Remembering the Year of the French is a model of historical
achievement, moving deftly between the study of historical events the
failed French invasion of the West of Ireland in 1798 and folkloric
representationsof those events. Delving into the folk history found in
Ireland s rich oral traditions, Guy Beiner reveals alternate visions of
the Irish past and brings into focus the vernacular histories, folk
commemorative practices, and negotiations of memory that have gone
largely unnoticed by historians.
Beiner analyzes hundreds of hitherto unstudied historical, literary, and
ethnographic sources. Though his focus is on 1798, his work is also a
comprehensive study of Irish folk history and grass-roots social memory
in Ireland. Investigating how communities in the West of Ireland
remembered, well into the mid-twentieth century, an episode in the late
eighteenth century, this is a history from below that gives serious
attention to the perspectives of those who have been previously ignored
or discounted. Beiner brilliantly captures the stories, ceremonies, and
other popular traditions through which local communities narrated,
remembered, and commemorated the past. Demonstrating the unique value of
folklore as a historical source, Remembering the Year of the French
offers a fresh perspective on collective memory and modern Irish
history.
Winner, Wayland Hand Competition for outstanding publication in folklore
and history, American Folklore Society
Finalist, award for the best book published about or growing out of
public history, National Council on Public History
Winner, Michaelis-Jena Ratcliff Prize for the best study of folklore or
folk life in Great Britain and Ireland
An important and beautifully produced work. Guy Beiner here shows
himself to be a historian of unusual talent. Marianne Elliott, Times
Literary Supplement
Thoroughly researched and scholarly. . . . Beiner s work is full of
empathy and sympathy for the human remains, memorials, and
commemorations of past lives and the multiple ways in which they
actually continue to live. Stiofan O Cadhla, *Journal of British
Studies
*
A major contribution to Irish historiography. Maureen Murphy, Irish
Literary Supplement
"A remarkable piece of scholarship . . . . Accessible, full of
intriguing detail, and eminently teachable. ? Ray Casman, New Hibernia
Review
The most important monograph on Irish history of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries to be published in recent years. Matthew Kelly,
English Historical Review
A strikingly ambitious work . . . . Elegantly constructed, lucidly
written and inspired, and displaying an inexhaustible capacity for
research Ciaran Brady, History IRELAND
A closely argued, meticulously detailed and rich analysis . . . .
providing such innovative treatment of a wide array of sources, his work
will resonate with the concerns of many cultural and historical
geographers working on social memory in quite different geographical
settings and historical contexts. Yvonne Whelan, *Journal of Historical
Geography
*
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