Hello, what are some books I should read to get a better set of general notions about Irish history?

by TheGreatLakesAreFake

Hello! How is everyone doing today? Hope all is well for you :-)

Recently, I realized my understanding of Irish history is poor, at best. I'm French and Irish history is pretty much never taught in our schools (likewise for much of non-French history). Why Irish history now? Well, I don't know, I got curious I suppose.

Here's what my Irish history looks like for now:

  • unknown people (Picts?) & some Scots, later to move to Scotland
  • Celtic tribes, the kings were called Ri but hey, that's just another version of the PIE root-word
  • (insert great gap devoid of knowledge)
  • they traded some ore (iron?) with the Romans but weren't part of the Empire
  • first attempts by English/Norman/Angevine monarchs to conquer Ireland in the 11th-14th centuries, kind of not successful. "Beyond the Pale"
  • ???
  • Ireland is now part of the UK, things suck
  • Potato famine, lots of Irish people go to the US
  • Independence after WW1 (why, how?)
  • the Troubles (my dad was on trip in Belfast in the 90s I think?)
  • now

As you can see this is all very rough and probably inaccurate. I wish I had a few books pertaining to Irish history from the pre-historic periods to nowadays, quality scholarly books, yet able to synthetize things a bit. I can read a few hundreds pages but not 6,000 in my little spare time :(

I looked on the FAQ and found no recommendations on Irish history.

Does anyone have a reading list? :)

Have a wonderful day /r/AskHistorians

TGLAF

B_47

Hi, firstly I'm NOT a historian and I hope I'm not stepping on any toes, but this kind of question comes up in various places like r/IrishHistory and r/ireland .

Be aware history and literature are 2 obsessions of the Irish, so you may find way too much reading out there and sadly much of it subtly deceptive.
Also be aware the Irish have a reputation for disagreeing among themselves: it is said that a committee of 3 Irish will produce at least 4 contradictory conclusions! /g. So the hardest part of reading may be to work out the bias of the writer, this often is in what they omit, not what they include, ergo hard to discover.

Some of your topics bring to mind, just without any system or overview:
"The Great Calamity", a short book by Christine Kinneally, premier historian of the so-called "Great Famine" ("Famine" is a controversial name), she also has major scholarly publications out.
"Northern Ireland The Orange State", Michael Farrell

Many more to be added. Please excuse any typos.

By the way, congratulations, your outline of Irish history is much more comprehensive than almost all Anglophones!

Bonne chance.