Best products from r/IrishHistory

For Early Irish Literature—

• University College Cork's CELT Database is an expansive resource for digitised public domain scholarly editions/translations of various texts, including Cecile O'Rahilly's translations of the two major recensions of the Táin Bó Cúailnge ('The Cattle-Raid of Cooley'), and Elizabeth Gray's translation of Cath Maige Tuired ('The [Second] Battle of Moytura').
  
  
• Thomas Kinsella's The Táin (Dolmen Press, 1969) somewhat oversteps into literature rather than strictly scholarly translation, but is lovely as the former, and it includes many small remscéla as part of the composite narrative; of particular note Longes Mac n-Uislenn ('The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu').
  
  
• John Koch and John Carey's The Celtic Heroic Age. (Celtic Studies Publications, 2003) includes a large assortment of early Irish (as well as Latin and Welsh) texts in translation, including particularly forgiving versions of Echtrae Nerai ('The Adventures of Nera') and the Lebor Gabála Érenn (often called 'The Book of Invasions'), the latter of which is often a notably difficult text even in translation.
  
  
• Jeffrey Gantz' Early Irish Myths and Sagas (Penguin, 1981) has, despite its unassuming appearance, a few English translations that are available nowhere else in wide publication as far as I am aware. A fine little book.
  
  For secondary sources regarding Early Irish Literature—
  
  
• John Carey's new The Mythological Cycle of Medieval Irish Literature (Cork Studies in Celtic Literatures, 2018) is certain to be an invaluable introduction, though I have not yet read it.
  
  
• Mark Williams' Ireland's Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth (Princeton University Press, 2016) is a decent introduction to elements of the mythological cycle, in regards towards the Tuatha Dé Danann and associated figures.
  
  
• Dáithí Ó hÓgáin's Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of a Gaelic Hero (MacMillan, 1988) is, as with much of Ó hÓgáin's work (see also The Lore of Ireland (Boydell, 2006) mentioned below) a panchronic study, in this case of that most famous of Irish heroic figures.
  
  
• Tomás Ó Cathasaigh's The Heroic Biography of Cormac Mac Airt (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1977) is a good introduction to some of the features (historical and literary) of early Irish kingship, as well as the structure and language of Irish heroic narrative itself, in its analysis of that titular narrative paragon of Irish kingship.
  
  For modern traditional oral material, for convenience's sake I will reproduce an earlier comment of mine—
  
  >In lieu of knowing what particulars might be of interest, I can provide some generic resources on traditions in Ireland. The central pillar of all folklore and folklife documentation and scholarship in Ireland was the Irish Folklore Commission (1935-1970), now National Folklore Collection, which was established in order to record and archive the collective traditions, practices, beliefs, songs, stories and language, et cetera, that were seen to be rapidly changing in those nascent years of the Free State.
  
  >Today the National Folklore Collection possesses one of the largest and richest archives of traditional life, across written manuscripts, photographs, audio recordings, and video (Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh, et al. Treasures of the National Folklore Collection, Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann, 2010) is a beautiful publication which provides an overview of some of this material). Located at University College Dublin, the archive is freely accessible to the public, though naturally this access would be complicated if one happens to live overseas. In that event, parts of the collection, the Schools' Collection and ten thousand photographs from the photograph archive, are available on-line via Dúchas, a project to digitize (and transcribe by crowd-sourcing) the vast physical NFC archive. Both Counties Cork and Meath are extensively represented in each sub-collection, though the written material of the former will be substantially in Irish.
  
  >Many of the most authoritative works on Irish traditions have been products of IFC/NFC associates—
  
  > Archivist and prolific editor Seán Ó Súilleabháin (1903-1996), whom authored the legendary A Handbook of Irish Folklore (Folklore of Ireland Society, 1942 / Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann, 2014), published some of the finest collections of tradition Irish narratives, such as Folktales of Ireland (Routlege, 1966) and The Folklore of Ireland (Batsford, 1974).
  
  > Kevin Danaher (1913-2002), initially IFC collector then later esteemed folklore lecturer at UCD, authored numerous excellent works, of perhaps particular interest to yourself would be The Year in Ireland (Mercier, 1972) documenting the calendar customs of traditional Irish society.
  
  > The late Professor of Folklore at UCD, Dáithí Ó hÓgáin (1949-2011), likewise wrote and edited extensively both on modern folklore and early Ireland, including [The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland](http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/59532594) (Boydell, 1999), and the exceedingly useful reference encyclopaedia The Lore of Ireland (Boydell, 2006).
  
  >An Cumann Le Béaloideas Éireann (The Folklore of Ireland Society) journal [Béaloideas](http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/473704687) contains a peerless wealth of folklore scholarship and documentation from the paramount figures in the field(s), and aside from the most recent issues, is available on JSTOR if you have journal access.
  
  >[Blúiríní Béaloidis*](https://soundcloud.com/folklore_podcast) is far and away the most scholarly and authentic podcast on Irish folklore, hosted by NFC researchers/archivists Claire Doohan and Jonny Dillon, and recorded within the archive.

So you need a book on nineteenth century England that focuses on the Irish who were living in the country at the time. I'm assuming you also want things a bit broad and not too academically minded.

If you want to go into it with some background of what the hell was happening in Ireland:

Okey dokey - first you probably want a bit of political context so I recommend you read up on Daniel O'Connell. The nineteenth century was a period of serious political and religious strife, and perceptions of the Irish were defined by the Catholic Emancipation movement. I liked MacDonagh's biographies but most O'Connell books aren't too bad in terms of bias. He wasn't the only politician circling about, but most of the important names pop up in his life.

