The Farrells of Donegal


Book Description

(O) Farrells/Ferrells and others worldwide often ponder their Irish roots. This is currently the most comprehensive attempt to explore the origins of one of the largest branches of the Farrells/Ferrells. It includes: 1,400 years of Celtic roots in northwest Ireland, Gaelic ancestry linked to St Colum Cille (St Columba) from c.AD 655, 400-year-old associations with the Ulster Plantation, and worldwide migration. Those wishing to explore their own Irish family history and genealogy may use the methodology adopted by the author as a template for their own research. Almost 1,000 references are detailed, representing an invaluable resource to all those researching their Irish and Ulster roots. The benefits of DNA testing in family history and genealogy are outlined, and the results of the Donegal Farrell/Ferrell DNA research are analysed. Extensive genealogies of Ulster Farrells/Ferrells and associated families from the sixteenth to twenty-first centuries have been compiled, and this database will assist others research their roots in Donegal, Ulster, and Ireland.




The Plantation of Ulster


Book Description

In this vivid account, the author punctures some generally held assumptions: despite slaughter and famine, the province on the eve of the Plantation was not completely depopulated as was often asserted at the time; the native Irish were not deliberately given the most infertile land; some of the most energetic planters were Catholic; and the Catholic Church there emerged stronger than before. Above all, natives and newcomers fused to a greater degree than is widely believed: apart from recent immigrants, nearly all Ulster people today have the blood of both Planter and Gael flowing in their veins. Nevertheless, memories of dispossession and massacre, etched into the folk memory, were to ignite explosive outbreaks of intercommunal conflict down to our own time. The Plantation was also the beginning of a far greater exodus to North America. Subsequently, descendants of Ulster planters crossed the Atlantic in their tens of thousands to play a central role in shaping the United States of America.










The plantation of Ulster


Book Description

This book is the first major academic study of the Ulster Plantation in over 25 years. The pivotal importance of the Plantation to the shared histories of Ireland and Britain would be difficult to overstate. It helped secure the English conquest of Ireland, and dramatically transformed Ireland’s physical, political, religious and cultural landscapes. The legacies of the Plantation are still contested to this day, but as the Peace Process evolves and the violence of the previous forty years begins to recede into memory, vital space has been created for a timely reappraisal of the plantation process and its role in identity formation within Ulster, Ireland and beyond. This collection of essays by leading scholars in the field offers an important redress in terms of the previous coverage of the plantations, moving away from an exclusive colonial perspective, to include the native Catholic experience, and in so doing will hopefully stimulate further research into this crucial episode in Irish and British history.




The Killowen Series 3: Industrial Life


Book Description

This third volume of the Killowen Series focuses on the industrial history of old Killowen. The subjects include an overview of the economic history of Ireland, economic theory, mechanised industry, small businesses, self employment and the type of employment available to the majority of the old Killowen population. The Clothworking trade will be discussed in the next volume.




The Killowen Series 1: History and Politics


Book Description

This is the opening volume in a study concerning the social history of the Killowen area of Coleraine town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. This volume concentrates on environmental determinism, the first settlements and the longest surviving family group in the area, the O'Cahans (O'Kanes)




The Making of Modern Ireland 1603-1923


Book Description

'Technically this book is a masterly achievement: the collection, sorting, selecting and balancing of material has meant an immense amount of hard and highly skilful work. The presentation is not only learned but cool, objective, unimpassioned and yet almost always alive and compassionate as well . . . As a reference book alone it is immensely valuable . . . As an example of a humane, scholarly, expert history, Professor Beckett's book will be difficult to surpass.' D. B. Quinn, Belfast Telegraph '[He] has brilliantly succeeded. The book is admirably constructed and written with clarity and economy which carry the narrative unflaggingly through to the end . . . This excellent book supersedes all previous histories of modern Ireland.' F. S. L. Lyons, New Statesman