The Story of the Irish Race: A Popular History of Ireland by Seumas MacManus

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If you only ever read one book on the Irish history this would be an excellent choice. Originally written in 1921 as the Irish Uprising turned into the Irish Civil War, it was intended in part to explain just what all of the issues were. But it is also a work of a master storyteller, and if there is anything the Irish are known for it is story telling. McManus goes all the way back to the stories of the Tuatha De Danaan, a semi-mythical race of gods who invaded Ireland shortly after 2000 B.C. according to the annals. And then he traces the history forward, through the Druids of the centuries BC, St. Patrick and the Christianization of Ireland, and finally the horrible oppressions of the English. This is a book written as a story, not as a scholarly work of history, and is quite accessible. McManus wrote this in large part for Irish-Americans whom he found found woefully lacking in knowledge of Irish history.

I originally read this as physical book, but it is now available on Amazon as a Kindle book for only $.99. Kind of hard to go too far wrong at that price.



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