ClanDonnell: A Storied History of Ireland by David K. McDonnell is an epic history of Ireland told through the history of the Clan Donnell or McDonnell family. As you’ll note by the author’s name, he is a member of that family. Therefore he has a personal interest in the story and narrates it in the first person. Always interested in his Irish background, the author collected the fascinating stories of his family and Ireland. Finally he organized the stories and decided to publish them for others. He calls it a “history for non-historians.”
The lengthy book (888 pages) is divided into five sections: Celts and Clan Donnell, The End of the Clans, Hunger and Diaspora, Independence and Troubles and Deiradh. The titles of the first four sections are self explanatory. The word, “Deiradh,” however, was unknown to me, so I had to look it up. It derives from an old Irish word for “end.” Here he collects facts about Ireland such as the language, flag and other symbols. The thirty six pages of sources at the end demonstrate the extent of McDonnell’s research into his subject.
The book is full of pictures, maps and charts — many of which are in color. One that caught my eye is entitled “Below deck of a coffin ship,” first published in the May 10, 1851 in Illustrated London News. The photo showed a section that explained how ship owners offered inexpensive transits for peasants from Ireland across the Atlantic to North America in ships to fill ships that were returning from delivering exports of raw materials to Europe. Landlords found it less expensive to pay for their tenants’ passages than to foreclose on the properties and evict them. It isn’t hard to guess why these ships earned the moniker “coffin ships.”
This book has something for everyone from the person who wants to look at pictures to the serious historian. McDonnell will be at Bookmamas, 9 Johnson Avenue, on Sunday, March 15 from 1-3 to tell tales of Ireland and sign books. Start your St. Patrick’s Day festivities early in Irvington.
