Ireland Books

I picked this book up the last time I was in Ulster; I remember being slightly taken back by the title so much so that it initiated my purchase. Nevertheless, however, writing as a layman and as someone who takes great cultural pride in our Celtic hero Cuchulainn. I remember being slightly dismayed at thinking he might have been a Comet, then again, I have read that he might be a magic mushroom which isn't very charming either. In both cases matter is reified into the plane of psychological symbolism, now I wonder... Seeing that I have softened my scepticism, I must recommend this book as a great primer on so many interdisciplinary subjects, and whatever these guys have it is great skill at delivery. Imagine in the next 1000 years from now, folks will be saying George Best, was the reincarnation of that that particular famous comet. Well you can never know?

Patrick McCafferty & Mike Baillie
The Celtic Gods:
Comets in Irish Mythology
(Tempus Pub., Stroud, UK) 2005
Paperback, 224 pages
ISBN 0-7524-3444-6

Critiqued by Victor DeMattei

David Keys published "Catastrophe," based in part on the dendrochronological research of Mike Baillie, which highlighted a catastrophic climatic downturn in the sixth century of our era that led to a collapse of all the "classical" ancient civilizations across the globe; namely, the Greco-Roman culture in the Mediterranean and Western Europe, the Maya in Mesoamerica, and Asiatic cultures in the Eastern World, ushering in what has be¬come known as the "Dark Ages." Keys' explanation for the trigger event for this collapse was a massive eruption of ancient Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra about 535 AD, which released an enormous dust cloud that spread around the world and fomented a Fimbul winter throughout the northern hemisphere.

Coincidentally, this was at the same moment in time that the last native Latin-speaking Eastern Roman emperor based in Constantinople, Justinian, was trying to reconquer the former Roman heartland in Italy from the Germanic Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths). This war was recorded by both Procopius of Caesarea, who was private secretary to the Roman general, Belisarius, and by Cassiodorus Senator, who was in effect the prime minister of the enemy Gothic king, Theodorick, who died just a the outbreak of the conflict. Procopius noted a massive plague that wiped out at least a third of the empire population. However, according to contemporary scholarship, disease and the course of the war reduced the population of Italy by some two-thirds, from an estimated six million down to two million, while disease-infected Rome was reduced from a million to some thirty thousand. Rome changed hands four times between 540 and 554 AD, and according to Procopius was even deserted for some six weeks. The fall of Italy in 540 AD to Torila the Ostrogoth was the actual, albeit argumentative, end of the imperial Roman Empire, and can be compared to the contemporaneous collapse of Mesoamerican civilizations.

Dendrochronologist Baillie and engineer/archeologist McCafferty both disagree with Keys' assessment that a volcanic origin for the disease-ridden climatic decline was the cause, and posit their own hypothesis of a trigger mechanism. Their disagreement is based on Greenland ice core samplings that show no more volcanic dust than normal during the sixth century, and opt for another putative cause, drawing largely on the work of astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier that cometary fragments were more likely trigger events.
They distinguish between long and short period comets, where the former are relatively unlikely to impact the Earth, whereas fragments from short period comets, such as Enke's or Halley's, are more probable. As comets orbiting within our solar system break up and are strung out they can potentially impact the Earth with devastating effect. The Tunguska explosion over the Siberian taiga in 1908 is thought to be a fragment of Enke's Comet.

McCafferty and Baillie point out that spasmodic if not periodic civilization collapses in the 25th century BC, the 12th century BC (about the time of the Trojan War), and the one that concern us here in the 6th century AD, are due to Comet Enke. They also present historical and mythological descriptions from China and Japan that fortify their conclusions.

This finally brings us to their main argument that Celtic mythology, such as the Cuchulainnian and Arthurian Cycles are coded accounts of such cometary strikes. (As a side issue, Cuchulainn [pronounced ku-ka'-lin] bears a linguistic relationship to the Mesoamerican Kukulcan.) The same goes for the Beowulf Saga and that of the legendary sixth century Irish saints. In Appendix IV of their book they graphically lay out the links in these stories that point to a cometary connection and the concomitant source of the action and danger in the skies above.
In "Playing with Catastrophic Links" the authors note, for example, that the Celtic hero Lugh kills his grandfather Balor, and if he hadn't Ireland would have been burned in a flash, and that the Irish prelate Mobhi dies in the plague that kills one-third of the people of Ireland. Also, recall Procopius, the 6th century Byzantine historian, who records a plague that killed one-third of the Mediterranean world. Again, in Irish myth, the prelate "Moling confused with Suibne foretells Fal's wheel that would destroy three-quarters of Europe."

