YouTube sensation John D. Ruddy brings history to life with clarity and hilarity in videos that have amassed millions of views around the world. Here, his viral online hit, Manny Man, turns Ireland's tumultuous millennia of history into a fun and easy-to-understand story. Why did the Celts love stealing cows? What was the Norman Invasion, and were they all called Norman? From the Ice Age up to the present day, through the Vikings and Tudors, British rule and the fight for independence, he covers it all - with his tongue in his cheek, of course. The succinct, lively text is complemented by comic, colorful illustrations. So if you want a quick fix of Irish history with lots of fun along the way, then Manny Man is your only man.

This book traces the history of the Irish language from the time of the Norman invasion to independence. Aidan Doyle addresses both the shifting position of Irish in society and the important internal linguistic changes that have taken place, and combines political, cultural, and linguistic history.

During a Biblical seven years in the middle of the nineteenth century, Ireland experienced the worst disaster a nation could suffer. Fully a quarter of its citizens either perished from starvation or emigrated, with so many dying en route that it was said, "you can walk dry shod to America on their bodies." In this grand, sweeping narrative, Ireland''s best-known historian, Tim Pat Coogan, gives a fresh and comprehensive account of one of the darkest chapters in world history, arguing that Britain was in large part responsible for the extent of the national tragedy, and in fact engineered the food shortage in one of the earliest cases of ethnic cleansing. So strong was anti-Irish sentiment in the mainland that the English parliament referred to the famine as "God's lesson." Drawing on recently uncovered sources, and with the sharp eye of a seasoned historian, Coogan delivers fresh insights into the famine's causes, recounts its unspeakable events, and delves into the legacy of the "famine mentality" that followed immigrants across the Atlantic to the shores of the United States and had lasting effects on the population left behind. This is a broad, magisterial history of a tragedy that shook the nineteenth century and still impacts the worldwide Irish diaspora of nearly 80 million people today.

Born in Boyle, Co. Roscommon, Patrick Moran lived most of his adult life in Dublin where he took an active part in the GAA, the Gaelic League, the Trade Unions and the Irish Volunteers. He was an active participant in the 1916 Rising and was deported to England after the surrender. On his return in August 1916 he renewed his interest in football and hurling, became a founder member of the Grocers, Vintners and Allied Trades Assistants and he helped to reorganise the Volunteers in Dublin and in his native Roscommon. He was arrested following the assassinations of British Intelligence Officers in Dublin on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, and was finally charged and convicted by a court martial for the murder of Lieutenants Ames and Bennett. He was executed by hanging in March 1921 amid calls from civil and religious leaders for the King of England to exercise the Prerogative of Mercy in an upsurge of overwhelming belief that he was innocent. But was he?

Stretching 1,200 kilometres across six countries, the colossal mountains of the Alps dominate Europe, geographically and historically. Enlightenment thinkers felt the sublime and magisterial peaks were the very embodiment of nature, Romantic poets looked to them for divine inspiration, and Victorian explorers tested their ingenuity and courage against them. Located at the crossroads between powerful states, the Alps have played a crucial role in the formation of European history, a place of intense cultural fusion as well as fierce conflict between warring nations. A diverse range of flora and fauna have made themselves at home in this harsh environment, which today welcomes over 100 million tourists a year. Leading Alpine scholar Jon Mathieu tells the story of the people who have lived in and been inspired by these mountains and valleys, from the ancient peasants of the Neolithic to the cyclists of the Tour de France. Far from being a remote and backward corner of Europe, the Alps are shown by Mathieu to have been a crucible of new ideas and technologies at the heart of the European story.