Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory

Description

Remembering the Year of the French is 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 Ireland’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 French offers 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. . . . Beiner’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.”—Stiofán Ó 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”—Ciarán Brady, History IRELAND “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 Table of Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Phonetic Note Introduction Part 1---Collecting Memory 1. Oral History and Social Memory 2. Irish Folklore Collections 3. Richard Hayes and The Last Invasion of Ireland 4. Ancillary Folk History Sources Part 2---Folk History 5. History-Telling 6. Practitioners of Folk History 7. Time and Calendar Part 3---Democratic History 8. Who Were the Men of the West? 9. Multiple Heroes in Folk Historiographies 10. Who Were the Women of the West? Part 4---Commemorating History 11. Spheres and Mediums of Remembrance 12. Topographies of Folk Commemoration 13. Souvenirs 14. Ceremonies, Monuments, and Negotiations of Memory 15. Mediations of Remembrance 16. Memory and Oblivion Conclusion - Alternative History Archaeologies of Social Memory Epilogue - Commemorative Heritage Remembrance in the Late Twentieth Century Notes Selected Bibliography Index