The Derry News book review column

August 2025 saw the publication of a new edition of A Short History of Ulster, by Jonathan Bardon.

This abundantly illustrated and accessible volume is a shortened version of Bardon’s original and celebrated work, A History of Ulster, first published in 1992, with a further edition issued in 2001.

New edition of A Short History of Ulster, by Jonathan Bardon.

The book was soon acknowledged to be a most significant achievement, which succeeded outstandingly in its objective of presenting an overview of 9000 years of the history of Ulster, of the nine counties rather than the relatively recent and contested political construct of the six counties of Northern Ireland, from prehistoric times until the end of the twentieth century.

While the 2001 and the 2025 editions contain no new material beyond the original text, each is introduced by a preface which presents an update about recent developments in the north of Ireland, comprehensive and even-handed accounts of the struggle to achieve a political settlement to the bitter conflict known as The Troubles; and each preface concludes by expressing cautious and tentative hopes for peace, despite the climate of instability.

Some readers might reflect on the quarter century since the Anglo-Irish Agreement and devolved government in Northern Ireland, with frequent impasses and ongoing mistrust, and conclude that it is time for a reform of the present political arrangements on the grounds that they are no longer fit for purpose and that another stage in our history beckons.

Bardon explains usefully at the beginning of the book that the territory of Ulster was difficult to access because its borders were marked and obstructed by natural obstacles- drumlins or small hills - dating from the end of the Ice Age, and argues that this relative isolation contributed to the province’s being viewed as a place of ‘savage, ungoverned people’, a difficult and rebellious territory, hard to subdue and to rule.

The periods and topics covered range from Ulster in the Stone and Bronze Age (7000 BC), the coming of Christianity, the incursions of the Vikings and the Norman Invasion, the Tudor conquest and the Plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century, the Battle of the Boyne and after, the rise of the linen industry, the United Irishmen rising, the Famine, the campaign for Home Rule, partition, ‘The Troubles’, the political developments leading to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

Each section provides a meticulously researched and valuable chronicle of the important events presented with appropriate contemporary commentary and quotations and illustrations.

Bardon displays commendable impartiality as he sets out the complex history of the province of Ulster, where conflict and division between the native Irish inhabitants and the armies of the English invaders, and then, from the seventeenth century onwards, between Catholic Irish residents and Protestant settlers in a bitter struggle for land and livelihood, resulted in sustained periods of violence and often massacres.

The conscientious and scholarly research, the very readable style of the book, the impartiality and the admirably comprehensive range of the volume combine to make A Short History of Ulster a very valuable resource and reference work for anyone interested in our shared history.

It is an excellent starting point for further study and investigation of the many periods covered in the text, and will be a most welcome addition to the library or bookshelf of the general reader, the student of history, the politician, or indeed anyone eager to understand the background to our current situation.

A Short History of Ulster by Jonathan Bardon is published by Gill Books and costs £18.55.