You'll also want to read up on the Famine, just so you know why so many Irish people were running off. Just be careful as the famine attracts a lot of animosity and anger. Try reading one that's a bit more neutral, like the first bit of F.S.L. Lyon's Ireland Since the Famine. Cecil Woodham-Smith's book The Great Famine is also pretty good, but has received its share of criticism as well.

If you just want to jump into the subject you originally came here to ask about:

As for the actual subject, there was a cute little book that came out of Oxford that looked at prominent Irish figures in London called Conquering England. It's very short and very 'big personality' focused but it gives you some broad idea of who was in London during the Victorian era.

I never read it, but I had a colleague who used Irish Migrants in Britain as secondary material for some essay or another. It's worth a look through anyway - it's case study stuff, so you get re-printed primary source material. The context isn't always there, but people like documentary histories.

Roger Swift, who edited the last one, is going to be your literary buddy. His main interest and specialty seems to be the Irish in Victorian England, so I also recommend you look at two other books he edited - The Irish in the Victorian City and The Irish in Britain. Both of these will be the closest to what you originally asked for. The Irish in Britain collection has an essay by David Fitzpatrick, who is usually a pretty good historian to read if you're looking for immigrant experience. No idea where that man finds his sources, but he unearths some great stuff.

A great intro to Irish mythology and legend is "Over Nine Waves" by Marie Heaney.

It gives a great overview of the mythological cycle, the Fenian cycle and the Ulster cycle, as well as some legends of the Irish saints. Basically your best starting point to know the major characters and myths before delving into the more minute details in the epics and dryer texts.

I would recommend the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine and Cormac Ó Gráda's The Great Irish Famine.

For primary sources, UCC -- sorry, "NUI Cork" -- has always had a superior online archive of Irish and Irish-related laws, documents, etc. They have the text of the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Bill where even Hansard can let you down.

I don't contribute much new material to this sub, but coming from a musical background I figured this would be a good start.

In my opinion, Ireland's best current folk singer singing an original song based on Sean O'Callaghan's [book] (http://www.amazon.com/To-Hell-Barbados-Cleansing-Ireland/dp/0863222870) of the same name.

I didn't see it in the bibliography, but are you familiar with this book? https://www.amazon.com/Blacksmith-Ballinalee-Sean-Mac-Eoin/dp/0951078321

My granda had a copy of it but I think it's hard to get a hold of it these days.

I wonder if you've read the Ryle Dwyer book (the join biography of Collins/De Valera) I seem to remember a quote from that about McEoin where someone basically said he was full of shite, that he was prone to exaggeration. For example I think he told a story to somebody that Collins showed him a written document from Lloyd George that claimed the boundry commission would transfer huge gains to the free state - again, don't quote me on that it's all a little rusty. Years since I read that book.

Not sure what I can provide in terms of websites that discuss the differences, except ones that talk about the damned switch conspiracy theory.

Dr Paul Lee placed the deckplans as of 1911/1912 side by side. Here's A-Deck and B-Deck being compared.

If you're more interested in books, I can recommend Mark Chirnside's The Olympic Class Ships; Olympic, Titanic, Britannic. I don't know why the price is so high, I got it for less than $30, but I imagine you can hunt one down at a library. Great resource that goes into great detail on the ships.

As for why that photograph is mislabelled? Not sure. There are many images of Olympic labelled as Titanic because of how few photographs there were of the infamous ship when she sank and Olympic was close enough that most people wouldn't notice. Even British Pathe used footage of Captain Smith in New York on Olympic as a stand-in for Titanic's maiden voyage. I think there's even a shot of Lusitania.

What I can say is this is Titanic on April 2nd heading out for her sea trials.

His early books on Michael Collins and de Valera were both very good. As Coogan liked the first and not the second, one has to filter out the biases, but otherwise I'd recommend them for beginners of the period.

Alas, some writers get better with age, and others rest on their laurels. Coogan appears to be in the latter camp.

Michael Foy's book on the Big Fella, https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Collinss-Intelligence-War-Foy/dp/0750942673, was one of the first I read on the topic and gave me a good overview.

I recommend this book It is very funny and is fairly accurate. And it is short enough you could read it on the plane and get a fairly good background of Irish history with out studying for ages. Are you interested in history? Why not take an irish history class while here?

Dublin: The Making of a Capital City by David Dickson is great. Obviously it focuses on Dublin specifically, but it does help to provide a sense of what was going on throughout Ireland and how things were different (or not) in Dublin. The book covers the last 1000 years, but the bulk of that centres on the last 500.

I was looking for a book like the one you're asking for and found this one instead. Was not at all disappointed.

Thanks Cormac for such a great AMA. I'm sure everyone here really enjoyed it.

Cormacs new book is on Amazon. "Ireland and the First World War: A Photographic History" for sale in US and in UK/Ireland.

I found this article after I encountered mention of the prophesy in Red Hugh O'Donnell and the Nine Years War and went and googled it. Gaelic printing has a fascinating history too. Trojan Horses and Friendly Faces: Irish Gaelic Typography as Propaganda is an interesting read, as is Mícheál Ó Searcóid's The Irish Alphabet, pdf link: www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb12-1/tb31searcoid.pdf

Love reading about The Westies. T.J. English's book is great.

It's a good idea to start with what you like .

So pick a few area's.


If I was looking for a post famine book I would go for Ireland Since the Famine by FSL Lyons or anything by Diarmuid Ferriter -good balanced historians.


Try UCC CELT for old stuff and this tread .

This time of year its quite on the web - but hopefully a few others will pick up on this and make suggestions.

There's this one great book called "The Feckin' Book of Irish History", I sent it over to an American friend of mine and he loves it. Great Irish humour and history(if I remember it also covers some Myths, but mostly history)


Links:

https://www.obrien.ie/feckin-history

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Feckin-Book-Irish-History/dp/1847170692