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Title: The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up in Ireland by R. F. Foster ISBN: 0-19-516887-9 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fact and fiction
Comment: Irish people of all persuasions and in all walks of life have developed a talent for building up a national history to their liking and drawing conclusions from it. Roy Foster's essays are about some of the ways in which Ireland's history has been interpreted, embroidered, exploited and packaged. I think everyone will agree there are cogent reasons for preserving the distinction between history and "national fiction". Ultimately, poor history makes poor propaganda, and propaganda in any case is a shabby use to put something as precious as a nation's history. This book is essential reading for people with an interest in Ireland. (I also recommend strongly the same author's earlier "Modern Ireland 1600-1972".)
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant-Making Up Irish Tales of Past & Present
Comment: R. F. "Roy" Foster author of 'W. B. Yeats: The Apprentice Mage,' 'Charles Stewart Parnell: The Man and His Family' and 'Modern Ireland,' has written this experience and interpetation into Irish history and literature. He does a fine job of it. His bravery in massacring every sacred Irish cow as one would have fun reading it. It leaves you with a warm, passionate, giggly feeling. It's entertainingly brilliant look at the past and present Ireland. I particularly love the chapters and passages on Theme-parks & Histories (with some warning from Foster on expliotation); the chapters on Yeats; When the Newspapers Have Forgotten Me: Yeats, Obituarists and Irishness; Selling Irish Childhoods: Frank McCourt & Gerry Adams; and, Remembering 1798. They're totally smothered in clichés and lots of traditional tidbits of fond or fatal memories, known to some as the Irish experience.
Foster cleverly works moments of Ireland's past into narratives of Irish culture on myth, folklore, ghost stories and romance. The result is from a varied interpetation of opinionated and right down funny interlinking essays. In Theme-parks and Histories-Foster writes of the Irish are to remember or commemorate anything. It is worth remembering the upward curve of Irish cultural achievement-referring to W. B. Yeats, Hugh Leonard, Ezra Pound, Cashel Heritage Society and the 2,000-acre Famine Theme Park in Knockfierna Hill west of Limerick. Irish history, the most distinctive achievement for it. His suggestion to form a monument to Amnesia and forget where they put it. As a historian he would be shocked, but as an Irishman he would be attracted to the idea. Foster shows no mercy on his view of manipulating Irish history on political places and Irish poverty and oppression as a commerically packaged heritage park. His exploration of Yeats' authority of the Irish story's fitting moments as the voice of his Ireland countrymen.
Foster leaves teeth-marked criticism of Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) and Gerry Adams and their devil may care attittude of taking hostages for fortune. Transcending into the bestsellerdom of Irish childhoods. Simply a technique of marketing where Irish version brag and whimper about the woes of their early years' experience. I find this to be an entertaining reading. In some places a bit wordy, but good telling of Irish culture. You may hate or love it. But, if your interest is in Irish history and literature it's quite essential.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent read for all who are serious about Irish history
Comment: This book ought to be on the shelf of anyone with an interest in Irish history. Foster has done an excellent job at making his points about the various 'uses' that history in Ireland has been employed for. From downright propaganda to 'memoirs' masquerading as vague truths he unleashes the power of clear thinking and valid sources. For so long Irish history has been treated as 'story' and this book attempts and succeeds in telling the difference. It is so refreshing to see something sensible in print! It is a great source book or reference and could also be read by delving into the different subjects in the index. I would recommend this for all who are involved in getting to know the real history of Ireland and the Irish and how some Irish 'history' came to be written in the first place.
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Title: Modern Ireland, 1600-1972 by R. F. Foster ISBN: 0140132503 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1990 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: W. B. Yeats, a Life: II: The Arch-Poet, 1915-1939 (WB YEATS A LIFE) by R. F. Foster ISBN: 0198184654 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: December, 2003 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: The Apprentice Mage, 1865-1914 (W.B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. 1) by R. F. Foster ISBN: 0192117351 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Encyclopedia of Ireland by Brian Lalor, Frank McCourt ISBN: 0300094426 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $65.00 |
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Title: The Oxford History of Ireland by R. F. Foster ISBN: 019280202X Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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