From A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland 1906
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CHAPTER V....continued
4. Mythology: Gods, Goblins, and Phantoms.
Gods in general.—In the Irish language there are several names for God in general, without reference to any particular god. The most general is dia, which, with some variations in spelling, is common to many of the Aryan languages. It was used in pagan as well as in Christian times, and is the Irish word in universal use at the present day for God. In Irish literature, both lay and ecclesiastical, we sometimes find vague references to the pagan gods, without any hint as to their identity or functions. The 'gods' are often referred to in oaths and asseverations: and such expressions as "I swear by the gods that my people swear by" are constantly put into the mouths of the heroes of the Red Branch.
Individual Gods.—But we have a number of individual gods of very distinct personality who figure in the romantic literature, some beneficent and some evil. The names of many of them have been identified with those of ancient Gaulish gods—a thing that might be anticipated, inasmuch as the Gaelic people of Ireland and Scotland are a branch of the Celts or Gauls of the Continent, and brought with them, at their separation from the main stock, the language, the traditions, and the mythology of their original home.
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Truelove's Journal: A Bookshop Novella
From a sad, comfortless childhood Giles Truelove developed into a reclusive and uncommunicative man whose sole passion was books. For so long they were the only meaning to his existence. But when fate eventually intervened to have the outside world intrude upon his life, he began to discover emotions that he never knew he had.
A story for the genuine booklover, penned by an Irish bookseller under the pseudonym of Ralph St. John Featherstonehaugh.
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Annals of the Famine in Ireland
Annals of the Famine in Ireland, by Asenath Nicholson, still has the power to shock and sadden even though the events described are ever-receding further into the past. When you read, for example, of the poor widowed mother who was caught trying to salvage a few potatoes from her landlord's field, and what the magistrate discovered in the pot in her cabin, you cannot help but be appalled and distressed.
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Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger
This book, the prequel to Annals of the Famine in Ireland cannot be recommended highly enough to those interested in Irish social history. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, travelled from her native America to assess the condition of the poor in Ireland during the mid 1840s. Refusing the luxury of hotels and first class travel, she stayed at a variety of lodging-houses, and even in the crude cabins of the very poorest. Not to be missed!
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Henry Ford Jones' book, first published in 1915 by Princeton University, is a classic in its field. It covers the history of the Scotch-Irish from the first settlement in Ulster to the American Revolutionary period and the foundation of the country.
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
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