Ireland, an Illustrated History

Throughout this book I have tried to correct widespread misconceptions about the key events in Irish history, believing that a more accurate understanding of what really happened is the most effective way of counteracting the sometimes lethal myths about the past which continue to bedevil the people of Ireland. I have tried to bring out two main themes. First, that Irish history is not one of sectarian conflict: that the Church from the late eighteenth century onwards consistently sided with British government and against Irish nationalists. From time to time, sectarian divisions and religious considerations have been of prime importance, as with Cromwell and, incredibly in our own time, in Northern Ireland today. But this is unusual, and the proper importance belongs to social and economic differences (especially the ownership of land), and to the consistent appeal of an ill-defined national ideal which for some time in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was welcomed by all Irishmen, Protestant and Catholic, English-speaking and Irish-speaking... Secondly, the importance of Ireland's own cultural heritage to Irish history has never been properly appreciated. Gaelic culture - its laws, its social structure, its literature, its beautiful artifacts - has been to the Irish people a source of constant and justifiable pride. And, surviving in various forms for over two thousand years, it provided an argument for and a justification of what Irishmen termed patriotism and their governors called treachery, fraud and cowardice. The strength of this appeal was never understood by the government or the Church... I have concentrated on the personalities of Irish history rather than the economics, since I am convinced that men, not money, play the single greatest part in events. I have also used popular ballads to highlight historical figures because, in a country where oral tradition is so powerful, songs and ballads have often coloured the Irish people's perceptions of their past and their heroes. -- Preface (page 8-9)