The Story of Ireland (Paperback)

Professor Foster considers major motifs found in interpretations on Ireland's history, highlighting the fact that several books during the last one hundred years shared the title The Story of Ireland . The nineteenth century saw a yearning to impose a narrative structure on events that had formed the social, political, and economic state of Ireland. However, this use of narrative brings with it assumptions and exclusions, and suggests a logical progression from beginning to middle and so to an end. Replacing the interest in narrative, historiography in the later part of this century shows a willingness to analyse the moment rather than following the flow, although the creation of a 'story' still holds a mesmeric power. Professor Foster demonstrates how past significant events could be interpreted using the classic structure of fairy tale. Thus an accepted national memory was constructed through elision and exclusion, which assumed a predetermined ending. Eventually the millennial expectations created by the idea of a story with an ending misfired at the turn of the century.