History is measured in numbered years, "seanchas", insofar as it is measured at all, in generalised periods and by the marks left by ploughshares. This local history of Gweedore, in the Donegal Gaeltacht, combines the two. The result is somewhat amorphous and owes little to the concept of linear time. The strength of the book lies in its perspective - that of the local schoolteacher - and in the naming of individuals, many of whom lived and died in the 19th century. The book pays close attention to the schools and churches of the Protestant and Catholic communities and some of the old photographs are both charming and instructive. The naming of almost one third of the people, old and young, in a photograph from the Lawrence Collection, "Gweedore Natives", accomplishes a small but important act of repossession.