Cuchulainn in his `frenzy' kills or injures two-thirds of the people of Ireland. Lugh's spear causes the Dolorous Blow that destroys three kingdoms. And, St. Patrick has a vision of Ireland being covered in flames. The boar Twrch Trwyth, pursued by Arthur and finally driven into the sea off Cornwall, laid waste to a third part of Ireland.

To reiterate, underlining these reported catastrophes: 1) Ireland would have been burned in a flash, 2) plagues that kill one-third of the people of Ireland, 3) Fal's wheel (consisting of paddles or oars) would destroy three-quarters of Europe, 4) frenzy of the gods that kills or injures two-thirds of the people of Ireland, 5) the Arthurian Dolorous Blow that destroys three kingdoms, 6) Ireland being covered in flames, 7) Twrch Trwyth laid waste a third part of Ireland.

Baillie points out that what we know from dendrochronology around 540 AD, there was a global tree-ring downturn. We know from history (Procopius, first of all) that around 540-542 plagues erupted in Europe and killed one third of the population, while the Roman Empire was making a last gasp to recover Italy from the Goths.

It seems from Baillie's research that the Earth periodically encounters comet swarms that cause considerable damage. Further, McCafferty and Baillie note, "there are, however, reasons for believing that at periods around 4500 and 1500 years ago, due to orbital changes, close passes may have taken place. Changes in the relationship between the orbits of the Earth and short-period comets meant that the orbits crossed, and for centuries there could have been repeated close encounters."

Current astronomical theory posits that the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto as the home of most cometary matter and perhaps many more as yet undiscovered planetesimals. The only viable orbital changes would be for the cometary matter, so these would be the most likely culprits for these catastrophic close encounters.

But, what is also interesting is the association of plagues with these events. This would seem to lend credence to the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe theory of panspermia, i.e., bringing in extraterrestrial microorganisms, but admittedly this may be pushing the envelope. More prosaically, one of the effects of multiple cometary incursions into the atmosphere would be an increased dust load and s collateral cooling effect--much as happened in 1815 with the eruption of Tambora leading to the so-called year without a summer of 1816. This in turn would lead to crop failures, famine, and diseases associated with deprivation, as peoples' immune systems would be compromised.

In brief, the whole thrust of McCafferty and Baillie's thesis is that Celtic mythology is largely a symbolic account of these catastrophic events. They also add what may be the most important point of all, for if they are right the security of our planet and the life it harbors could depend on it, which is a call for an interdisciplinary effort on the part of scholars in both the hard and soft sciences to study this problem together and see if the data fit. Then we could take counter measures that might save our planet and ourselves.

Celtic Myth And Arthurian Romance by Arthurian scholar Roger Loomis is a fascinating, persuasive, documented argument for the theory that the King Arthur of history was not an Englishman, but rather a Celtic warrior. Carefully annotated and researched chapters draw connections between the Camelot legend and Celtic lore, and bring to life a new side of the debate about who King Arthur truly was. An exciting and original analysis of one of history's most beloved eras and leaders, Celtic Myth And Arthurian Romance is a welcome and highly recommended addition to Arthurian studies reading lists and academic reference collections.

For anyone who's ever been fascinated by the tales of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, here's a book that puts it all in the fascinating context of Celtic mythology. The stock elements of Arthurian legend--the enchanted castles, the abducted princesses, the contests with mysterious knights--are revealed to have a coherent esoteric meaning.As Loomis writes, to understand the relationship between the familiar tales of Camelot and the wilder Irish myths "is to open suddenly the mountainsides into the glittering palaces of the Sidhe"--the home of the Celtic gods.

The brilliance of Roger Loomis--who wrote in the 1920s--is that while he draws the same kind of fascinating connections as Robert Graves, Loomis does so through careful argument and documentation. His work should inform any serious discussion of the origins of the Arthurian tales and the meaning of the Holy Grail.

