Princes of Ireland

The Dublin Saga

By: Edward Rutherfurd

Narrated by: Richard Matthews

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 cleverly echo the ancient Celtic legend of Cuchulainn. From that stirring beginning, Rutherfurd takes the listener 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 its greatest city.

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; and the trickery of Henry II, which gave England its first foothold in Medieval Ireland. The stage is then set for the 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.

Rich, colorful, and impeccably researched, The Princes of Ireland is epic entertainment spun by a master.

©2004 Edward Rutherfurd (P)2004 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"A tour de force....Breathtaking." (Orlando Sentinel)

"Rutherfurd literally personifies history." (New York Daily News)

"A richly imagined vision of history, written with genuine delight." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Real life history interwoven into a novel.

Where does Princes of Ireland rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I love all of Mr. Rutherfurd's novels. The way he can weave real life history and blend w/ fictional characters ... characters you really come to love.
My all time favorite: "London" which is not unabridged nor in audible form.
If you like real history, yet told in a novel form, NOT textbook form, you'll really like Mr. Rutherfurd's novels. "Paris" is great too.

Hard to put down

LOVED the book - the author takes his basic cast of characters from the time of the druids and follows them through the centuries that follow. The influences brought by successive conquests/invasions are woven skillfully into the lineage, and specific traits repeat in generations to follow.

The narrator is equally accomplished - he carries the various voices extraordinarily well through the combination of inflection and accent.

Imagine an almost-60 woman shopping for groceries with headphones on, oblivious to the world. That was me, and while there were MANY quizzical looks, I just couldn't turn the story off. Heck, the teens do it all the time, why not me?

I'm already well into the sequel, and loving it also.

Great stuff!

For anyone that loves this genre of historical writing, this is a wonderful book ... actually, a series of books because the story continues in "The Rebels of Ireland." As does most historical fiction of this type, he follows a number of families down from pre-Christian to modern day Ireland, specifically, Dublin. The story is not so tightly tied to Dublin as is the author's "London" or "New York" was tied to those cities, but it is certainly centered in Dublin. I can find nothing to criticize in this wonderful book and am now in the middle of the second part of the saga. It's enthralling and you'll learn more than you imagine! Worth a second reading, too.

James O'Michener Tackles the Old Sod

This is basically a fun story about adventures in Ireland's history as seen through the thread of a single family that's been carried down from ancient times to the Reformation. In that way, I found it to be similar to Hawaii and The Source, by James Michener: a sprawling epic, with lots of interesting sub-stories. This is a bit above Michener, though. The author tracks Irish history pretty closely, which I liked. The narrator manages to keep lots of voices straight, which is tough in a work this long.

Its true - history does repeat its self

I read this book after having read and enjoyed Rutherfurd's New York book. New York seemed to have been fairly well researched and the characters interacted well with the history surrounding them to give you a feeling for life in that time. When I read Princes, I was surprised by the similarities in how characters develop, their conflicts (both internal and external) and accomplishments between the two books. There was interesting history in the book - the early sections revolving around the early kings of Ireland were probably the most engaging although perhaps not the best at using actual historical facts.

As others have written, story lines seem to have little continuity (other than a red headed girl) and end rather abruptly. Probably due to trying to cover too many years in one book. The best way to describe it for me was that the book lacked the richness and texture of actual events that a good historical fiction book has. After reading the afterword from Princes, it was clear that many of the events were liberally imagined.

neat.

it just ended so abruptly. i was not ready for it to be over! i wanted more!

Captivating

As always, Edward Rutherford doesn’t disappoint. His tales pull you into the history of a place, making every story relevant to current day listeners. As I am interested in genealogy, and this book goes into my ancestors and names families, I found it especially intriguing. Despite being a lengthy listen, I never got bored!

brilliant historical storytelling

the author has a genius for storytelling and in particular capturing the historical time period along with the human, political, cultural, archaeological and religious aspects.

One of Rutherfurd’s best!

Sarum will always hold a special place for me, as it was the first of Rutherfurd’s novels I read, and that was at least a decade ago. I have listened to all of his books on audible recently, and particularly fell in love with his epic New York. While I have enjoyed all of his novels, I think this one is on of his finest. It opened my eyes to the majesty and beauty of the land, its customs and peoples. The English sadly never understood its sister island and tried to govern it with a very heavy hand. I look forward to the next book in the Irish saga.
Finally, the narrator is absolutely amazing. I will look for more of Richard Matthew’s work in the future. I’m thankful that Rutherfurd’s work was enhanced by such a gifted story teller.

Irish Stew

Rutherfurd's particular genius lies in the wealth of historically accurate detail with which he festoons his stories. This is perhaps why I find Richard Matthews' reading so jarring. I'm sure he does his best with imitating an Irish accent, but it comes across false and annoying after a while. If you don't know what Dublin voices really sound like, you may not mind.

On the other hand, I have his recording of Bill Bryson's "Short History of Nearly Everything", and Matthews is superb.