Twists Of Fate: The Stories Behind Irish Battles And Sieges

John McCormack

Mentor

978-1-84210-244-2

€14.95

In Irish history, the outcome of major events was often completely altered by minor incidents.

• Why did Oliver Cromwell’s discovery of a silver bullet seal Clonmel’s fate in 1650?
  
• How did Brian Boru lose all in the midst of his greatest triumph?

. . . and many more strange events and coincidences which changed the course of Irish history.

I think this is a very undersold book. I found it fascinating when I picked it up from the wonderful RavenBooks second hand. The contents, while on occasion treating the reader as if they lacked any knowledge at all (which seemed odd given that it is effectively military history rather than trivia and by dint of that a more specialised topic in which the read is likely to have knowledge), actually does a good job of placing the battles in content if not giving the detailed battle outlines one might have expected.

Nonetheless a good addition to the topic and a book that will keep a place on my shelf for some time.