Remembering the Year of the French

by Beiner, Guy

• ISBN13: 9780299218249
• ISBN10: 0299218244
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-05-08
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

Remembering the Year of the Frenchis a model of historical achievement, moving deftly between the study of historical events-the failed French invasion of the West of Ireland in 1798-and folkloric representationsof those events. Delving into the folk history found in Irelandrs"s rich oral traditions, Guy Beiner reveals alternate visions of the Irish past and brings into focus the vernacular histories, folk commemorative practices, and negotiations of memory that have gone largely unnoticed by historians. Beiner analyzes hundreds of hitherto unstudied historical, literary, and ethnographic sources. Though his focus is on 1798, his work is also a comprehensive study of Irish folk history and grass-roots social memory in Ireland. Investigating how communities in the West of Ireland remembered, well into the mid-twentieth century, an episode in the late eighteenth century, this is a "history from below" that gives serious attention to the perspectives of those who have been previously ignored or discounted. Beiner brilliantly captures the stories, ceremonies, and other popular traditions through which local communities narrated, remembered, and commemorated the past. Demonstrating the unique value of folklore as a historical source,Remembering the Year of the Frenchoffers a fresh perspective on collective memory and modern Irish history. Winner, Wayland Hand Competition for outstanding publication in folklore and history, American Folklore Society Finalist, award for the best book published about or growing out of public history, National Council on Public History Winner, Michaelis-Jena Ratcliff Prize for the best study of folklore or folk life in Great Britain and Ireland "An important and beautifully produced work. Guy Beiner here shows himself to be a historian of unusual talent."-Marianne Elliott,Times Literary Supplement "Thoroughly researched and scholarly. . . . Beinerrs"s work is full of empathy and sympathy for the human remains, memorials, and commemorations of past lives and the multiple ways in which they actually continue to live."-Stiofaacute;n Oacute; Cadhla,Journal of British Studies "A major contribution to Irish historiography."-Maureen Murphy,Irish Literary Supplement "A remarkable piece of scholarship . . . . Accessible, full of intriguing detail, and eminently teachable."?-Ray Casman,New Hibernia Review "The most important monograph on Irish history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to be published in recent years."-Matthew Kelly,English Historical Review "A strikingly ambitious work . . . . Elegantly constructed, lucidly written and inspired, and displaying an inexhaustible capacity for research"-Ciaraacute;n Brady,HistoryIRELAND "A closely argued, meticulously detailed and rich analysis . . . . providing such innovative treatment of a wide array of sources, his work will resonate with the concerns of many cultural and historical geographers working on social memory in quite different geographical settings and historical contexts."-Yvonne Whelan,Journal of Historical Geography

Author Biography

Guy Beiner is lecturer in history at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. He has been a research fellow at Trinity College Dublin and an NEH Keough Irish Studies Fellow at Notre Dame University, and he is the author of many articles on modern Irish history and memory.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Phonetic Note

Introduction: Recycling the Dustbin of History

To Speak of Ninety-Eight

Collecting Memory

Oral History and Social Memory

Irish Folklore Collections

Richard Hayes and Thee Last Invasion of Ireland

Ancillary Folk History Sources

Folk History

History-Telling

Practitioners of Folk History

Time and Calendar

Democratic History

Who Were the Men of the West?

Multiple Heroes in Folk Historiographies

Who Were the Women of the West?

Commemorating History

Spheres and Mediums of Remembrance

Topographies of Folk Commemoration

Souvenirs

Ceremonies, Monuments, and Negotiations of Memory

Mediations of Remembrance

Memory and Oblivion

Conclusion: Alternative History

Archaeologies of Social Memory

Epilogue: Commemorative Heritage

Remembrance in the Late Twentieth Century

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

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