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Rights: World ex USA/Canada
1-903582-05-9
€31.73

The Illustrated Story of Christian Ireland
From St Patrick to the Peace Process
Michael Staunton

“The history of every European nation has been profoundly shaped by Christianity, but few to the same extent as Ireland.”

Religious beliefs and traditions have moulded Ireland’s past and present in spectacular ways. Told here for the first time, the 2,000-year-old story of faith sometimes bringing the Irish people together and sometimes dividing them.

From pagan times through to the 21st century, The Illustrated Story of Christian Ireland From St Patrick to the Peace Process brings to life the individuals whose religion played defining roles in Ireland’s history, including Saint Brigid and Jonathan Swift, Daniel O’Connell and Eamonn de Valera.

Everything from the truth about St Patrick to the politics of the Irish Protestant heritage is told in easy-to-read, non-academic language. As often as possible, the fascinating stories include the words of the people who experienced the events; during the Black Death, for example, a Franciscan friar feared that the end of the world had come and wrote:

“I, seeing these many ills, and that the whole world is encompassed by evil, waiting among the dead for death to come, have committed to writing what I have truly heard and examined…I leave parchment for continuing the work, in case anyone should still be alive in the future and any son of Adam can escape this pestilence…”

The striking illustrations throughout the book are from both contemporary and modern sources.