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Synopsis

In this bold, provocative and extremely funny book Roy Foster demolishes the clichés that surround Ireland’s past, examining how key moments from its history have been turned into myths – and, more recently, airbrushed and repackaged for Hollywood and popular culture. Whether discussing the ‘misery tourism’ of Famine theme parks, ideas of mystical Celticism, the contested ‘Irishness’ of Yeats or the sentimentalized childhoods of Angela’s Ashes and Gerry Adams’s memoir, The Irish Story brilliantly separates the tall tales from the truth.

Reviews

Critic Review:

‘Brilliantly scathing … combative, incisive and immensely enjoyable’
Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times

‘Inspirational … challenging, illuminating and witty’
Antonia Fraser, Irish Times, Books of the Year

‘Very funny … the Irish story has rarely received so lively and unbiased an unfolding’
Patricia Craig, Independent

‘A complex and supremely intelligent revision of Irish identity’
Colm Tóibín, Independent, Books of the Year

‘Brilliant … It seems there is always some new twist awaiting us in the volatile Irish story. But one couldn’t ask for a more eloquent or thought-provoking guide to it than this’
Claire Harman, Evening Standard

‘Blazingly good … lucid and elegant’
John Lloyd, Financial Times

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