsuming Ireland as one dependent part of the United Kingdom. Acceptably Gibney s conservation of recent Irish history focuses on paramilitary conflicts The attempts at catholic emancipation in the 19th Century by Pit the Younger and Irish liberal politicals like Henry Gratton to the displeasure of George III enable Catholic representation The 1st Irish Catholic MP O Connell acted as a parliamentarian figurehead of the early ideological dawn of Home Rule However the end of the Napoleonic Wars produced significant economic inequality across Ireland with those agrarian typically pro independence significantly worse off than that industrialist typically pro unionist citizens With the decline in O Connell s popularity due to promoting pro Catholic education reforms and failing to gain concessions from the failed Liberal coalition in the 1830s the rhetoric of patriotism found in the United Irelanders gave way to Irish Nationalism by Young Ireland styled from Guiseppe Mazzini Unlike previous militant groups Young Ireland embraced cross sectional symbology tapping into the economic disparity as a galvanising factor for the masses Similarly Young Ireland did not reject political violence Provoked by famine Young Ireland failed to rebel in 1848 The brunt of the Potato Blight in the 1840s produced four significant lasting changes to Ireland emigration Fenians Home Rule Land War Deprivation of essential staples of the Irish diet combined with lacklustre potentially malicious anti interventionism by Britain induced mass exodus of the Irish across the Atlantic The cross Atlantic presence of the Irish Republicanism Brotherhood led to further rebellion movements in 1867 the Fenians culminating in terrorist attempts in Manchester Extremism was not the sole product of the disastrous famine with Butt and Parnell advocating Home Rule devolved not independent government The 20th century whilst seeming most familial was the most rushed commentary by A Short History of Ireland Nonetheless for novices of Irish history or those desiring a refresh a suitable book Hardcover A fairly good concise telling Probably better as a review for someone already familiar with Irish history than as an overview for someone like me new to the topic Parts got muddled Hardcover The writing style was very much academic and sometimes complicated which I did not expect when buying this book It felt very much like a lecturer writing a book for his students expecting them to qoute his book in their essays which maybe was the case. But I still finished it and learned about it so I guess 3 stars is a perfect evaluation Hardcover Engaging well written and leaves you wanting so much The book skips so quickly over everything it covers that for me it was helpful to put events I have heard of in their general temporal context but I wouldn t feel confident that I could have an intelligent conversation about anything I didn t already know which is not a great deal. Not only could the book have done with a hundred or so pages but the limited space is partially wasted with the Where Historians Disagree chapters If the salient historic points themselves have not been treated in great depth do you really need a discussion of whether 17th Century Ireland was an Ancien R gime society As it is though it is still a pleasure to read and at least can serve as a jumping off point for further reading Disappointing though that with space this could have been a fantastic one volume history of modern Ireland and that further reading list could have been a lot shorter Hardcover 
John Gibney is a historian attached to the Royal Irish Academys Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Project He is a long time contributor to History Ireland and is the author of A short history of Ireland 1500 2000 Yale University Press 2018 John Gibney is a historian attached to the Royal Irish Academy s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Project He is a long time contributor to History Ireland and is the author of A short history of Ireland 1500 2000 Yale University Press 2018 site_link A brisk concise and readable overview of Irish history from the Protestant Reformation to the dawn of the twenty first century Five centuries of Irish history are explored in this informative and accessible volume John Gibney proceeds from the beginning of Ireland s modern period and continues through to virtually the present day offering an integrated overview of the island nation s cultural political and socioeconomic history This succinct scholarly study covers important historical events including the Cromwellian conquest and settlement the Great Famine and the struggle for Irish independence Gibney s book explores major themes such as Ireland s often contentious relationship with Britain its place within the British Empire the impact of the Protestant Reformation the ongoing religious tensions it inspired and the global reach of the Irish diaspora This unique wide ranging work assimilates the most recent scholarship on a wide range of historical controversies making it an essential addition to the library of any student of Irish studies A Short History of Ireland 1500 2000A concise introduction to Irish history Undeniably interesting but it does feel like a sketch rather than anything meaty Recommended for readers with a cursory interest in history not for scholars Hardcover Available as an enjoyable unabridged 9 hour audio download. One Goodreads review complains that this book of history is packed with facts and names and dates How can anyone over 12 write this without shame A neighboring one accuses the same book of being too thin I guess the reader is already an expert For the rest of us here s a popular survey history that hits the sweet spot As a person of Irish heritage I recommend this to fellow non resident non experts who want to learn or remember about the land that drove our ancestors to exile. It s sometimes a little dense to listen to while driving or making dinner but that s what the rewind button is for The book is divided into centuries At the end of each century there s a short chapter named Where Historians Disagree I found these chapters especially worth a second listen. Very near the end of the book the writer references a 1967 documentary about Irish politics named The Rocky Road to Dublin which was banned for 30 years in the Republic If you wish you may watch it in its entirety for free on YouTube here I found it a little slow going OK actually I fell asleep You can watch a trailer for the film here some clips from the film here and a short documentary of the unexpected ruckus that the film was involved in at the 1968 Cannes film festival here Read an interesting Wikipedia entry about the movie here Hardcover Five hundred years of tumultuous controversial history condensed into 270 pages this book delivers a compelling narrative and provides many details without getting bogged down I knew nothing about Irish history before I picked up this book and now I have a much better appreciation for the twists and turns of the story of the Emerald Isle. Gibney gives consistent nods to different interpretations of events by historians who disagree thus creating a book that least gives a flavor of some bitter debates without devoting too much attention to the different sides. This book made an excellent traveling companion in Ireland as I was consistently seeing and hearing the names of people and places I was reading about as I roamed around Ireland Hardcover Ireland refuses to accept its real size and weight in the world and its writers and poets and musicians populate our imagination Christopher HitchensThings I learned From the beginning the English viewed indigenous people on both sides of the Atlantic America and Ireland as strange and barbarous For centuries England saw Ireland as both a security barrier and a springboard for westward colonization Ireland was the only region under 16th century Tudor influence to maintain a predominantly Catholic population Though undoubtedly conquered both militarily and politically it was never conquered spiritually The Reformation failed to take solid root on Irish soil Many in England blamed the failure on Irish inferiority The Irish they claimed could not intellectually grasp the complex Protestant theology they just weren t smart enough Irish men and women in general were looked down upon as a primitive people that needed to be controlled and civilized This is a perception that some believe still underscores English Irish relations. Of course there is a a great deal to the story of Ireland than what I have written here but it all boils down to this You can end almost any statement of pertinent Irish history with the words on religious grounds and you will be correct almost every time Other people have a nationality The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis Brendan Behan Hardcover This was a very accessible short history although I would gladly have read a few hundred pages for Gibney to have covered events maybe detail on several of the events he covered The biggest complaint I have about the book is that Gibney seemed to glide over the issue of genocide Historians who have focused on the subject extensively frequently include the Plantations as an example of British genocide against the Irish as well as the so called famine A famine denotes a lack of food due to the weather generally But when food grown in Ireland during the 1840 s was exported to England that suggests genocide particularly when combined with the views of government officials who commented on how the catastrophe would benefit the country by reducing the population I could provide many examples Gibney dealt with it by glibly stating that no serious historian considers it to have been genocide without mentioning one example or any explanation It almost felt like he was afraid of offending the Brits by telling the truth That said I would not dismiss Gibney completely He write very well and synthesizes the amount of time he covers in an informative and interesting way Hardcover
| A Short History of Ireland, 1500-2000 By John Gibney |
| 0300208510 |
| 9780300208511 |
| 296 |
| Hardcover |