For the first thousand years of its history, Ireland was shaped by its wars. Beginning with the legends of ancient battles and warriors, Wars of the Irish Kings moves through a time when history and storytelling were equally prized, into the age when history was as much propaganda as fact. This remarkable book tells of tribal battles, foreign invasions, Viking raids, family feuds, wars between rival Irish kingdoms, and wars of rebellion against the English. While the battles formed the legends of the land, it was the people fighting the battles—Cuchulain, Finn MacCool, Brian Boru, Robert the Bruce, Elizabeth I, and Hugh O’Donnell—who shaped the destiny and identity of the Irish nation.

This is the real story of how Ireland came to be, told through eyewitness accounts from a thousand years of struggle, brought together for the first time in one volume. It’s a surprisingly immediate and stunning portrait of an all-but-forgotten time that forged the Ireland of today.

This remarkable book assembles all that is known or can be deduced about the most shadowy period of British history since the Roman occupation and about its legendary hero.

Leslie Alcock is the archaeologist who directed the famous excavation at Cadbury Castle in Somerset, originally identified with Camelot by Leland. Drawing evidence from both written and archaeological sources, Professor Alcock sifts history from myth to construct a convincing picture of life between the fourth and seventh centuries, when Celtic Britain was abandoned by the legions to the Picts, Scots and Anglo-Saxons.

This volume presents a detailed examination of the resource implications of building a large fortress, focusing on evidence from the unique site of Inchtuthil, Scotland, which was constructed and demolished within a period of only three years (AD 83-86). Elizabeth Shirley creates a methodology for determining the quantities of material and labour input required and the factors which affected construction. She then assesses additional structural aspects: roof-framing, roof coverings, walkways, flooring, lighting and ventilation and internal finishes. The majority of the study calculates quantities of materials, working methods and rates and labour requirements for work on and off the construction site. This includes large amounts of detailed information about a wide variety of structures within a Roman fort. The results are contrasted with other sites, including Strageath and Fendoch. Shirley argues that a study of the practicalities of constructing such a large-scale military building provides valuable information about the military advance into Scotland, the everyday life of Roman legionaries and their organisational and practical skills.

Raybould aims to test the hypothesis that literacy was largely an accomplishment of an educated, literate, social elite in Roman Britain, by examining surviving inscriptions from the area of religion, working and domestic life, and funerary customs. Secondly, she investigates the nature (content and style) of this small sample of surviving written material for clues on who produced it. Includes catalogue.