The Story of Ireland

This is a great introduction to Irish history as a whole. While it cannot be considered the definitive history of Northern Ireland, Hegarty does spend a good amount of time discussing Northern Ireland, especially in the final chapter where the Troubles is given significant attention, albeit at the cost of a more detailed post-WW2 Republic of Ireland.

I very much enjoyed the early Irish history such as the Vikings since I wasn't taught too much about it in school. However, only the first hundred pages are pre-1600s history. Meaning the next 200+ pages discuss only 400 years of history. Of course it makes sense, there is a lot more ‘relevant' information to give about Charles Stuart Parnell or the 1916 Rising than the 1500s.

As a result, this book is great as a general primer to Irish history with a focus on more early modern to modern history. This does not mean the pre-1600s content is lacking, it's very good and I learned a lot.