A Short History of Ireland

Book Review: 4/5 Impact On Me (Book By Jonathan Bardon)

Read more about the book here

I enjoyed A Short History of Ireland in audiobook form. It was very long—240 episodes and 21 hours or so —but the audio format made it engaging. The enactments were excellent, with different people voicing different parts. That brought the stories to life and helped me better appreciate Irish culture and history.

The book showed how Ireland has strong cultural ties to both the Vikings and Scotland. Later, a major part of Irish identity formed around Catholicism. But the UK, which was expanding its empire, conquered Ireland and tried to impose Protestantism. This led to deep resistance from the Catholic population.

I noticed strong parallels with how the British ruled India—using divide-and-rule tactics, treating the country like a distant colony, extracting taxes, and giving little in return. One example in Ireland was a law that made property inheritance very difficult for Catholics. Only the eldest son could inherit land, and anything left over was split among the other children. This caused land holdings to shrink so much that farming became unsustainable. Over time, the British rulers used laws like these to reduce Catholic land ownership and allow people from the UK to buy up land, often to help cover Britain's tax deficits.

At one point, Ireland's population was around 8.5 million. Then came the Great Famine, and about 25% of the population either died or emigrated—mostly to America. It was tragic.

The book also covered how France supported Ireland’s independence during the French Revolution. Later, Germany supported Ireland too, though that connection was tied to fascism. It seems there was even a fascist movement in Ireland at that point.

Interesting to see the connection of the american great depression around 1930s to Europe and Ireland.

Interesting: the importance of potato and porridge in Ireland.

I found the stories of figures like Parnell or O’Connell and cities or areas like Coombe, Kilmainham jail, Belfast, Belfast, Cork, or Limerick interesting.

There were parts about Ireland’s pagan past, and how St. Patrick, a Roman Catholic missionary, worked hard to convert people to Christianity.

The deep divide between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland was mainly due to religion. I got to know about the foundation of Ireland’s first schools from hundreds of years ago.

The story ends a couple of decades after independence. The independence story confused me a bit, but I could still see strong similarities with India’s freedom movement—things like the Home Rule push, civil disobedience, emigration, boycotting British goods, and encouraging people to support Irish businesses. However, at one point, Ireland and Britain even seemed like one cohesive country with democracy. Then Ireland fought what felt like a civil war—a kind of internal war—to finally separate as a state. I realized I need to read more about Irish history to fully understand it.

I’d rate the impact of this book as 4 out of 5. The storytelling was powerful, and it gave me meaningful context about the country I now live in.