This book has short stories that relate to Irish folklore around the time when the Tuatha De Danaan ruled the land. Many of the stories have been rewritten by other authors, however, I feel that this author does a incredible job of weaving in more information about the tales and people involved. Also in the introduction the author gives background to the history of Ireland and how the folklore came about. I would recommend this book to anybody intrested in Irish folklore, old and young alike.

Finally, a book of Irish stories that truly captures my heart and does justice to my ancestry. A wonderful job by the author of providing background and such. My favorite legends are brought vividly and hauntingly to life; I couldn't have asked for more.

For someone who wants a quick and dirty introduction yet up to date book on the ancient Celts I cannot recommend a better book. Although it is quite a short book it is highly superior to books havigng the three times the number of pages this book contains.
Although one may sometimes shy away from short books on complex topics like the Celts take heart for by placing yourself in the hands of Barry Cunliffe you are putting yourself in the hands of a master.
A winner!
High recommended.

The Celts have had a long and complex journey, both through history and myth, and this entry in the excellent Very Short Introduction series is a great place to start tracing that journey. Some historians question whether 'Celtic' is even a meaningful or useful term. Is it a modern invention? Who were, or are, these people or peoples we call 'Celts'? Cunliffe warns at the outset that finding reliable answers will not be easy, then proceeds to make it as easy as possible.

He views the subject from various angles - linguistic, archeological, Classical (the Roman and Greek accounts), ethnological - and gradually builds a coherent picture. His bias reflects the current orthodoxy that cultural influence spread without the mass migrations that used to be assumed -- ideas and customs spread, not necessarily people. He encourages us to take a view from the Atlantic, and see the Celts as European peoples who traded along that seaboard. Some readers might wish for more detailed maps -- the author or publisher seems to assume that you will know which rivers are the Marne, Danube, etc.

This is an authoritative and accurate work, although I did spot one surprising blunder: On page 137, the ceremony of All Souls is described as taking place on October 31, preceding All Saints. In fact it follows All Saints, on November 2.

Cunliffe's prose is very readable, except that he has a fondness for litotes ("It is not unreasonable to suppose..." "It is not unlikely that..."). This can get not unirritating after a while.

A great deal of misinformation surrounds Celticism. It has become a tool for propagandists and nationalists. There is a certain amount of healthy debunking in this book, but the Celts emerge alive and well. Before I read it, I thought I was of Celtic descent on my mother's side. After reading it, I still do, but now I have some idea of what that means. If you want to know about the Celts, then you need to choose your sources with care, because - as Cunliffe hints - there are many 'lunatic fringe' publications out there. This is a safe place to start.

Although there have been a seemingly infinite amount of books written on 17th century England, this one stands out from the rest. Although it is not exactly a thoroughly in depth study, it provides ample knowledge about all of the important people and events of the era. It is also helpful that each division of the era is looked at in several different fields of study, including the often overlooked area of economics.

The late eminent British Marxist historian Christopher Hill is better known for his pioneer work in the micro-history of the English Revolution and the influences of left-wing political forces such as the Levellers and Diggers and religious forces such the Quakers, Shakers, Ranters and Seekers on it. Here he has written an overview of the entire 17th century as part of this series of books on the history of England to modern times. Needless to say some of his work around the English Revolution seeps into this work as well, which makes that period the strongest section of the book.

Professor Hill traces the major social, political, economic and religious trends that culminated in the revolution back to the reign of James I (and some economic trends back to Elizabethan times). He covers such keys areas of conflict as the changes in land use and ownership, agricultural innovations including the highly controversial enclosure policy, governmental foreign policy which tended to have a distinctly Catholic, particularly pro-Spanish, orientation, the embryonic beginnings of the split between court and `country' as a result of Stuart arbitrary rule, the split between landed proprietors and city merchants; the city and the country, the established church and the numerous pro-Puritan (read Calvinist) sects that started to sprout up like wildfire and the rise of a secular democratic movement based in the cities that both the Army and the Levellers would draw upon in the Civil War period.

Special note should be taken of the decades between the beginning of the defensive parliamentary struggles against Charles I in 1640 and 1660 with the restoration of his son Charles II to the throne. At this point the tensions that were merely outlined by the prior policies of the Stuart governments came to the breaking point. Hill does more than merely narrate that story. He shows, based on his well-stocked body of knowledge about the period, the various stages that the revolution went through from vascillations of the first defensive struggles of the Parliamentarians to the definitive break with Charles and the establishment of the New Model Army which would usher in a period of military dominance of government and society and with it the rise and fall of the various secular and religious democratic movements. Hill also does a masterful job of showing how the various plebian democratic forces in society reacted to governmental policy (and how the government dealt with those forces) and how, as a result, these various fights sapped the revolutionary energy of the masses.

