History of Ireland, Vol. 1 - E A D'Alton

Excerpt from History of Ireland, Vol. 1: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day; To the Year 1210
It is an old story and a true one that Irishmen have not studied and do not study the history of their own country. The omission to do so was intelligible in the past, when such study was proscribed, and when the rhymer and the storyteller were equally banned by law. But those days are past, and while there is little encouragement given to the study of Irish history as compared with other branches of knowledge, there is at least no prohibition. Irishmen may learn its facts if they will; but they are not willing, and there are few countries in the world where the people are so ignorant of their country's history. For the mass of the people the rath and mound and dun have no significance; and the old Norman castle and the roofless abbey, under the shadow of which the dead take their rest, arc heedlessly passed by, and nothing is known of the story which they tell. Even those writers and speakers who sometimes dwell upon the past, and call back the heroes of their nation from the land of shadows, do not speak or write from out the fulness of knowledge. On the contrary, their knowledge is often misty and dim, and they are ignorant of many things in the lives of those very men whose memories they invoke.
This ignorance of a subject which every Irishman should take pains to know is often attributed, in part at least, to the character of the histories that have been written, and, without injustice, it may be admitted that they leave much to be desired. Nor need this be a matter for surprise.
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