{"title":"Gill Books - History","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"big-fellow-long-fellow","title":"Big Fellow, Long Fellow","description":"\u003cp\u003eMichael Collins and Eamon de Valera were the two most charismatic leaders of the Irish revolution. This joint biography looks first at their very different upbringings and early careers. \u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nBoth fought in the 1916 Easter Rising, although it is almost certain they did not meet during that tumultuous week. Their first encounter came when Collins had been released from jail after the rising but de Valera was still inside. Collins was one of those who wanted to run a Sinn Féin candidate in the Longford by-election of 1917. De Valera and other leaders opposed this initiative but the Collins group went ahead anyway and the candidate won narrowly. The incident typified the relationship between the two men: they were vastly different in temperament and style. 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Now, the true story can at last be told.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123742491011,"sku":"9780717145157","price":16.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/d6b8db6dd454b79c1201a46f82d6cb62.jpg?v=1741007883"},{"product_id":"king-dan","title":"King Dan","description":"\u003cp\u003eDaniel O’Connell (1775–1847) was one of the most remarkable people in the nineteenth century. Famous in his day as the most feared lawyer in Ireland, O’ Connell tormented judges, terrorised opposing barristers, and won a reputation for saving the lives of so many men who would otherwise have been hanged. He became ‘The Counsellor’, the fearless defender of the people. 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The speech, its various reported versions and its long posterity as an inspiring document are also clearly chronicled.’ Books Ireland, February 2003\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first paperback edition of the celebrated biography of one of Ireland’s most romantic revolutionaries.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123745341827,"sku":"9780717136759","price":22.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/9780717136759.jpg?v=1775649412"},{"product_id":"irish-ancestors","title":"Irish Ancestors","description":"\u003cp\u003eIrish Ancestors is the handy guide to tracing your family roots. Not only that, it is written by the leading authority and most respected author in the field, John Grenham. As the author of the best-selling and authoritative Tracing Your Irish Ancestors, Grenham has a reputation second to none. This little book is a quick one-stop shop for those who want the essential information on tracing their family trees, but don’t want too much detail. 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The answers to these questions and more are to be found in the late Laurence Flanagan's acclaimed guide to pre-Celtic civilisation, 'Ancient Ireland: Life Before the Celts'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123770802563,"sku":"9780717124336","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/1a19f8d8798bcd5696ea8fd7e39fb26f.jpg?v=1741008813"},{"product_id":"a-short-history-of-the-1916-rising","title":"A Short History of the 1916 Rising","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe book explores the background to the rising, the development of the Fenian tradition running in parallel with the parliamentary tradition, the effect of the cultural revolution of the early twentieth century in forming the minds of the men who made Easter week, the gradual demoralisation of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and the crucial effects of the Great War.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe book covers the events of the rising on a day-by-day basis, starting on Easter Sunday — the date originally set for the start — and continuing through to the surrender the following Saturday. 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This is a crisply written, succinct summary of Ireland's past from the construction of Newgrange to the Northern Ireland peace process. Maps and illustrations are used to bring the events in the timeline to life. In addition, there are short introductory essays to the major developments in the story: the coming of Christianity; the Vikings and the Normans; the Reformation; the Georgian era; the Famine; the Irish revolution, and so on.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA crisply written, succinct summary of Ireland's past from the construction of Newgrange to the Northern Ireland peace process.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123773522307,"sku":"9780717134847","price":12.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/c1dfde17bae112dbe8a7196b2a00b0ef.jpg?v=1741008831"},{"product_id":"dublin-tenement-life","title":"Dublin Tenement Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book is totally unique. It is based on the original and wholly authentic testimonies of survivors of the old Dublin tenements. 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Such a broad survey reveals features otherwise not easily detected. For all the complexity of political developments, Irish society remained basically stable and managed to withstand the onslaught of both the Vikings and the English. The inherent strength of Ireland consisted in the cultural heritage from pre-historic times, which remained influential throughout the centuries discussed here.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIrish history has traditionally been described either in isolation or in the manner in which it was influenced by outside forces, especially by England. This book strikes a different balance. First, the time span covered is longer than usual, and more attention is paid to the early medieval centuries than to the later period. Secondly, less emphasis is placed in this book on the political or military history of Ireland than on general social and cultural aspects. As a result, a more mature interpretation of medieval Ireland emerges, one in which social and cultural norms inherited from pre-historic times are seen to survive right through the Middle Ages. They gave Irish society a stability and inherent strength unparalleled in Europe. Christianity came in as an additional, enriching factor.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e‘… a new look at a period which has been studied more for its military and political activity than for anything else. This excellent book corrects the tilt by concentrating on social and cultural life.’ Irish Independent\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn overview of Irish society from the coming of Christianity in the fifth century to the Reformation in the sixteenth.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123774374275,"sku":"9780717132935","price":24.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/9780717132935.jpg?v=1775649271"},{"product_id":"new-gill-history-of-ireland-nineteenth-century-ireland","title":"New Gill History of Ireland: Nineteenth-Century Ireland","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe search for stability proved elusive. Nationalist Ireland mobilised a mass democratic movement under O’Connell to secure Catholic Emancipation before seeing its world transformed by the social cataclysm of the Great Famine. 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Political, religious, social and economic circumstances were all in flux. The common ambition of every faction was the creation of a usable focus of governance. Thus plantations, the constitutional experiments of Wentworth in the 1630s, the Confederation of the 1640s, the republican 1650s and the royalist reaction of the latter part of the century can be seen not simply as episodes in colonial domination but as part of an on-going attempt to find a modus vivendi within Ireland, often compromised by external influences.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is not simply a narrative history of politics in seventeenth-century Ireland. It is a social history of governance that, while dealing with the main political, religious and economic developments, has at its interpretative core the process of making a new society out of competing factions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA groundbreaking interpretation. 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A gripping study of Ireland's neutrality - and every bit as relevant for today's times.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123778568579,"sku":"9780717124114","price":22.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/9780717124114.jpg?v=1775649095"},{"product_id":"nationalist-revolutionaries-in-ireland-1858-1928","title":"Nationalist Revolutionaries in Ireland 1858-1928","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe present-day Republic of Ireland was created by a revolutionary élite which developed between 1858 and 1914. This book analyses the social origins of the revolutionary politicians who became the rulers of Ireland after 1922 and examines their political preconceptions, ideologies and prejudices. 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It ought to be required reading … if only to show that the slowness of Irish development was substantially a self-inflicted but not fatal wound, which can’t be blamed on the British empire or, for that matter, the Rolling Stones. We did it our way.’ - Dermot Keogh, The Irish Times\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e'Seventy years ago science was made optional in primary schools to allow more time for the Irish language – even though many of the pupils could hardly read English. The state deliberately neglected technical education, with the Education Minister in the early 1950s stating that, after religious formation, the “inculcation of patriotism is the second great goal of education”. 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Irish Independent\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\n\u003cp\u003eManning’s book is a worthy and welcome addition to a small but growing body of serious work on personalities, issues and institutions in the modern Irish state. Journal of Modern History\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Blueshirt movement was one of the most turbulent and controversial episodes of modern Irish history. Now in a new paperback edition, Maurice Manning's book chronicles the rise and fall of the Blueshirts against the social and political background of Ireland in the late 1920s and 1930s.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123778765187,"sku":"9780717140091","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/c4ece2850620348360e3c4e41397b634.jpg?v=1741009030"},{"product_id":"the-evolution-of-irish-nationalist-politics","title":"The Evolution of Irish Nationalist Politics","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis classic work studies the growth of nationalism in Ireland from the middle of the eighteenth century to modern times. 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It will be discussed and cited for many years.’ Michael Gallagher, \u003cem\u003eIrish University Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e'Buy it rather than borrow it, since it calls for re-reading, reflection and discussion. It illuminates both past and present.’ John A. Murphy, \u003cem\u003eThe Sunday Tribune\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e'a lively and original book’ L.M. Cullen, \u003cem\u003eThe Irish Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA re-issue of a classic work that studies the growth of nationalism in Ireland from the middle of the eighteenth century to modern times.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123780960643,"sku":"9780717139675","price":22.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/5ce6e42d04512010f70dc39c5abbe59c.jpg?v=1741009040"},{"product_id":"the-irish-war-of-independence","title":"The Irish War of Independence","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat is remarkable about Michael Hopkinson’s Irish War of Independence is the way he shows how random and circumstantial the revolutionary strategy became. Volunteers in rural areas improvised military campaigns often sanctioned retrospectively by their leaders in Dublin.\" Maurice Walsh, New Statesman\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e“An objective and well-researched account of the events that led to the establishment of our state.” Garret FitzGerald, Irish Times\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e“Masterly… [it] has filled a major gap historical writing by placing the final stages of the revolution of January 1919 to July 1921 in the wider context of the Ulster Crisis of 1912-14 and the First World War.” John Cooney, Irish Independent\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWithin months of first publication in hardback, Michael Hopkinson’s study of the Irish War of Independence has established itself as by far the best account we have of this seminal event in the making of modern Ireland. It has been welcomed both by scholars and the general public alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123782369667,"sku":"9780717137411","price":22.