Our Irish library is constantly growing, and we like to recommend books to our clients and fellow “Irishophiles” that we’ve especially enjoyed. We’ll feature new—as well as some classic—books of interest to Irish and Irish-American family historians. The books aren’t limited to those on genealogy, however. We’ve included Irish memoirs, family histories, social histories, novels, folklore, cookbooks, travel guides, and just about any type of book that would be helpful in learning about your Irish heritage.

For more books and recommendations see The Essential Library for Irish Americans, by Morgan Llywelyn (New York: Tom Doherty Assoc., 1999). This is a good starting place for anyone interested in reading about things Irish. Ms. Llywelyn has written many novels about Irish history and is well read in Irish fact and fiction. The Essential Library for Irish Americans covers biography, autobiography, and memoirs, history, humor, Ireland and America, mythology and folklore, novels, poetry, reference books, and travel and picture books. Llywelyn not only describes each book, but also gives her reasons for recommending a particular book. This book is essential for your own library, and you will refer back to it again and again as you become more immersed in learning about Ireland and the Irish people.

Note: Some titles listed here may be out of print or are not available for purchase in the United States, but you might be able to find them through interlibrary loan. Also try Irish Books and Media a U.S. bookseller specializing in Irish titles imported from U.K. publishers. Or look for the books on your next trip to Ireland!

Irish Genealogy Guidebooks

Tracing Your Irish Ancestors, 3d ed., by John Grenham (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2006). Already hailed as a classic in the field of Irish genealogy, this third edition of Grenham’s work keeps the three-part structure of earlier editions. Parts One and Two cover records in Ireland, such as General Register Office Records, Censuses, Church, Property and Valuation Records, Deeds, Wills, and the Internet, to name a few. Part Three handles county-by-county resources. Grenham points out where readers can access the records: online, at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, or only in Ireland and at which repository. His guide is essential when planning a research trip to Salt Lake or Ireland. But I found two aspects disappointing: (1) there was no coverage of the Ordnance Survey maps or the John O’Donovan letters and place name books; and (2) there is no index, which the book sorely needs.
The back cover boasts “In addition, the invaluable index has been completely revised and updated to take account of the 35% increase in the extent of this new edition over the previous one.” Realizing this was a publisher’s omission, not the author’s, I contacted Genealogical Publishing Company for an explanation. The book is actually published by an Irish publisher, Gill & Macmillan Ltd. in Dublin, with GPC having rights to the U.S. edition. Evidently, Grenham had prepared an index, but at the last minute Gill & Macmillan decided not to include it as it would increase the page count. An unfortunate decision. Gill & Macmillan then neglected to update the back cover. So as you read Grenham’s book, make sure you highlight or put sticky notes on pages you think you’ll want to come back to again.

Finding Your Irish Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide, by David S. Ouimette (Provo: Ancestry Publishing, 2005). So what’s a nice French boy doing writing a guide to Irish genealogy? Ouimette’s Irish on his mother’s side, and he’s been tracing his Irish ancestry for a number of years. Written in a pleasant conversational tone, Ouimette’s guide is perfect for beginners. His focus is on getting you and your ancestors back to the Emerald Isle, first by exhausting American sources, then by searching in Irish records. The book’s main thrust is the Irish record collection at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, but he also discusses those records found only in Ireland.
Chapters include all the basic Irish genealogical records, as well as Internet sites, archives and libraries in Ireland, and Irish Heritage Centers. Chapter two is a Timeline of Irish History, which has limited value. More useful would have been to supplement the timeline with an overview of how major events in Irish history affected our ancestors.
The greater value in Ouimette’s book is how he explains using the records, as well as his words of caution on pitfalls in the records. For example, he writes, “be careful about assuming that birth dates are always correct…if a child was more than three months old [when registration took place], some families ‘fudged’ the birth date to avoid paying the late registration penalty.” Consequently, when you get into church records, you might find, as I did with my maternal grandmother’s family, that the baptism date precedes the birth date.
A particularly useful, concise table is on page 143, which you may want to photocopy and keep in your Irish research notebook. It details what records are held at the Family History Library, and which are at other repositories; however, under the column “Only Available Elsewhere,” it would have been helpful for each category to say where “elsewhere” is. Still, this book is a welcome addition to the collection of Irish guides.

