A Traveller's History of Ireland gives a full and accurate portrait of
Ireland from its prehistory right up to the present. The story opens
with mysterious, early Celtic Ireland where no Roman stood, through
Saint Patrick's mission to Ireland which began the process of making it
"an island of saints," to the legendary high King Brian Boru and his
struggle with Viking and Irish enemies alike. It moves on through the
arrival of the Norman "Strongbow" in the twelfth century, and the
beginnings of the difficult and tragic Anglo-Irish relationship. Great
historical figures like Hugh O'Neill, Oliver Cromwell, and Jonathan
Swift figure, as well as ordinary people like the Londonderry
"apprentice boys" who helped change the course of Irish history. The
book then moves into modern times with the great revolts of 1798, the
horrors of the potato famine, and the careers of the leading
constitutional nationalists, Daniel O'Connell and Charles Parnell. The
book ends with a description of modern Ireland, and of its two separate
Catholic Nationalist and Protestant Unionist traditions.