As more than one historian and sociologist has noted, as a general proposition the study of post-revolutionary periods tends to be rather anti-climatic. That is also the case here with the restoration of Charles II. England, however, exhibited that trend in revolutionary history that demonstrates that even when the revolution runs out of steam there is generally no regression back to the old ways of ruling. Despite the regression in governmental form with the reintroduction of the monarchy, parliamentary supremacy was essentially assured although not without various intrigues by Charles and his brother James against it and against England. As importantly, the capitalist industrial developmental trends that had been gathering force throughout the century kept expanding after the revolution. That trend would make England the number one power in the world in the next century. For an excellent overview of an important period in English history, which moreover is filled with helpful footnotes on sources for further research, this is your stop.

Karl XI is one of my favourites in the Swedish history, Upton's biography gives a fair view of his too short lives. That without leaving his shortcomings as person and ruler. Karl XI may be less well known as his father Karl X Gustav and son Karl XII but far more interesting to study for a modern reader than the warriors. He stands in the history toghether with Gustav Vasa and Axel Oxenstierna as the builders of the early modern Swedish state.
I will recommend this book to everyone interested in Swedish or 17th century European history.

Swedes tend to jump from Charles X Gustav to his grandson Charles XII, forgetting Charles XI. But this was one of Sweden's greatest kings. He broke the aristocratic oligarchy, shored up Crown finances and reorganised the civil service, the army and the navy. Most of all, he kept the peace for 25 years when Sweden was large but poor and all its neighbours were anxious to lay their hands on choice parts of it. Many of his reforms lasted until well into the 20th century and some are still relevant today. Charles XII may have been glamorouos, but he foolishly lost an empire. Charles XI may have been a bore, but he preserved it all his life!

Read this book if you want to make sense of what is happening in the world today - It is funny, magical, strong and sometimes bewildering. Why do some immigrants find it hard to become Americans? Read it and find out.

November 17, 2003
I really appreciate the opportunity to read Geraldine's
book over the past few days. I can tell you this, it has been a long,
long time since I was able to "feel" a book I was reading. I was "in the
picture" the whole time. I guess the time span (which pretty much matched
my own) helped because I remember so much of what those times were like.
I found that being a Sicilian-Scotch Catholic wasn't so different from
being Irish Catholic in America. We all had so many of the same

experiences that we are truly all nearly the same. Geraldine's book
unfolded in my hands and I felt excitement and worry for Michael Joe as he
followed his heart and became a renegade and a hero. I would love to have
met him. Everything was so counter balanced by Nellie. It broke my heart
a little when he lost her and followed soon after. What a testament to
love and "being one". I feel like I've learned so much about what Ireland
must really be like....not the travel stuff that we all know, but the true
heart, spirit and geography of what must be an incredible land......What a truly delightful clan. I hope this
book does very well. People need to have this kind of experience...My
only regret, having finished the book, is what now?
Thanks, again, to you for bringing the book to me and, certainly, thanks
to Geraldine for putting it all down on paper.
Don Senger

houston, texas

This is an excellent book, but I have to take issue with its subtitle. By 1750 Calvinism was no longer a majority opinion in Geneva, at least, not the orthodox variety that had made Geneva synonomous with Calvinism. The ideas of the enlightenment had so thoroughly affected the Reformed movement that no conclusions can be drawn from Geneva's place as the capital of calvinism and the increase in suicides there.In fact, a very good case could be made for the opposite. Although a scion of the famous Turretin family was Geneva's leading theologian at the time, it was his watering down of his father and grandfather's calvinism that he was best known for. A better subtitle would have been "Suicide after the decline of Calvinism in Geneva".

