An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800

Mary Frances Cusack wrote this history in 1868, when Ireland was in the grip of the Fenian movement and the Land War. She was an unusual figure: an Anglican nun who converted to Catholicism, and her perspective on Irish nationhood carries a particular intensity. The book opens with a passionate argument that the Irish have been taught to forget their own past, and that this amnesia serves the interests of English domination. From there, Cusack traces fourteen centuries: the golden age of early Irish Christianity and its monastic scholars, the coming of the Vikings and the Norman invaders, the Tudor conquests, the Cromwellian terror, the Williamite wars, and the long grinding poverty of the eighteenth century. The prose has the raw energy of Victorian nationalism, mixing genuine scholarship with fierce pride in Irish achievements and righteous anger at English cruelty. This is not neutral history. It is a work written to awaken a people to their own heritage, and it remains a vital document for understanding how the Irish imagined their nation during the century when that nation was reborn.