Irish Century: The Hulton Getty Picture Collection

From the poetry of Yeats to the strife between landlords and tenants to the terrors of Bloody Sunday and the struggle for peace, "The Irish Century" explores the Emerald Isle's unique history, culture, and people with an intimacy that only imagery can bring to the page. 300 photos.

The year 1998, writes screenwriter and director Neil Jordan in his foreword to this extraordinary collection of photographs, "could well be the first in Irish history when the past [was] what it claims to be"--when, that is, ancient hatreds and slights were not daily reenacted, perceived as if they had happened only yesterday. On viewing the nearly 250 black-and-white plates assembled here, however, readers will surely think that the faces, monuments, buildings, and, yes, weapons that spring from the pages are evidence that the past truly lives in the present. Taken from the Hulton Getty photojournalism collection, an important documentary source for Irish history, the images recall Ireland from the war-torn days of the British empire into the peaceful present. Among those images are views of the construction of the Titanic in a Belfast shipyard; the Easter Uprising of 1916; the Irish survivors of the Battle of the Somme; and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The collection also shows many views detailing Irish daily life, from impromptu folk dances staged at rural crossroads to pilgrimages to holy sites to talk- and song-filled gatherings at local pubs. Anyone interested in Irish history will delight in spending long hours poring over the pictures and studying the thoughtful, highly informative commentary by Michael Morrogh, a Cork-born professor of history at England's Shrewsbury School. --Gregory McNamee