Ireland’s story is an amazingly dramatic and intense one – and today the influence of Irish culture can be felt around the globe. This book helps you find out why, taking you on a rollercoaster journey through the highs and lows of Ireland’s past including invasions, battles, executions, religious divide, uprisings, emigration – and Riverdance!

Mike Cronin is a lecturer at the Centre for Irish Programmes, Boston College, Dublin. He has written 5 books on Irish history.

Discover:When and how Ireland became CelticIreland and Britain’s complex relationshipThe evolution of Irish cultureHow Irish emigration has affected the worldNorthern Ireland’s rocky road to peace

Part I: Saints and Kings: Ireland’s Early Years.

Chapter 1: No Man Is an Ireland.

Chapter 2: The First People Arrive.

Chapter 3: The Early Irish Kings.

Chapter 4: Snakes Alive! Christianity Comes to Ireland.

Part II: The Normans Are Coming! The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.

Chapter 5: The Vikings Arrive First.

Chapter 6: Irish vs. Norman Invaders . . . But Who’s in Charge?

Chapter 7: Boy Meets Gael: The Norman-Irish Alliance.

Part III: The Invading English Kings: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.

Chapter 8: The Scottish-Irish Rebellion and its Aftermath.

Chapter 9: From Richard II to Henry IV: More Turmoil in Ireland.

Chapter 10: Family Feuds I: The Wars of the Roses.

Part IV: Religious Wars and Family Feuds: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.

Chapter 11: Popes vs. Archbishops: The Reformation and Ireland.

Chapter 12: Religious Roundabouts and Irish Rebellion.

Chapter 13: James I and the Plantations; Charles I and Chaos.

Chapter 14: Family Feuds II and III: The English Civil War, then William and James.

Part V: Catholic and Protestant: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

Chapter 15: Going Irish? Grattan’s Parliament and Wolfe Tone’s Rebellion.

Chapter 16: Going British: The Act of Union.

Chapter 17: Three Strikes for Irish Independence: O’Connell, Davis, and Mitchel.

Chapter 18: The Great Hunger and the Land War.

Chapter 19: The Fight Over Home Rule.

Part VI: Divided in Two: Life from the 1880s.

Chapter 20: Balls and Books in Irish: The Cultural Revival.

Chapter 21: Fighting Against Britain: The Revolution.

Chapter 22: One Land, Two Systems: Partition.

Chapter 23: Troubles Begin Again . . . And Maybe Finish.

Part VII: The Part of Tens.

Chapter 24: Ten Top Turning Points.

Chapter 25: Ten Major Documents.

Chapter 26: Ten Things the Irish Have Given the World.

Chapter 27: Ten Great Irish Places to Visit.

Chapter 28: Ten Irish People Who Should Be Better Known.

Index.