Book review: Simplified History — The 1916 Rising

Joan O’Reilly

Simplified History, €5.50;

www.simplifiedhistory.com €5 (+€1.50/€3.00 p+p)

THERE have been numerous books about the Easter Rising to mark its centenary, but Joan O’Reilly’s Simplified History — The 1916 Rising is definitely the most concise and accessible, doing what it says on the tin in just 54 pages.

This is not only a perfect introduction for anybody wanting to know what led to the Rising, the events of Easter week, the main players and the aftermath, in a succinct but thorough fashion, it achieves this in a way that will appeal to adults as well as schoolchildren.

History graduate O’Reilly is passionate about the subject and equally passionate about making it interesting and appealing.

The first in her Simplified History books proves that while it’s easy to make something bigger and more complex, it takes greater skill and intelligence to make the complex simple.

This informative book should be a must for smart history teachers who want to engage their students, but it has much broader appeal too.

www.simplifiedhistory.com  for stockists