Customer Reviews

Irish Kings and High Kings (Four Courts History Classics)

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Medieval Irish history is a minority-interest field to begin with, but finding a good secondary source that accurately separates myth from history is difficult at best. F. J. Byrne, always a thorough historian, has produced what could be the definitive history of the medieval Irish political world. It is a general work, to be sure, and in that lies its strength. Until recently, the histories available to students of medieval Ireland had a fair amount of questionable data and did not focus specifically on the ever-changing political and ecclesiastical influences that the rulers of the time had to deal with.
Byrne's work is also invaluable because, unlike many other histories, it is not provincial in scope, but rather manages to grasp the political climate of medieval Ireland in total. His presentation is effective, and his writing style is far from boring. This work belongs in the forefront not only of medieval Irish history, but also of regional historical studies worldwide.

Oh, the book is too serious to describe it just in few words. It is extremely detailed and requires broad knowlegde of the subject. It covers Irish history from the earliest times of written sources or even earlier - from the times that we only know from sages and myths to approximately 12th century. This book is a must for all the people who are scholarly interested in Irish history, but can be hard to read for people who are not that serious about it. So, I stronly recommend it to all history students, but I would advise all the diletans to prepare themselves better before they begin reading this great and very important book.