The Bells Of Trummery & Beyond: 350 Years Of An Irish Quaker Family
Social History Cultural History Biography Young Adult Non-Fiction Family History Irish History Quaker Studies Genealogy Reference
The Bells of Trummery & Beyond: 350 Years of an Irish Quaker Family is the kind of richly-detailed, generation-spanning biography that family-history lovers and Irish-culture readers hunt for. In 304 illustrated pages, Bill Jackson traces one Quaker line from 1660s Ulster to the global twenty-first century, showing how the Bell clan helped shape Irish education, industry and cuisine while quietly surviving rebellion, famine and emigration. Because the book is rooted in Quaker meeting minutes, estate papers and handed-down recipes, it doubles as a reference guide for genealogists and a social history of Ireland itself.
What makes this 2017 paperback especially appealing is its blend of intimate storytelling and scholarly depth. Jackson—former head of BBC Northern Ireland—writes with the pacing of a novelist, yet every chapter is foot-noted and cross-referenced for researchers. Vintage photographs, hand-drawn maps and facsimile documents appear every few pages, letting readers see the original Trummery farmstead, nineteenth-century flax mills and even the family’s signature nettle-and-potato soup recipe. Young adults discovering their Irish roots and seasoned historians alike value the way the book links local events to wider historical currents, from the Penal Laws to the Good Friday Agreement.
Collectors prize clean copies like this one: tight binding, no dog-eared leaves, only light shelf wear and a single ownership inscription on the front endpaper—no highlighting or undermining to distract from the illustrations. Because the title was printed in a modest regional press run and never reprinted, first-edition paperbacks in this condition are already scarce online. For anyone building an Irish studies shelf, Quaker reference library or cultural-history gift box, The Bells of Trummery & Beyond offers both a captivating weekend read and a lifelong sourcebook.
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