Getting Started in Irish Genealogy, by Marie E. Daly (video; Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003). Not one for sitting down and reading a book on how to start searching for your Irish roots? Then turn on your TV and watch Marie Daly, past president and co-founder of TIARA, discuss the basics of Getting Started in Irish Genealogy. This 45-minute video takes you through the steps of researching your Irish ancestors in America to determine exactly where in Ireland they came from. Knowing the townland is the key to successfully tracing your Irish forebears. Using as an example a Catholic immigrant family from County Down, Daly focuses on U.S. sources to find their origins. Because Daly is Director of Library Services at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, naturally she recommends using many of the records held at the Society. For viewers who don’t live near Boston or aren’t able to make a trip there, however, it would have been helpful had she made mention of which records you could also find at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or through their rental program at a Family History Center near you. So make sure you check the online catalogue of the Family History Library’s collection for U.S. records, as well as online subscription sites that many local libraries subscribe to for records like censuses.

Pocket Guide to Irish Genealogy, 2nd ed., by Brian Mitchell (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2002). This 77-page, lightweight guide is perfect to pack when you’re ready to make a trip to Ireland and do research in the repositories there. Giving a concise overview of the basic resources genealogists use, Mitchell also provides excellent step-by-step instruction using case studies to illustrate how to use the records, and then he points you to other records you should examine. The overview of sources in other countries is scant, but this is not surprising; the main focus of this book is on records in Ireland and to provide readers with a convenient book to take with them. This second edition includes a new chapter on the Internet, which, four years later, already needs updating. Mitchell has also updated the book’s two concluding chapters, covering Ireland’s major genealogical record offices and heritage centres. Readers should remember that many of the records Mitchell discusses are available in the U.S. through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. So make sure you do your homework before you travel to Ireland to do research. Don’t waste your time looking at records you can look at here at home.

A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors, by Dwight A. Radford and Kyle J. Betit (Cincinnati: Betterway Books, 2001). Although this book is out of print, if you were unfortunate enough not to get a copy of it when it was available, you may want to look for a used copy or find one at your local library. Radford and Betit also detail the basic sources of Irish research, but they discuss some resources not covered at all or in any kind of depth in the other guides, such as using estate records, using Ordnance Survey and Griffith’s Valuation Maps, tracing nuns and priests, and using the John O’Donovan Place Name Books. They also give more coverage to the Irish in other countries, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the British West Indies. They, too, provide useful step-by-step instruction in an inviting writing style. Although some of their coverage overlaps with the other books listed here, this comprehensive book provides you with Radford and Betit’s own unique worldwide expertise in finding Irish ancestors at home and abroad.

Irish History Books

The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland, by Roy Foster, editor (Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 1989). Six renown Irish scholars contributed to this classic history of Ireland, with each one authoring one of the six sections: “Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland,” “The Norman Invasion and the Gaelic Recovery,” “Early Modern Ireland, c. 1500-1700,” “Ascendancy and Union,” “Ireland Since 1870,” and “Irish Literature and Irish History.” As you would expect from a book with a title of “Illustrated History,” the book is, of course, well illustrated. It’s written in a readable style, but some topics don’t get as much attention as the reader might expect. The Famine, for example, gets about a page and a half of attention. If you didn’t know this was a major part of Ireland’s history with great impact on the everyday person, the economy, and the government, you would read this section and think, “Oh, so they ran out of a few potatoes.” Granted, a one-volume history spanning prehistoric times to the 1980s can’t possibly cover every topic in great detail, so you’ll want to turn to some of the other Irish history books to complement.

A Shorter Illustrated History of Ulster, by Jonathan Bardon (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1996). As the title implies, this is a shorter version of the author’s History of Ulster, which is geared more for the armchair historian than the nearly 1,000 page original reference. But with abridgement comes choices on what goes in and what gets left out. If you want an overview of Ulster’s history, then this is the book for you. But if it only wets your appetite or you want more indepth coverage, go for the original History of Ulster, which came out in a second edition in 2005. The Shorter History, however, covers all the basics of how the province evolved from its earliest settlements of 9,000 years ago to the turmoil of the Troubles, taking the reader through 1996. It’s a highly readable history, sprinkled with contemporary quotes, documents, and other illustrations.

