Honors blog, book four

For my fourth book I chose is Women in Ireland 1800-1918 written by Maria Luddy.

This book is all about women in Ireland, as the title suggests. It goes into how women were supposed to stay at home for their entire lives, only working if they were sold out by their family to do so, and every marriage was as a profit to the family instead of being out of love. They always had arranged marriages and were supposed to bear children and then send them off to work for money towards the family upkeep.
Women weren't really appreciated back then. Especially in such an unknown place lacking in advancement.

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.

Irish Timeline, roughly 1800-1810

Irish, being the third oldest language ever written and spoken, after Greek and Latin has deep roots within Celtic mythology. Irish literature is also based within Celtic mythology as well as the within the suffering and hardships that the Irish people have endured through the course of their history. Wit and humor, often in forms of satire and/or irony, have characterized much of Irish literature.
 

In early 19th century, Irish poets writing in English set out to reinvent Gaelic tradition in the new language, frequently translating their bardic and other Irish poets; retelling stories from Celtic mythology in Romantic and Victorian verse and song. Very notable in this theme were the lyrics (poetical and musical) of Thomas Moore, author of several volumes of Irish Melodies, such as The Harp That Once Through Tara’s Halls, Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms, and The Meeting of the Waters. 
 

A number of new Irish novelists emerged during the 19th century, including Maria Edgeworth, John Banim, Gerald Griffin, Charles Kickham, William Carlton, George More and Somerville and Ross. Most of these writers came from the upper classes of society and they wrote what came to be termed "novels of the big house". Carleton was an exception to this, and his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry actually showed life on the other side of the social divide. Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, was outside both traditions, as was his early work of Lord Dunsany. One of the premier ghost story writers of the nineteenth century was Sheridan Le Fanu, whose works include Uncle Sillas and Carmilla.
1800 (The 2nd of July) The Parliament in Westminster passed the Act of Union, abolishing the Irish Parliament. It became a law on the 1st January 1801. This act formally bound Ireland with England and abolished the Irish parliament, which entailed the loss of the Irish Parliaments legislative independence.

With the Act of Union, any rise to power had declined and following the Act of Union, there were a number of revolts in protest against the large and ever growing numbers of the poor and homeless in Ireland. Soon after this English landlords realized that in turning their lad into grazing pastures, they could get more money then what they were receiving in rent from their Irish tenant farmers. In order to put their plans for grazing pastures into effect, they had to evict the farmers. This meant that thousands of farmers and their families were simply thrown out onto the streets and their homes destroyed all because the British had a better chance at more money without them.


Phytophthora infestans, commonly known as blight, began wiping out whole crops of potatoes during the 1700’s, and then again during the early 1800‘s.

In 1739 and 1740 crops were destroyed. In 1770 crops failed again. In 1800 there was another destruction to the crops, and in 1807 half of the crops were lost. In 1821 and 1822 the potato crops were completely destroyed in both Munster and Connaught, and then in1830 and 1831 Mayo, Donegal and Galway crops were destroyed. 
 

Ireland had 100 seats out of 658 in the Commons. The Union brought free trade with Britain, giving it some support from the Catholic bourgeoisie. However, British industrialisation meant that free trade was not to Ireland’s advantage. Nationalists denounced the exploitation of Ireland, and began calling the formed Union a failed marriage.


By 1800 the population of Ireland had doubled to a little over 5 million, with most of the growth being amongst the poorer classes. Many farmers would ‘loan’ out property to others who could not afford their own land for extra money. Since the population had grown so drastically jobs that paid enough to support families were few and far between.
1803 (The 23rd of July). Robert Emmet formed a plan to seize Dublin Castle and in doing so encourage the rest of the country to rebel. However, his followers murdered the Chief Justice, Lord Kilwarden, and Emmet fled. Emmet is remembered mostly for his speech on the dock just after his capture, in which he said his epitaph should not be written until Ireland was a free nation. He was executed on September 20th.
Later on in 1803 during a beginning to the Industrial revolution in Britain, Belfast was prospering. Linen and brewing trades were the most successful, other trades had difficult times staying afloat during these times. Though, none the less, they did managed to stay in the long run.


Honors blog, book one

The first book I'm going to read for the honors assignment is The Donegal Woman by John Throne.

Synopsis: The Donegal Woman is based on a true story of the author's own grandmother. Born to the poorest of Protestant farmers in the hills of Donegal, Margaret was hired out as a child, raped by her master, and then, pregnant, forced to marry another man many times her age. But Margaret survived in a silent world of her own, driven by her passionate determination to do right by her children.


I'm really looking forward to reading about Ireland because that's where half of my heritage comes from on my fathers side (the other half being Native American Indian).
I've never really done research or read anything on Ireland other then watching the movie P.S I love you, which just made me want to go and visit the rolling hills and countrysides of Ireland even more.