Made of the words of the people who live today in the beautiful,
embattled countryside of Ulster, Irish Folk History is, in essence,
the people's own statement of their past. In story, song, and
spontaneous essay, these texts, selected from Passing the Time in
Ballymenone, tell of the coming of Christianity, of endless war, of the
hardships and delights of rural life.
During a time of trouble, Henry Glassie came into a community of active
story-tellers in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and in this book
he sets their voices--their chuckles, whispers, and anger--before us.
The words of Hugh Nolan, Michael Boyle, of Peter Flanagan, Hugh Patrick
Owens, and their neighbors, echo from the page to present a tale that is
at once the story of their tiny community and the story of all of
Ireland.