Review: The Origins of the Irish by J.P. Mallory
This is, I would say, a difficult book made more palatable by the occasionally flippant tone of the writer. Using paragraph headings such as partition and reunification, he takes us from the emergence of the country in two separate parts (north and south) billions of years ago and its slow passage across the planet via Australia to its arrival at its current position, heading onwards during the next 250 million years towards Siberia. It seems that it will already be uninhabitable in about 10,000 years as an ice-age descends on it. Global Warming be damned.
Settlers arrived around 8,000 BCE (subsequent archeology suggests 10,500 BCE) and he surveys the Bronze and Iron Ages to figure out where we are. The knowledge is, to say the least, sketchy but intriguing. it seemed to me that some of our ancient forebears were more in contact with our continental cousins than the Irish of the mid-20th century.
Really interesting was his claim that the notion of a Celtic past is a largely romantic 17th century invention of the Irish, Scots and Welsh in an effort to distinguish themselves from our English neighbours. As he said, he avoided the C word until chapter 9 but had to address it finally. I liked the following quotation he cites:
A Celt is someone who:
either speaks a Celtic language
or produces or uses Celtic art or material culture
or has been referred to as one in historical records
or has identified himself or been identified by others as such &c.
Hence the expression “… or whatever you’re having yourself”.
Conclusion, a difficult but engaging read.
Asynchronists 