Choosing Death: Suicide And Calvinism In Early Modern Geneva by Jeffrey R. Watt (Associate Professor in History, University of Mississippi) is a thorough, scholarly, deftly presented case study of the Republic of Geneva and its history of suicide. From views of the suicide in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that regarded self-destruction as the result of demonic possession, and that harshly appropriated the property of those who took their own lives, to the late eighteenth century turn of thought that recognized the role that mental illness and personal trauma often played in suicide. Choosing Death is a fascinating, informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking social history of an admittedly grim subject within the historical context of a proud and sovereign European nation.

Christians In The Warsaw Ghetto: An Epitaph For The Unremembered by Peter F. Dembowski (Distinguished Service Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago) is an intense, personal, and moving story of evading the German troops and camps during World War II. Readers follow Dembowsi through the gripping and remarkable tale of two imprisonments of the Nazi troops, an induction into the Polish Home Army and all of the happenings that enabled his survival in Christians In The Warsaw Ghetto, highly recommended for its informative and gripping content to all non-specialist general readers, particularly students of World War II.

According to the German-developed Nuremberg Laws, Jewish Christians were considered Jews, and treated accordingly by the Nazis in German-occupied Poland. Interestingly, Poland's Jewish leaders often considered assimilation into Polish society as much a repudiation of one's Jewishness as conversion to Christianity (p. 117, 137-138). Jewish Christians often experienced animosity from other Jews in the ghetto (p. 122), including unprovoked violence (p. 85).

Dembowski presents a variety of historical information. We learn that the prewar ONR had been outlawed by Polish authorities since its inception (p. 62). While the occupying Germans forced Jews to wear the star, they also forced the Polish slaves in Germany to wear the "P" (pp. 45-46). Marek Edelman recounted the fact that Warsaw's Jews initially disbelieved Polish reports of the mass gassings of Jews (pp. 53-55). Edelman's wife praised THE PIANIST for its qualities (p. 39).

Dembowski rebuts Mordecai Kaplan's charge that Polish priests wrote false certificates for Jews out of mercenary motives. In actuality, false baptismal certificates were a risky undertaking, incurring the German-imposed death penalty for both the priest and recipient if caught (p. 99).

There is irony in the betrayal of Anne Frank by a Dutchman. Two of her benefactors were not arrested at all, while one of the remaining two was released after arrest. Had Anne Frank's family and benefactors been Polish, they would all have all been summarily shot by the Germans (p. 83).

The Jewish-Christian bacteriologist Ludwik Hirszfeld put prewar Polish anti-Semitism into perspective: "My nation accused by the world of anti-Semitism is a good nation. [It gives assistance] despite the death sentence for help, and despite the inherited antipathy towards Jews. I believe that if Jehovah maintains the register of all the injuries suffered by Jews, he will erase the Przytyk pogrom, university disturbances, and separate seating for Jews [in the universities], because Polish antipathy lasted only as long as there was a vision of powerful Jews. It was replaced by pity when the pauper appeared. It was the case during the Jewish martyrdom." (p. 124).

Several accounts, such as the fictional little Polish girl in Steven Spielberg's SCHINDLER'S LIST and the various selectively-chosen anecdotes in Jan T. Gross' FEAR, would have us believe that Poles delighted in Jewish suffering. In contrast, Antoni Marianowicz (Kazimierz Jerzy Berman) wrote: "When we were returning to the car, wearing our armbands, children at Zytnia Street pointed their fingers at us and whispered: `Look, the Jews!' There was no animosity in their voices, only curiosity in seeing the officially branded people." (p. 114).

The reader learns that the eyewitness monographs of Hirszfeld (p. 33), Makower (pp. 102-103), and Marianowicz (p. 110) have never been translated into English. Why not? Is it because these Jewish Christians are not considered Jews, or is it because their works don't fit the ultra-Judeocentric and oft-Polonophobic motif of much contemporary Holocaust material?

a great book one of the must have for any churchill library . great anecdotes good pictures .recommended by the churchill society

Mr. Buczacki provides a nice, well-written history of the various houses and gardens directly associated with the long life of Winston Churchill. In doing so, the author also reveals important elements of the non-political side of this most remarkable man.

Many general histories of Churchill speak in passing of the domestic trials imposed after the purchase of the family's most important home, Chartwell. Reading this book gives one a keen understanding of what Mrs. Churchill endured as Chartwell and its grounds were slowly, slowly brought into good shape.

If you have a friend who is interested in English landscaping and gardens, this is a book to consider. If that friend also is an admirer of Sir Winston, then it is a must purchase.