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Ireland

Few countries have generated as many would-be expatriates as Ireland. Which is strange, considering how much persecution and racial hatred the Irish have been subjected to over the centuries. Whether it's the Scottish denying their Irish roots, the British despising their less fortunate neighbors, or the Americans resenting the presence of outsiders, there's a long and dubious tradition of being unpleasant to the denizens of Eire.

And yet there's always been a mystical aspect to Ireland and the Irish that many find irresistable. For one thing, the Irish are good with words. It's not just the accent (though that doesn't hurt anything)—it's the grasp of language so many of them exhibit, from the old guy at the pub to William Butler Yeats to James Joyce. There's also the warmth typically associated with the Irish, their hospitality, cozy hearths, and pubs filled with singing and banter.

But perhaps the most stereotypically Irish trait is membership in the Catholic Church. Images of stone Celtic crosses, humble peasants in prayer, and beautiful yet quaint churches are as recognizably Irish as pictures of green mountains and shepherds. The Church's roots there are deep (St. Patrick began his missionary work in the fifth century), and few countries in Europe embraced the true religion as ardently or as wholesale as Ireland.

One reason for this may be the familial nature of Irish life. Descendants of ancient tribes, the Irish think in terms of clans and groups, not just individuals. Villages, parishes, and congregations are intimately connected, and overseeing everything are the priests, who've replaced clan chiefs as the abiters and glue of society. Priests are not only admired, they fulfill a very real role in Irish society that shapes the lives of the Irish people themselves.

A society so immersed in Christian religion and healthy family relationships will naturally develop both admirers and detractors. Wholesome cultures are intrinsically attractive, illustrating as they do the way God created humans to function and fluorish. Irish culture, to the extent that it exemplifies these ideals, remains fascinating and attracive, not just to Christians and supporters of traditional family values, but to those with an innate desire for life at its best.

Modern Ireland has changed socially and culturally in ways older generations would find unfathomable and even distasteful. Yet the imprint of the past isn't easy to eradicate from the pages of history or the global consciousness, and Christian Ireland remains a tantalizing ideal. Of course there are plenty of dark parts in the history of Erin, but there's also plenty to be lauded. You'll find books that give the warts and all history of Ireland here, but you'll also find plenty of celebrations of a place and culture all too rare in the history of the world.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.

 

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Black Potatoes
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 5th-12th grade
2002 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
in Great Britain / England (Location: HISMC-BRIT)
Brendan Voyage
Modern Library Exploration
by Tim Severin
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
by W.B. Yeats, illustrated by Jack B. Yeats
from Franklin Library
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
Signet Classics
by Oscar Wilde
from Signet Classics
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Concise History of Ireland
by Fitzroy Maclean
3 Sub from Thames and Hudson
for 9th-Adult
in Great Britain / England (Location: HISMC-BRIT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Dracula
Puffin Classics
by Bram Stoker
from Puffin Books
for 10th-Adult
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$8.99
Dracula
Everyman's Library
by Bram Stoker
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Dracula
Sterling Classics
by Bram Stoker, illustrated by Scott McKowen
Unabridged from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Dracula
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Bram Stoker
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
from SeaWolf Press
for 10th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
Dubliners
by James Joyce
from Oxford University
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.95
Dubliners
by James Joyce
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.00 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Dubliners
by James Joyce
from Oxford University
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.95
Early Irish Myths and Sagas
by Jeffrey Gantz
from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
Great Folktales of Old Ireland
by Mary McGarry, illustrated by Richard Hook
from Bell Publishing Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
from Everyman's Library
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in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
from Oxford University
Satire/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$7.95
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
from Dover Publications
for 7th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$6.00
Gulliver's Travels
by Johnathan Swift
from International Collectors Library
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in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
Gulliver's Travels
Calla Editions
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Dover Publications
for 8th-12th grade
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Gramercy Books
for 8th-12th grade
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
Gulliver's Travels
Penguin Classics
by Jonathan Swift
from Penguin Classics
Satire/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 3
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Thomas Morten
from Franklin Library
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, Illustrated by Luis Quintanilla, Introduction by Jacques Barzun
from Bonanza Books
for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Victor Candell & R.G. Mossa
from Garden City Books
for 10th-Adult
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Gulliver's Travels
by Johnathan Swift, illustrated by Robert Ingpen
from Welbeck Editions
for 10th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Readers #15
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.00 (2 in stock)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 1
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 2
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 4
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
How the Irish Saved Civilization
by Thomas Cahill
from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
in Europe (Location: HISMC-EUR)
$17.00
Ideal Husband
Dover Thrift Editions
by Oscar Wilde
from Dover Publications
Drama for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.50
Importance of Being Earnest
Dover Thrift Editions
by Oscar Wilde
from Dover Publications
Drama/Comedy for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.00
Importance of Being Earnest
Dover Thrift Editions
by Oscar Wilde
from Signet Classics
Drama/Comedy for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
Ireland
from Crescent Books
for 4th-Adult
in Great Britain / England (Location: HISMC-BRIT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Ireland's Pirate Queen
by Anne Chambers
from MJF Books
for 11th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Man and Superman
by George Bernard Shaw
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works
by Jonathan Swift
from Dover Publications
for 11th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$3.00
Picture of Dorian Gray
Whole Story Series
by Oscar Wilde
from Viking Press
Mystery and Suspense for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Picture of Dorian Gray
Dover Thrift Editions
by Oscar Wilde
from Dover Publications
Mystery and Suspense for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.00
Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
Revised from Penguin Classics
Mystery and Suspense for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by Eugene Dete & Paul Thiriat
1910 Illustrated from SeaWolf Press
Mystery and Suspense for 10th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
from Heritage Press
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
from Dover Publications
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Romance of Tristan and Iseult
by Hilaire Belloc
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$6.95
Romance of Tristan and Iseult
by Joseph Bedier (reteller), translated by Hilaire Belloc and Paul Rosenfeld, introduction by Padraic Colum, illustrated by Serge Ivanoff
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Saint Patrick
by Jonathan Rogers
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 7th-Adult
in Christian Encounters (Location: BIO-CE)
$12.00
Search for God and Guinness
by Stephen Mansfield
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 10th-Adult
in Culture of Drinking & Wine (Location: XCU-WIN)
She Stoops to Conquer
Dover Thrift Editions
by Oliver Goldsmith
from Dover Publications
Comedic Drama for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$5.00
She Stoops to Conquer
Merrill's English Texts
by Oliver Goldsmith, edited with an introduction and notes by Mabel A. Bessey
from Charles E. Merrill Company
Comedic Drama for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
South
by Ernest Shackleton
100th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
Expedition Memoir for 10th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$11.95
South
by Ernest Shackleton
from Living Book Press
Expedition Memoir for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Tristram Shandy
by Laurence Sterne
from Wordsworth Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$5.99
Ulysses
by James Joyce
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Vicar of Wakefield
Penguin Classics
by Oliver Goldsmith
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$12.00
Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett
from Grove Publishing
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Yeats Reader
by W. B. Yeats
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$22.00
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