The Course of Irish History, 4th edition, by W.E. Moody and F.X. Martin (Lanham, Md.: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2002). I love this book! I own and have read several Irish histories, but if I had to choose just one to recommend, this would be it. It was first published more than thirty years ago, and remains a classic and compelling read to this day. It’s written for a popular audience, yet it is authoritative and critical in its approach to history. Like Foster’s book, The Course of Irish History spans thousands of years, starting with prehistoric Ireland, but this book brings the reader into the twenty-first century. I read this book and the corresponding sections in Foster’s book at the same time, which I felt gave me an even broader picture of Irish history. What one book glossed over, the other went into more detail. But even if you read only this one, you’ll have a good, solid understanding of the history of Ireland. It’s definitely on my to-read-again list.

Everyday Life in Ireland

Irish Folk Ways, by E. Estyn Evans (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, reprint of 1957 edition). This book is considered a classic in the field of Irish folkways and is a valuable book to family historians who want to know what rural Irish life was like for their ancestors. In 21 chapters, you’ll learn how people thatched roofs, churned butter, cooked over an open hearth, cultivated and harvested crops, traveled to neighboring townlands, and much more. Evans also goes into detail on traditional customs associated with weddings, wakes and funerals, and country festivals. There are also more than 400 illustrations to help you visualize the tools and implements your ancestors used.

Ways of Old: Traditional Life in Ireland, by Olive Sharkey (Dublin: The O’Brien Press, 2000). Heavily illustrated, this book brings to life the implements used in the home, on the farm, in the garden, and for homecrafts. The book’s 12 chapters cover thatched houses, life around the open hearth, furniture, homecrafts, dairy and laundry, the land, the farmyard, animals, and much more. It’s an easy, entertaining read, and gives researchers a real sense of what life on an Irish farm would have been like. My favorite section is the one on personal hygiene, a topic not covered in most books. Sharkey discusses household items women used for their complexions and hair, as well as popular hairstyles for men and women. This book will give you a greater appreciation for your ancestors’ daily lives.

Irish County Households, by Kevin Danaher (Dublin: Mercier Press, 1985). Like Irish Folk Ways and Ways of Old, this is another useful book about lifestyles of the rural Irish, including the houses they lived in, their kitchens, bedrooms, and utensils. But unlike the previous two books, this one is illustrated with photographs, as well as drawings. Mr. Danaher is a full-time ethnologist with the Irish Folklore Commission, and his research provided the basis for Bunratty Folk Park in County Clare, which makes up much of the material in this book. Danaher reminds us that in our ancestors’ days, they were essentially self-sufficient, providing for almost all of their needs by building their own houses, growing their own food, supplying their own fuel, and building their own furniture. Combined with the other two books mentioned above, Irish Country Households will give you the full picture of your ancestors’ lives.

Irish Memoirs

Forgetting Ireland: Uncovering a family’s secret history, by Bridget Connelly (St. Paul, Minn.: Borealis Books, 2003). Professional folklorist Bridget Connelly takes the reader along on the search for her family history as she travels to Graceville, Minnesota, and Connemara, Ireland. The story is about a group of Irish paupers from Connemara who were sent to Graceville to take up land and be given a second chance at life. Unfortunately, not long after they arrived, a blizzard hit the Graceville area in mid-October 1880 and didn’t let up until well after the new year. The Connemara families missed the crucial planting season and nearly froze to death in unshingled shanties on the prairie. Their plight was immortalized as the welfare scandal of the year in local and national newspapers. Blending oral tradition, documents, and her own insights, Connelly weaves a family history memoir that puts her family into broader historical perspective and serves as a model for other writers of the genre.

Midlife Irish: Discovering My Family and Myself, by Frank Gannon (New York: Warner Books, 2003). Frank Gannon is a first generation Irish-American; his parents were born in Ireland in the early 1900s. Although they never discussed with their son their lives in Ireland, Gannon knew from where they originated, and after their deaths, Gannon traveled to Ireland to learn more about his parents’ native country. This memoir is a sheer delight to read, whether you’ve been to Ireland or not. Gannon’s sense of humor fills the pages, and as readers travel through Ireland with him, he educates them on Irish history, customs, folk beliefs, and stereotypes in an entertaining and interesting manner. Genealogists will wish he had spent more time discussing his roots, rather than saving it for the last three chapters. I wanted him to search for the generations beyond his parents, but perhaps that could be the subject of another book. I know I’d be first in line to read it. Nevertheless, this is a memoir you can’t put down.

