Synopsis
The Historical Dictionary of Ireland provides a succinct yet comprehensive introduction to Ireland and its history from earliest times to the present day. Following a description of the physical environment and landscapes, a narrative summary of the colonization of the island traces the development of population and settlement through successive periods, emphasizing continuity of relationships with Britain and mainland Europe while simultaneously identifying Ireland's distinctive features in polity, economy and culture. A detailed chronology itemizes key events occurring within, or directly relating to, Ireland up to the end of 1995. The core of the book consists of over 400 alphabetical, cross-referenced entries on the most significant places, people, institutions and trends in the country's development during its pre- and post- independence history.
While paying appropriate attention to past and present political issues affecting both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the volume adopts a broader approach to the understanding of the country's economy, society, and culture by including factual data and many features on influential artistic, literary and scientific figures and movements whose underlying achievements and ideas deserve wider recognition beyond the shores of this colorful divided land of only 5 million inhabitants. As such, it will offer a broad non-specialist readership the most up-to-date guide to focal themes and published interpretations of Irish history.
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About the Author
Colin Thomas (Ph.D, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth) is currently editing several volumes of the registers of St. Columb's Cathedral, Londonderry. He has held several university positions in Britain, and currently teaches at the University of Ulster in Coleraine. He is a member of the International Union for Scientific Study of Population, and has served on the Royal Irish Academy's National Committee for Geography since 1984.
Avril Thomas (Ph.D., University of Ulster) is currently preparing the fascicle on Londonderry in the Irish Historic Town Atlas series published by the Royal Irish Academy.
Reviews
The authors, geographers with the University College of Wales and the University of Ulster, respectively, have written a reference tool especially helpful for apolitical students of Ireland. Entries are drawn from historical, cultural, geographic, and political sources and uncover the nuts and bolts of Ireland, ancient and modern. This includes the lesser politicians, academics, bureaucrats and their departments, and even 19th-century Irish scientists and their English honors. Appendixes include the lord lieutenants and chief secretaries of Ireland as subjects of the United Kingdom; the presidents, prime ministers, and deputy PMs of the Free State/Republic; and religious leaders. The authors work hard to rise above "the Troubles" and in so doing create some blank spaces. Biographies of Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley, for example, are brief and reasonably objective, and the IRA and their Ulster counterparts are minimally acknowledged. Kilmainham is described as a ford on the River Liffey and, incidentally, as a jail by the same name that stands nearby. (The jail, where Nationalist Charles Parnell was imprisoned in the 1880s, gave its name to the Kilmainham Treaty granting concessionsxzp to tenant farmers.) All three Bloody Sundays are reduced to a single 12-line entry. Numerous Gaelic terms are given, but there is no phonetic guide?a surprising shortcoming for a book devoted to culture over politics. As a reference tool for a beginner to Irish history, this dictionary will help lay a groundwork for fuller understanding, but it isn't definitive and shouldn't be your only Irish reference title.?Robert C. Moore, DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals, N. Billerica, Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Historical Dictionary of Ireland
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Historical Dictionary of Ireland Colin Thomas and Avril Thomas
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Hardcover. Condition: Good. Red cloth boards with gilt lettering. Ex-library book in excellent condition, text is unmarked and pages are tight. Minimal library markings. Seller Inventory # 17686