In Search of the Lost Shamrock: The Duggan / O’Dubhagain Family of Ireland
Social History Reference Young Adult Non-Fiction Cultural Studies Genealogy & Family History Irish History Memoir & Biography
In Search of the Lost Shamrock: The Duggan / O’Dubhagain Family of Ireland is a heavily-illustrated 2010 paperback that blends family memoir with a sweeping social history of Ireland. Vaughan Duggan traces his O’Dubhagain roots from medieval chieftains and bardic scholars through the Cromwellian upheavals, the Great Famine, and modern emigration, showing how one clan’s DNA weaves through the island’s larger story. Along the way he explains how the “lost shamrock” of the title—an heirloom carried by successive generations—became a silent witness to 800 years of Irish resilience.
Collectors value the book because it is more than a genealogy; it is a pocket archive of everyday Irish life. Pages reproduce hand-drawn maps of townlands no longer on modern charts, Victorian-era recipe cards for colcannon and soda bread, and parish-census data that never made it online. Duggan’s chatty, young-adult-friendly prose keeps the pace brisk while still supplying the footnotes and source lists scholars expect. The result is a reference work that doubles as a highly readable true story, perfect for history buffs, educators, and anyone researching Irish surnames.
This copy is in very-good condition: no inscriptions, no dog-eared pages, and a tight, square binding that will hold up to repeated library loans or classroom use. Because the first printing was small and most copies went to Irish cultural centers, clean copies seldom surface on the secondary market. Snagging one now means owning a concise, image-rich education in Irish cultural history and a template for tracing your own Gaelic surname—all in a single, affordable paperback.
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