1916 and All That Format: Paperback

1916 And All That is as an extremely funny and irreverent satirical history of Ireland. The central assumption behind 1916 And All That is that, despite all of the compulsory school lessons and exams taken, there are only a few muddled facts of our history that most people retain into adulthood. We recall snatches of events, names and dates, and few of us can piece together a coherent narrative or offer up any description of events in detail. We all know Robert Emmet’s name, but what did he do, why did he do it, and when?

This book references the fuzzily remembered facts, but plays very fast and extremely loose with the details of our history.

C.M. Boylan is a librarian at the National Library of Ireland.