McCarthy’s Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland, by Pete McCarthy (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2003). Although the late Pete McCarthy was born and raised in England, his mother was Irish, and he always felt a connection with Ireland. In his journey along the west of Ireland, beginning in Cork and traveling north to Donegal, McCarthy “planned to wander around for an unspecified length of time going into every pub I saw called McCarthy’s and undertaking a sadomasochistic pilgrimage, while trying to work out whether I was on some metaphysical level Irish, due to the collective genetic memory of my ancestors living on in the innermost reaches of my soul.” Although McCarthy doesn’t venture much into his family history per se, his experiences with the people and places of Ireland are told in a marvelously, laugh-out-loud humor that make this book an entertaining read. One of the funniest of McCarthy’s escapades is his pilgrimage to St. Patrick’s Purgatory, a place of spiritual contemplation in Co. Donegal. It comes toward the end of the book, but readers will delight in McCarthy’s other travels along the way.

Yesterday’s Ireland, by Paddy Linehan (Cincinnati: David & Charles, 2003). Paddy Linehan was born in Ireland in 1943, and this memoir covers his youth in the 1940s and 1950s. Although it is a story of rural life in Ireland in the mid-twentieth century, Linehan covers previous generations, too. “I never met my great-grand mother but I knew her well…. [T]hrough my mother, her mother and grandmother, I think I have known [Ireland] for a lot longer than my own lifetime.” Detailing not only Irish history as it affected the everyday person, the author also bridges the ocean and its impact on families left behind: “Because of emigration almost everyone in Ireland has relations in America.” In this beautifully written and well-illustrated book, family historians will learn about the Irish people, their history and culture, and the countryside, as well as enjoying the many entertaining stories Linehan brings to life.

The Irish by State

Irish Boston: A Lively Look at Boston’s Colorful Irish Past, by Michael P. Quinlin (Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 2004). This engagingly written history-cum-guidebook covers the heroism and romance, politics and brawls, and tells the story of the Irish in Boston over the past three centuries. From the days of “No Irish Need Apply” in the 1850s to the inauguration in 1960 of the first Irish Catholic president, the Boston Irish have molded the history of the city in all areas of culture and society. Included in this book are dozens of Irish-related historic and cultural sites, such as the Irish Famine Memoiral, the Irish Cultural Centre, the JFK library, and the pub where Seamus Heaney and his buddies frequently enjoyed a pint. There’s also a directory of Irish gift shops, annual events, genealogical resources, Irish organizations, and Irish-related academic courses.

The Irish, by William W. Giffin (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2006). Although the title doesn’t say so, this is a book about the Irish in Indiana. Irish first settled in the state in the 1700s, and in the next century, many Irish immigrants arrived. They built Indiana’s early canals, roads, and railroads. This well-written and well-documented monograph covers the Irish presence in Indiana from the 1700s to the 2000s. As you would expect from a book such as this, the author discusses where the Irish tended to settle and cluster, what types of work attracted them, when Irish organizations began, and the overall contributions of Irish to the state.

The Irish in Minnesota, by Ann Regan (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 2002). Irish immigrants to Minnesota built some of the country’s most successful farming communities. Although they were outnumbered by German immigrants in St. Paul, many Minnesotans today still think of that city as an Irish town. They worked as farmers and laborers, policemen and politicians, maids and seamstresses. Following a similar basic formula as The Irish [in Indiana], Regan discusses early settlements across the state, clusters of Irish in the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and how the Irish maintained their community and identity. It, too, is a well-documented study, but offers more illustrations than The Irish.

The Irish in New Jersey: Four Centuries of American Life, by Dermot Quinn (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004). The Irish began settling in New Jersey in the seventeenth century, making a sizable impact on that state’s history as well. In this thought-provoking history, Dermot Quinn uses a treasury of photographs and newspaper clippings to tell the story of how the Irish in New Jersey maintained their cultural roots while making a significant contribution to the social, economic, political, and religious landscapes. He also employs diary entries, biographical sketches, census enumerations, and scholarly sources to capture the chronicles of conflict-torn and famine-striken immigrants. Using case histories, Quinn examines how the Irish transitioned from a rejected minority to a middle-class, suburban identity.