Ireland A Concise History from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day

Drawing from a wealth of historical and scholarly sources, Johnson traces the important social, religious and political developments of Ireland's struggle to become a unified, settled country. Johnson describes with accurate detail Ireland's barbarous beginnings, Oliver Cromwell's religions "crusade", the tragic Irish potato famine, the Ulster resistance and the outstanding fact of the constant British-Irish connection and the fearful toll of life it exacted. Among the anonymous multitude are famous names such as "Silken Thom" Kildare, Thomas Wentworth, Archbishop Plunkett and Lord Frederick Cavendish. And yet many great men marshaled their energies and wits to settle Ireland: Sir Henry Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, Churchill and others.

Paul Johnson, a well-known writer and journalist, was the editor of the New Statesman from 1965 to 1970 and is the author of several books, including A History of Christianity, A History of the Modern World from 1917 to the 1980s, and A History of the Jews.