Customer Reviews

Ireland's English Question: Anglo-Irish Relations 1534-1970

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This book was one of the hardest reads of my life in its emotionally wrenching descriptions of the hardships the Irish have faced in their struggle for national identity and sheer survival. It well illustrates the old term for Ireland as "the crucified nation." I could only read a few dozen pages at a time, because there was so much to weigh heavily on mind and heart... but it was well worth the internal turmoil to get through it.
Yes, I remembered the textbook histories that I'd studied in college and that left me with a sense of how heroic the various proponents of Irish independence were. I did not, however, fully understand the individual burden of each Irish person under the English "ascendancy" until Patrick O'Farrell set it out in full for me.
I only read this book after the happiest week of my life, spent in Ireland. I was struck at every turn by the down-to-earth humor, the easy-going friendliness, and the sheer generosity of the people who I met in that breathtakingly beautiful land. Little did I realize what a horrible burden of bitterness comes with their heritage of struggle against political and religious oppression... which Ireland's English Question lays out so well. Too many times in history, the persecuted have become the persecutors at the first opportunity. Whether it is in Christian foregiveness or the national gift of mining humor from pathos, or perhaps a combination of those two, it is amazing that Ireland as an independent nation has become a beacon of hope and charity. To read this book is to appreciate the miracle that is Ireland. "One cannot appreciate Heaven without having seen Hell."