Honors Ireland Exposition

Irish Graveyard around the early 1900's

Irish Spinning wheel used to spin yarn

Irish Jaunting Cart, the equivalent of todays taxis; they drove erratically and charged a lot of money

What Irish houses would have looked like in the early 1900's

The four books I am reading about Ireland:

Honors blog, book three

The third book I've chosen for honors is The Course of Irish History by T.W Moody and F.X Martin.

This book starts off at the very beginning, literally. It goes all the way from pre-written history and when the Irish were all Pagans, to when Christianity started coming in during the 500-900's. Also, when Latin was first introduced to Ireland and then a few hundred years later when it started to integrate itself with the Irish/Celtic language until it was a mix of both.

Currently I have just reached the area of the book where it talks about the 1100's and the viking raids that were going on then. It's very interesting to read about how the Irish were mostly known for being monks during those times, and they would live close to the coast in their monasteries.

The vikings first came in 902 I think it was, and they took anything that looked like something of value(as something notable and well known, The Book of Kells was taken at this time and did not return to Ireland for quite some time), grabbed a few last minute slaves, and hauled back out of there. The next year the same thing happened. And again the next year. And the next...Personally I dodn't really get why the Irish wouldn't just pack things up and move a little more inland, but hey, I guess they had to live by the coast for food? But that doesn't entirely make sense either, because it talks about how early Ireland was fertile and blossoming with wildlife. Along with that, it was attached to Europe by a narrow strip of land, so the wildlife would travel back and forth along there as well.

Irish Map and Authors, 1800 and 1900

Map of Ireland in the 1900's

Unemployment was high in Ireland during the early 1900's, and worker's pay and the conditions were often very bad.

Important dates:
January 16, 1900 - Three lion cubs that were raised by an Irish red setter went on view at the Dublin Zoo
1901 - The Irish census shows the population of Ireland to be 4,459,000.
National Antarctic Expedition
1903 - St. Patrick's day becomes a national holiday in Ireland.
1907 - Irish-born Ernest Shackleton leads an Antarctic expedition.
1909 - Ireland 's first cinema, the Volta Cinema, opens in Dublin.
1910 - The Unionist Party is formed with the aim of maintaining the Act of Union.

Map of Ireland in the 1800's

One of the major things that was going on in Ireland during the 1800's was the Act of Union between Ireland and Great Britain, which can be found here. The full text is rather long so I didn't read much of it, but it is a bit interesting.
English landlords who were in Ireland realized that they could earn more from their land by turning it into grazing land instead of having rent from their Irish tenant farmers. In order for this to happen, they had to evict their tenants. Thousands of farmers and their families were simply thrown out onto the streets and their homes destroyed.

Writers:
George Ellis - Poetry (1753-1815)
William Drennan - Physician, poet, educationalist and political radical (1754-1820)
Gerald Griffin - Fictional Novelist (1803 - 1840)

Honors blog, book two

The second book I have chosen for honors is How the Irish saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill.

Cahill bases his book mainly off of the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells. The book of Kells is written in very early latin and estimated to be as old as from 800 ca, and it contains the four gospels of the new testament. It is very extravagantly made and many have come to the conclusion that it was meant for its appearance to be appreciated rather then its contents read over and over. There are around ten pages in it that are coloured brilliantly with gold flecks and have pictures while the rest recite gospels and such. Today there are many copies that have been made of the Book of Kells, which are considered indistinguishable from the original.

There are approximately 340 pages left in the Book of Kells, which was originally 370. Over time and each time it was stolen pages would be removed and then lost, never to be returned.

It also talks about a few of the older rulers of Ireland, and how the political system was run. Many parts of this book are told in little excerpts of story where Cahill uses historical people to lay out skits of what was going on back then and how it could have played out.

Cahill also breaks out into poetry or songs throughout the book to better tell his story, as Ireland is known for it's oral and bardic history rather then it's written history.

When I have read more into this book I will update this section of my blog.