Irish Literature in the 12th century
History: By the 12th century, Ireland was divided politically into a shifting hierarchy of petty kingdoms and over-kingdoms. Power was concentrated into the hands of a few regional dynasties contending against each other for control of the whole island. One of their number, the King of Leinster Diarmait Mac Murchada (anglicised as Diarmuid MacMorrough) was forcibly exiled from his kingdom by the new High King, Ruaidri mac Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair. Fleeing to Aquitaine, Diarmait obtained permission from Henry II to use the Norman forces to regain his kingdom. The first Norman knight landed in Ireland in 1167, followed by the main forces of Normans, Welsh and Flemings in Wexford in 1169 Within a short time Leinster was regained, Waterford and Dublin were under Diarmait's control, and he had Strongbow as a son-in-law, and named him as heir to his kingdom. This caused consternation to King Henry II of England, who feared the establishment of a rival Norman state in Ireland. Accordingly, he resolved to establish his authority. You can read more about this here: The Coming of the Normans 1167–1185
Writers: The Book of Leinster - 1150 AD (The Lebor Gabala Erren), Aislinge Mac Conglinne
Irish Literature in the 14th century
The Yellow Book of Lecan, The Great Book of Lecan, The Book of Hy Many, and The Book of Ballymote. It is this manuscript of Irish sagas, law texts, and genealogies, that contains a guide to the ogham alphabet. Much of the information available on ogham has come from this manuscript and this information is thought to have been copied from a much earlier 9th century manuscript. To read more click here: Ogham.
Irish Literature in the 17th century
William Congreve, Phiarais Feirtéir, Feargal óg Mac a Bhaird, Seathrún Céitín, Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig, James Ware, John Lynch, Dáibhí O'Bruadair
Irish Literature in the 18th century
History: The Act of Union 1800 - "The introduction of the Act of Union ... has changed the appearance of Dublin; with the removal of its parliament, the nobility of Ireland withdrew to England and left their places in Dublin either to fall into decay or to be converted into public offices, hotels or charitable institutions" GN Wright - An Historical Guide to Ancient and Modern Dublin (1829) The Act of Union 1800 merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a merger of England and Wales and Scotland under the Act of Union 1707) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801. The act received the Royal Assent on 1 August 1800. Prior to this act the two kingdoms had been in personal union with each other since 1541, when the Irish Parliament proclaimed King Henry VIII of England King of Ireland. To read more click here: The Act of Union.
It stated that: Ireland was to be joined to Great Britain into a single kingdom, the Dublin parliament was to be abolished, the Anglican Church was to be recognised as the official Church of Ireland, no Catholics were to be allowed to hold public office, and there was to be no Catholic Emancipation.
Writers: Oliver Goldsmith, Jonathan Swift, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Aodh Buidhe MacCruitín, James Porter, William Drennan, James Orr, Mary Barber, Laurence Sterne, Edmund Burke, Dion Boucicault
Irish Literature in the Great Irish Famine: 1845-1850
History: The Great Irish Famine: 1845-1850 - "six famished and ghastly skeletons, to all appearances dead, were huddled in a corner on some filthy straw, their sole covering what seemed a ragged horsecloth, their wretched legs hanging about, naked above the knees." - Nicholas Cummins (1846). The Great Famine or the Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol), known more commonly outside of Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, is the name given to a famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. The Famine was at least fifty years in the making, and due to the disastrous interaction of British economic policy, destructive farming methods, and the unfortunate appearance of "the Blight" —the potato fungus that almost instantly destroyed the primary food source for the majority population. more information about the Irish Famine can be found here.
Because data are poor, historians arrive at different estimates of the number that died. In the period 1846–1851 between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 people died: we cannot be certain of the number. Besides, births and marriages dropped significantly. Those hardest hit were the agricultural labourers, the class that had increased most rapidly in numbers in the decades before the Famine. As Karl Marx stated, ‘The Irish famine of 1846 killed more than 1,000,000 people, but it killed poor devils only’ (Capital, i, pt vii, chapter 25). The poor were the first and the most to die. The unprecedented scale of deaths was not due to starvation alone: infectious diseases such as typhus, relapsing fever, and cholera, killed very many. more information on the Irish Famine
Writers: John Keegan, James Clarence Mangan, Aubrey de Vere, William Carleton
Irish Literature in the 19th century
John Corry, Elizabeth Hardy, William Butler Yeats, Gerald Griffin, Maria Edgeworth, Julia Kavanagh, Katharine Tynan, Alfred Perceval Graves, Michael John Barry, John Banim, Gerald Griffin, Charles Kickham, Isaac Bickerstaff, George Moore, William Hamilton Drummond, George Brittaine, Somerville and Ross, William Drennan, Bram Stoker, Edmund John Armstrong, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Jane Wilde, Thomas Dermody, Charles James Lever, William Allingham, Thomas Osborne Davis, Anna Maria Fielding, Samuel Lover, Marguerite Power
Irish Literature in the 20th century
James Joyce, Frank O'Connor, John O'Keefe, Samuel Beckett, John Millington Synge, Flann O'Brien, Seamus Heaney, Sean O'Casey, Brendan Behan, Padraig Pearse, Oliver St.John Gogarty, Padraig Colum, Alfred O'Rahilly, Roger Casement, Augusta Gregory, Francis Stuart, Flann O'Brien , Patrick Kavanagh, Francis Edward Ledwidge, Louis MacNeice, James Simmons, Derek Mahon, Eavon Boland, Paul Muldoon, Emma Donoghue, Brian Friel, Sean O'Faolain, Liam O'Flaherty, Frank O'Connor, Edna O'Brien
Irish Literature in the 21st century
Paul Muldoon, William Trevor, John Banville, Colm Tobin, John McGahern, Medbh McGuckian, Patrick McCabe, Roddy Doyle, Dermot Healy, Brian Keenan, Niall Williams, Sebastian Barry, Ciaran Carson
Links to Irish History:
The Story of the Irish Race
Irish History on the WebHistory of Ireland
Ireland History in Maps
The Archaeology of Ancient Ireland
Chronology of Ireland
Chronology of Irish History
Celtic History: Ancient to Modern
"We are one of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence."
W. B. Yeats, speech in the Irish Senate, June 11, 1925