A Popular History of Ireland

By: Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Narrated by: Joseph Sepe

Length: 30 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A Popular History of Ireland, a detailed yet comprehensive look at Ireland’s Christian history, was written by Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a Canadian-Irish politician, journalist, and poet, whose private and professional life was as eventful and perilous as many of eras chronicled in this book. Being involved heavily in various Irish Catholic movements, the Irish Confederation, and the Young Irelander Rebellion throughout the mid-19th century, McGee’s insight into Ireland’s past is fascinating.

Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks

Annoying and Difficult to Parse

The text itself is interesting and there is a lot to learn from it, but two major problems interfere with my acceptance of what should ostensibly be a historical text. The first is the text itself, which is written with an obvious bias in favor of Christianity, constantly espousing Christian values as "obviously" better than the pagan or druidic values they replaced. This bias should not be present in a historical text, which should present the facts of history objectively.

Bias aside, the text does contain a wealth of presumably historical information. A reader who understands the inherent bias of the text, and associated untrustworthiness of the author's expressed opinions, along with the potential for facts to have been glossed over in an effort to reinforce those opinions, can still find much to learn of the history of Ireland.

However, the second problem is the narrator, who seems not to understand many of the things he's reading even as he reads them, with awkward mid-sentence pauses and awful mispronunciations. How can a listener trust that the plethora of Irish names and place names throughout the text are pronounced correctly when the narrator cannot even pronounce English language words such as apropos, vassal, and annals (which is constantly read as anals)? Combine this with a dry reading void of any passion or excitement for the subject matter, that seems to struggle onward with the only goal being to read one word after the next until the end is reached, and we're left with a narration that makes it very difficult to actually internalize what's being read.

While I have learned some things from this audiobook, I know that most facts, even interesting ones, contained within the text are presented so poorly as to escape my notice, even with a deliberate effort of concentration. Be warned.