Looking for Recommendation for Irish History Book

[RedStix]

Hi everyone

Just wondering if anyone could recommend a book to me. Its going to be an xmas present for an 85 year old man. I was thinking of maybe getting a book on Ireland in the last 100 years or something. Either Irish History or Irish Lifestyle.

Anyone any suggestions?
Thanks

 

[Eanair]

Diarmuid Ferriter's 'The Transformation of Ireland' seems quite good, and is on my own wish list. Alternatively, how about Clair Willis's 'That Neutral Island', which is described as 'a cultural history of Ireland during the Second World War'.

Interested to see what anyone else recommends also - not that I can really justify buying any more books at the moment!

 

[Sherman]

This looks like a good resource.

I suppose F.S.L Lyons' 'Ireland Since the Famine' is one of the standards, although I always found it very hard going.

Anything by http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-1912-1985-Politics-Joseph-Lee/dp/0521377412/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196943287&sr=1-6 (Joe Lee) would be good, and much easier to read.

 

[Anton]

Dermot Keogh's Twentieth Century Ireland (Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 2005) is worth a look as is Alvin Jackson's Ireland 1798-1998: Politics and War (Blackwell, 1999). Keogh's would be a more 'accessible' read.