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/1aa5b963867f190b2d36805fe784f59f.jpg?v=1741009050"},{"product_id":"a-new-dictionary-of-irish-history-from-1800","title":"A New Dictionary of Irish History from 1800","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe standard reference guide to modern Irish history ' the only such book devoted entirely to the modern era' is now available in paperback. This classic work will be a boon to everyone with an interest in Irish history.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\n\u003cp\u003eLong established as a reliable, accurate and comprehensive reference work, it includes quirky and offbeat headwords as well as the anticipated entries for political, social and economic history.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘'an invaluable guide for all students of history as well as a ready reference work for everyone else, including journalists and even historians.’ Irish Examiner\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘This is the best Irish history reference book you will get on your shelves.’ Evening Herald\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘The whole panoply of Irish life is visited with some 2,000 articles on subjects as diverse as emigration, governments of Ireland, home rule, loyalism, agrarian violence, secret societies, together with hundreds of concise biographical articles ' This book is excellent in every respect a treasure trove of varied and fascinating historical information. 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From modest beginnings, the railway network expanded over the next 70 years into almost every part of the country. At its greatest extent, the national network consisted of just under 3,500 route miles of track. This era of expansion was followed by an equally long period of decline which was sparked by the partition of the country, the inexorable rise of the internal combustion engine and the economic problems of the interwar years. It was only towards the end of the twentieth century that the fortunes of the railways at last began to recover.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\n\u003cp\u003eIrish Railways, written by one of the leading historians of Ireland’s railways, provides many insights into the social and economic effects of the railways. This is a story rich in human interest, a tale of triumph and tragedy, superb achievement and monumental incompetence, which will appeal to all who have even a passing interest in this most romantic of human inventions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIrish Railways, written by one of the leading historians of Ireland`s railways, \u003cbr\u003e\r\nprovides many insights into the social and economic effects of the railways.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gill Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55123811434883,"sku":"9780717146482","price":12.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0910\/3664\/7811\/files\/9b12f9c3ff27cae67603be659f967359.jpg?v=1741009755"},{"product_id":"a-history-of-ireland-in-250-episodes","title":"A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes","description":"\u003cp\u003eJonathan Bardon covers all the obvious things: the invasions, battles, development of towns and cities, the Reformation, the Georgian era, the Famine, rebellions and resistance, the difference of Ulster, partition, the twentieth century. What makes his book so valuable, however, are the quirky subjects he chooses to illustrate how history really works: the great winter freeze of 1740 and the famine that followed; crime and duelling; an emigrant voyage; evictions. These episodes get behind the historical headlines to give a glimpse of past realities that might otherwise be lost to view.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe author has retained the original episodic structure of the radio programmes. 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By the time the Normans arrived in Ireland in the twelfth century, this was crucial: Dublin maintained the best communications between the English crown and its new lordship in Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe city first developed on the rising ground south of the river where Christ Church now is and the English established their principal citadel, Dublin Castle, in this area. Throughout the medieval and early modern periods, the city’s importance was entirely ecclesiastical and strategic. It was not a centre of learning, or fashion or commerce.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe foundation of Trinity College in 1592 was a landmark event but the city did not really develop until the long peace of the eighteenth century. Then the series of fine, wide Georgian streets and noble public buildings that are Dublin’s greatest boast were built. A semi-autonomous parliament of the Anglo-Irish élite provided a focus for social life and the city flourished.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Act of Union of 1800 saw Ireland become a full part of the metropolitan British state, a situation not reversed until 1922. The Union years saw Dublin decline. Fine old houses were gradually abandoned by the aristocracy and became hideous tenement warrens. The city missed out on the Industrial Revolution. By the time Joyce immortalised it, it had become ‘the centre of paralysis’ in his famous phrase.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIndependence restored some of its natural function but there was still much poverty and shabbiness. The 1960s boom proved to be a false dawn. 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The wealth of Irish culture and tradition is described as well as the key events and people that have shaped the country today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom prehistoric times to the present day this comprehensive history presents \u003cbr\u003e\r\nthe story of Ireland in bite-size chunks. 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It’s one of the twentieth century’s boldest success stories and one of its most brazen scandals. And now it’s almost forgotten. Only the term ‘Irish Sweeps’ lingers, part of North American folk memory, unthinkingly used today as a by-word for ‘hitting the jackpot’.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Sweeps provided a plotline for Hollywood movies, Broadway musicals and classic TV shows. Now, \u003cem\u003eThe Greatest Bleeding Hearts Racket in the World\u003c\/em\u003e tells the whole story. 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