The Princes of Ireland - The Dublin Saga
The Princes of Ireland
by
Edward Rutherfurd is an epic story of love and battle,
family life and political intrigue in Ireland over the course of eleven centuries.
The Princes of Ireland weaves impeccable historical research and mesmerizing
storytelling in capturing the essence of a place and its people.
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 echo the ancient Celtic legend of Cuchulainn.
From that stirring beginning, Rutherfurd takes the reader 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 Dublin, its greatest city.
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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; the trickery of Henry II, which gave
England its first foothold in Medieval Ireland. The stage is then set for th
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.
The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga
was also published as
Dublin: Foundation.
The Rebels of Ireland - The Dublin Saga
The Princes of Ireland - The Dublin Saga is the first of two books, the
second part of the story is told in
The Rebels of Ireland - The Dublin Saga
published in February 2006.
This second volume of The Dublin Saga begins after the Irish defeat at the
Battle of the Boyne
in 1690 and continues through the period of French aggression, the disastrous potato famine,
and massive migration to the United States, and the golden age of contemporary Irish literature.
Fictional families tell the story of this eventful period in Irish history in this lengthy and
memorable work of historical fiction.
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The Rebels of Ireland opens with an Ireland transformed; plantation, the final step in the
centuries-long English conquest of Ireland, is the order of the day, and the subjugation
of the native Irish Catholic population has begun in earnest.
Edward Rutherfurd brings history to life through the tales of families whose fates rise
and fall in each generation: Brothers who must choose between fidelity to their ancient
faith or the security of their families; a wife whose passion for a charismatic Irish
chieftain threatens her comfortable marriage to a prosperous merchant; a young scholar
whose secret rebel sympathies are put to the test; men who risk their lives and their
children's fortunes in the tragic pursuit of freedom, and those determined to root them
out forever. Rutherfurd spins the saga of Ireland's 400-year path to independence in all
its drama, tragedy, and glory through the stories of people from all strata of society
- Protestant and Catholic, rich and poor, conniving and heroic.
His richly detailed narrative brings to life watershed moments and events, from the time
of plantation settlements to the "Flight of the Earls," when the native aristocracy fled
the island, to Cromwell's suppression of the population and the imposition of the harsh
anti-Catholic penal laws. He describes the hardships of ordinary people and the romantic,
doomed attempt to overthrow the Protestant oppressors, which ended in defeat at the
Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and the departure of the "Wild Geese." In vivid tones
Rutherfurd re-creates Grattan's Parliament, Wolfe Tone's attempted French invasion
of 1798, the tragic rising of Robert Emmet, the Catholic campaign of Daniel O'Connell,
the catastrophic famine, the mass migration to America, and the glorious Irish Renaissance
of Yeats and Joyce. And through the eyes of his characters, he captures the rise of Charles
Stewart Parnell and the great Irish nationalists and the birth of an Ireland free of all ties to England.
Boyne Valley Private Day Tour

Immerse yourself in the rich heritage and culture of the Boyne Valley with our full-day private tours.
Visit Newgrange World Heritage site, explore the Hill of Slane, where Saint Patrick famously lit the Paschal fire.
Discover the Hill of Tara, the ancient seat of power for the High Kings of Ireland.
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