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Book Review of The Course of Irish History

The Course of Irish History
The Course of Irish History
Author: T. W. Moody
Genre: History
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 1775 more book reviews


This is based on a well-received 1966 television series with 21 parts, thus there are 21 chapters. Published in 1967, each chapter is by the author of respective TV programme. The book was reissued in 1984 with an update (Chapter 22) and again in 1994 (Chapter23). The editors explain that little revision is possible, especially as authors die, but they did improve the chronology and include new works in the bibliography.
All the authors are academics and given the interest of the Irish in events a thousand and more years ago, it is not untoward that chapters regarding those times are as long as those dealing with the last 100 years.
The maps are adequate, illustrations well chosen, and there are some endnotes (but this is an overview of Irish history, not an especially scholarly book), and an index is provided.
I read on the subway chapters 20 and 21 (1921-1966) enjoying the overview provided. However, Chapter 20 regarding Ulster was almost all political. Chapter 21 included a lot of economic history of the Republic.