We Don't Know Ourselves

Explained a great deal about the last century of Irish history: the ability to hold two beliefs at the same time and never admit the contradiction. Romanticise the matyrs but condemn their methods, pay lip service to the strictures of the church in public but ignore in private.

Bogs down in the middle half with tales of pedophiles, pedophile enablers and some dude named Haughey. I could only take so much and figuring there must be something else happening on their fair island, I skipped a bunch of that... it got old fast. But the first and last quarters are quite enjoyable. I think some editing could have been employed in that middle section. Four stars for beginning and end, 2 stars for middle rants, I mean, I get it, lots of really bad shit was going on but it really felt like beating a dead horse, for an average of 3 stars.

I finished watching Derry Girls and I was like “you know, I'd like to learn a little more about recent Irish history” but I think this is like too advanced for me, slash really aimed at people who grew up in Ireland or are just generally starting with a much higher knowledge level of recent Irish history? So I put this down after really struggling to get through the first few chapters. Maybe I can revisit it after I find Irish History for Dummies.

The bits that are actually personal are few and far between and O'Toole gets very repetitive by the end.