Irish-America has been described as a Diaspora without real connections to the mother country. 99% of Americans who claim Irish heritage only know this because of oral tradition. Some say this is enough but others, in increasing numbers, are possessed with a quest for historical knowledge of their families and the events that caused them to emigrate. And they're finding out that Irish history has not been what they've been led to believe. In the process they are discovering they are more Irish than they knew.
A loosening of Anglo and official interpretation bonds has been accomplished with the emergence of the once-forbidden written and spoken word of Irish nationalist leaders such as Gerry Adams. This emergence has unleashed a passion for knowledge and awareness. The Irish rising of 1798 is no exception.
Long neglected by the nation of Ireland herself, it has been Irish America that has shed proper light on the incredibly violent events and subsequent inhuman treatment of the vanquished by the victors. With the incredible rise of interest in the event, a book has re-emerged that sheds first-hand knowledge of both events and attitudes of the period.
Last published in 1802, Steven W. Myers & Delores E. McKnight have edited the memoirs of Sir Richard Musgrave, a loyalist . It is resplendent with vivid eyewitness accounts, lists of massacre victims and rebel and loyalist participants. /they have included a new index with 10,600 references to people and places, especially for the south Leinster area of Wexford, Wicklow, Carlow, Kildare and Dublin, for the east Ulster area of Armagh, Antrim and Down, and for the Mayo region.
A historical treatise, the scholarship of the editors lays out the background of the political/moral/social interworkings of the time.
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