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Is the country that produced The Book of Kells the same one that built Georgian Dublin or gave birth to the poetry of Yeats? All too often the great periods of Irish achievement have been presented as fragments, unrelated to a continuing tradition. Yet no other country has been so obsessed with its own past as Ireland, or more tenacious of its own unity. This book presents the whole of Ireland -- the dark side as well as the light, the greatness as well as the suffering, the enduring victories as well as the humiliating defeats. Eleven leading scholars and writers trace the story of Ireland, beginning with prehistoric Ireland and its stupendous megalithic monuments. In the first millennium, the early Irish Church outshone the rest of Europe, creating masterpieces of manuscript illumination and metalwork. This was followed by the Viking invasions, the turbulent Middle Ages, and the brutal struggles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, out of which a new society arose, the Protestant Ascendancy, imposed from outside but still essentially Irish. The last two centuries have been years of slow advance to independent nationhood, beset with tragedy but including the important lyrical episode of the Celtic Revival in art, poetry, and drama. The final chapters are devoted to the Irish in America and modern Ireland. A wealth of superb illustrations combined with a superior degree of scholarship make this an essential overview and reference for anyone interested in Ireland.

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