The Oxford History of Ireland

This is a wonderful book for the novice in Irish history. It's brevity invites the reader to research further on specific items of interest, and includes a list for further reading at the book's conclusion. The information presented is well written and thoroughly presented by six different scholars. Although biases of each scholar are obvious, they do not detract from the historical content.

I learned a lot about the history of Ireland, even if the historians were in large part English

But after you've read a couple of surveys that might not've agreed with each other entirely in tone or overview, this is a great survey for making sense of the broadview disagreements between historians.

Interesting to read, as long as one has a more objective understanding of Irish history. I have no doubt the authors believe in their own objectivity, which helps me better understand how & why so many in the UK & the north of Ireland (and other places where Foster’s books are considered authoritative) come to certain conclusions about the history of Ireland, the Irish, the impact of the British colonization and the centuries of brutal oppression that followed the “plantations of Ireland.” He basically writes off Irish history, as told by the native Irish over 1,000 years, as mythology invented in the past couple centuries to support the Nationalist “narrative,” which is interesting given the first “Annals” (which certainly aren’t all purely factual, but clearly articulate the idea of a coherent Irish nation —it’s a pretty small island, so everyone was always aware of everyone— & “High Kings”/“Kings of Tara”) dating back date back to before 1000 AD.Anybody who uses this as a solitary source of Irish history will have an understanding similar to those who learn about the history of Native Americans from whitewashed American textbooks. There are endless primary sources available (a majority for free on archive. org), written by both contemporary Irish writers as well as British government officials reporting back on conditions and events in Ireland spanning the 17th-20th centuries (Foster puzzlingly disparages some of the well-known ones like Arthur Young’s “A Tour of Ireland,” which was a report he wrote on the conditions in Ireland & the Irish people —often quite disparagingly, yet honestly re: the oppression & brutality of the “Protestant Ascendancy”— after spending over a year surveying the country for the British government.

This is a book that doesn't have to be read from cover to cover. It is a collection of essays written by different authors on various aspects of Irish history. As such it is a excellent read but it can be a bit confusing for someone getting into Irish history for the first time. For those well into the subject - I recommand this.