Book recommendation; Pearse. DeValera

Aimeee

Hello
can anyone recommend books/online source/documentaries about Padraig Pearse. My 12 year old is curious as to how he came to be one of the better known figures from 1916 down through the years. I know from my own school days he would've been the only one I would have any decent knowledge of.

For my own info where can i read about DeValera (Eamon). I'd like more opinion pieces than just facts and figures if that is possible.

Ascendant

Aimeee wrote: »

Hello
can anyone recommend books/online source/documentaries about Padraig Pearse. My 12 year old is curious as to how he came to be one of the better known figures from 1916 down through the years. I know from my own school days he would've been the only one I would have any decent knowledge of.

For my own info where can i read about DeValera (Eamon). I'd like more opinion pieces than just facts and figures if that is possible.

Ruth Dudley Edwards' The Triumph of Failure is generally considered to be the book on Pearse. Her political opinions rub some people up the wrong but there's no doubting her scholarship.

I haven't read it but Patrick Pearse: A Life in Pictures was recently been published and so might be easier to get than Edwards'. I attended a talk by the author a few years back and he seemed to know his Pearse.

As for the De Valera, we have Tim Pat Coogan's Long Fellow, Long Shadow. Like Edwards' book on Pearse, it's considered the main work so far on the man, and like Edwards, the authors does not care much for their subject (Coogan was unabashedly a fan of Michael Collins). Make allowances for the bias and you have a solid read.

If you're looking for a pure opinion piece, there's England’s Greatest Spy – Eamon De Valera which, if the linked review is anything to go by, is notable only for how bad it is!

Aimeee

Thank you for those recommendations. I'll aim to get my hands on them. All this 1916 commemmorating has reignited my interest!
Reading aplenty ahead for us.
Thank you again.

Ruth Dudley Edwards' decidedly revisionist book is deeply hostile to Pearse. It was written in the 70s when the conflict in the North was raging, and her motivation was very much political.


At any rate, I suspect a 12-year-old wouldn't want a 372-page pseudo-academic textbook. If he does want an academic tome, The Life and Afterlife of P.H. Pearse would be a far more balanced book as it has 15 different authors (including Declan Kiberd, Angela Bourke, etc), mostly writing about his literary works and inspiration but the first chapter is 16 pages long and is a very good summary of the development of Pearse's political ideas by a Dutch academic Joost Augusteijn ('The Road to rebellion: The Development of Patrick Pearse's Political Thought, 1879-1914'). If he's able for that chapter he could read the other chapters as separate perspectives of him.

I liked this when I was a kid. It's a parallel text Irish-English edition of Pearse's stories translated by the late Desmond Maguire. No history, just a taste of Pearse's superb literary output in Irish. (he was considered among the most progressive, European-minded figures of Athbheochán na Gaeilge)

Seachtar na Cásca is an acclaimed documentary on TG4 (with English subtitles) on each of the 7 1916 leaders. Superb viewing for a kid (https://www.cic.ie/en/general/other/1916-seachtar-na-casca). There are loads of excerpts on YouTube to give you an idea.

HistoryMania

I read a bread book on Dev it was written by his son. Can't think of the name , but a quick Google search should come up.

maryishere

Ascendant wrote: »

Ruth Dudley Edwards' The Triumph of Failure is generally considered to be the book on Pearse.

Correct. A lot of the other books on Pearse are overly republican in tone, and just try to paint him in the best light possible, and are hostile to other points of view.

Aimeee

Thank you all for those recommendations and opinions. Going to check out the library see what they have and take from there.
Thanks also for tv advice. I've come accross some stuff already and it was pretty good, some of it anyway.
Great stuff. Have plenty to go now.