A Short History Of Ireland

By: Jonathan Bardon

Narrated by: Frances Tomelty

From The Ice Age to Northern Ireland's Peace Settlement and everything in between, the acclaimed academic Dr Jonathan Bardon presents a history of Ireland spanning 10,000 years.

Beginning with the Ice Age and Ireland's first plants and wildlife, this history encompasses the arrival of Christianity, the age of the Celts, the Viking era, Brian Boru, the Norman invasion, the plantation and the famine through to rebellion, partition and the creation of the Irish Free State.

Recorded to mark BBC Radio Ulster's 30th birthday, this landmark series gets behind the historical headlines to produce a marvellous mosaic of Ireland's rich and turbulent history, delivered with clarity and narrative skill.
Each programme was read by local actors Frances Tomelty, James Greene and Richard Dormer, who interweave eye-witness accounts, letters and diary extracts from the times with the historical facts.

If you want to learn about Ireland/Family

What did you love best about A Short History of Ireland?

I loved the history and the way it was presented. I'm a genealogist/family historian and have visited a few times, to hear the names of places I've visited and know, put in to the context of history is fascinating. The presentation for this audio was great too ...

Massive effort, well worth it

Balanced, well constructed, beautifully presented, brilliant production! I was rivited all the way. The repetition from one episode to the next stops after a while and is only in places where it is required. To have Irish history, so well presented was just perfect...thanks!

An Excellent Synopsis of Irish History

A well documented history from the very beginning to present day, how we got here...very interesting informative and enjoyable to read.

Very interesting read

The reading of the material is well done. The information is fun and given in a very friendly manner that would appeal to just about anyone with a history of Celtic culture.

The only negative I have is that the bedanged thing stops every 20 minutes or so and gives a long (and after 244 times) very tiresome lead in that this is A Short History of Ireland in 244 parts by the BBC or something along those lines. It gets super-old!

Still, it is a good read. We listened to it during a carpool last month with kids from 10 to adults and everyone enjoyed it.

loved it

from storytelling to presentation 5 stars for sure...would love a sequel covering from 1930 to 2020