Hi, AskHistorians, I'm interested in learning about the history of Ireland, which I've only studied peripherally. I'm American with a lot of Irish ancestry and want to learn more about the island's history from its beginning. Does anyone know a good book that outlines the entire history of Ireland?
Whilst not a full history of Ireland, Robert Kee's, 'The Green Flag', is an excellent history of Ireland from the late 18th Century to the 1970s, following the struggle for Independence.
If you really want to start from the beginning the 'A New History of Ireland' series is probably what your looking for, it covers 9 volumes and is the most in depth exploration of Irish history out there and is easily found on Amazon.
No one book will give you an overview of Irish history, there is just to much of it to cover in one book.
If you have a particular point in Irish history that you are interested in let me know, or you can post over at /r/IrishHistory
I would recommend Thomas Bartlett, Ireland A History as the best one volume synthesis. R. F. Foster, The Oxford History of Ireland is also good but each chapter is written by a different historian so it doesn't read quite as well.
The Green Flag is a popular history of nationalism which was never taken seriously by historians and is now very out of date.
The New History of Ireland is a bit variable as it came out over several decades and some parts (especially the twentieth century ) are terribly out of date. It is a good reference though.