Princes of Ireland

The Dublin Saga

By: Edward Rutherfurd

Narrated by: Richard Matthews

Length: 26 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The saga begins in tribal, pre-Christian Ireland during the reign of the fierce and mighty High Kings at Tara, with the tale of two lovers, the princely Conall and the ravishing Deirdre, whose travails cleverly echo the ancient Celtic legend of Cuchulainn. From that stirring beginning, Rutherfurd takes the listener on a powerfully imagined journey through the centuries. Through the interlocking stories of a memorable cast of characters (druids and chieftains, monks and smugglers, noblewomen and farmwives, merchants and mercenaries, rebels and cowards) we see Ireland through the lens of its greatest city.

While vividly and movingly conveying the passions and struggles that shaped the character of Dublin, Rutherfurd portrays the major events in Irish history: The tribal culture of pagan Ireland; the mission of St. Patrick; the coming of the Vikings and the founding of Dublin; the glories of the great nearby monastery of Glendalough and the making of treasures like the Book of Kells; the extraordinary career of Brian Boru; and the trickery of Henry II, which gave England its first foothold in Medieval Ireland. The stage is then set for the great conflict between the English kings and the princes of Ireland, and the disastrous Irish invasion of England, which incurred the wrath of Henry VIII and where this book, the first of the two-part Dublin Saga, draws to a close, as the path of Irish history takes a dramatic and irrevocable turn.

Rich, colorful, and impeccably researched, The Princes of Ireland is epic entertainment spun by a master.

©2004 Edward Rutherfurd (P)2004 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"A tour de force....Breathtaking." (Orlando Sentinel)

"Rutherfurd literally personifies history." (New York Daily News)

"A richly imagined vision of history, written with genuine delight." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Ireland through the ages

Enjoyed very much. Matthews was a very good narrator. Would love to hear more about the history of Ireland

Good, but Missing some pages

The book was very well done just like other Rutherfurd novels. However, at the end of the very first section, we are left hanging at a key moment in the story. At first, I thought it was just the author who has done that before making the reader hang and find out what happened to those family members centuries later, but I happen to have a copy of the book, and when I went back and looked at it, they had left off 4-5 pages, which would tell you what had happened at the end of the first family story. Might consider going back and adding that in.

Princes of Ireland

This book could have been rated as 5 if it had not moved from generations so quickly. I had difficulty keeping up with the characters.

Perhaps if I were reading rather than listening, this would not have been an issue.

Wake me when it's over...

Where does Princes of Ireland rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I love learning about history through fiction, but the epic scope of this novel gives the reader short and shallow encounters with generations of characters. It is very well written and performed, but my personal taste leans towards detail and drama with a core group in a shorter time frame. I had a hard time paying attention and caring about the characters.

Have you listened to any of Richard Matthews’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

My experience reading Sarum was very much the same.

Informative, A bit dry at times, reader not Irish,

A good book for those interested in Irish history. As historical fiction goes, this book is richer in history than in story. I would have preferred an Irish reader to this Irish tale.

Don't miss this series

I love these historical series where you follow a couple of families through time. This is one of the best. I found every excuse I could to plug in and listen and absolutely whizzed through all three. The narrator is perfect.

I loved it!

Mixed with history, listening was a pleasure because the book came alive. it helped me understand more of the history of Ireland. It was a delightful listen and very exciting.

Excellent book, if a bit difficult to get used to

This was an excellent story and an engrossing look into how history might have experienced by the people who lived through it. It becomes especially interesting when it spreads out over a number of interconnected families rather than focusing only on a handful of people. This can be somewhat confusing at times as the narrative suddenly switches perspectives with no cue besides a sudden change in names or pronouns, but isn't bad. The timeline is rather difficult to keep up with without being able to flip back to a previous chapter to check how many years have passed, but again not bad.
The only complaint I would have (and a minor one at that) is that the Audible chapter divisions are really poor. The book's chapters are quite long, presumably too long to fit inside an Audible chapter, but there seems to be no effort made to find other decent places to divide the narrative. Each chapter is 45 minutes long and divides wherever that happens to fall, whether in dialogue, an important scene, or whatever else is going on. This makes it nearly impossible to find anything that has happened in the past besides relying on luck and is just very inconvenient. The book is very good, but the organization of the audio is a bit annoying.

Not what I expected but very well written.

I started looking for a book that would teach me some of Ireland's history. I realized I knew so much about England and Scotland but very little about Ireland. I wanted an entertaining book as well as one with historical facts included and this book seemed perfect. Unfortunately since I don't know much about Ireland I was completely lost when different towns and villages we're described and really I was lost most of the book trying to figure out who was related to who and which decedent came from where and I didn't get a history of Ireland liked I had hoped. The stories were still fascinating and I very much enjoyed this book. The decendents with green eyes made that part easier for me.

You better be a true history buff....

....and I'm not. I read New York and really loved it, despite the fact that history is generally not my thing. I was hoping for more of the same with this book. But this was way over my level of interest. I couldn't keep up with the politics and history; the only threads I could halfway follow was green eyes and red hair. Guess I'm taking Paris and London off my wish list.