Padraig Pearse and the Easter Rising 1916
Pádraig Pearse and the Easter Rising 1916 does not have an easy task. Its stated aim is not to be a history book, but to present one of ‘Ireland’s best known stories in a nutshell’. Given that it’s probably possible to fill whole libraries with books about Pádraig Pearse and about the Easter Rising more generally, there is lot to cram into a small space.
I laughed out loud reading the first page, and I don’t think I was meant to. However, to be fair to the book, it’s not likely that children of 6+ (the target audience) would find the way the material is presented all that strange. (For the record, what made me chortle was the stilted way that dialogue was used to put over information – probably a stylistic necessity in a book of just over 40 pages with lots of pictures.)
Much more importantly, the little book covers the ground with a light touch and does not shy away from topics that have not always been popular in Irish history – including the fact that many Irishmen were fighting with the British in France at the time of the Easter Rising and that many citizens of Dublin took the Rising as an opportunity to do a bit of looting. It is clear, and easy to read – and, of course, a timely little publication.
