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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The End of the Beginning (God Is an Astronaut album)

album by God Is an Astronaut

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ1936324 ↗
Source-derived summary

The End of the Beginning is the first studio album by Irish post-rock band God Is an Astronaut. The album was released on 1 November 2002.

Its name is most likely from a famous quote by British war-leader and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in a speech about the Second Battle of El Alamein: "Now this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

"Fall from the Stars" was used during TV3's coverage of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

The album was digitally remastered and re-released in 2011.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The End of the Beginning (God Is an Astronaut album)” as album by God Is an Astronaut. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2002, 2007, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2002. The account is most persuasive where Beginning, Astronaut and album can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as album by God Is an Astronaut. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1936324. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002, 2007 and 2011.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The End of the Beginning (God Is an Astronaut album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The End of the Beginning (God Is an Astronaut album) primary sources, The End of the Beginning (God Is an Astronaut album) archive and Beginning research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The End of the Beginning (God Is an Astronaut album)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The End of the Beginning (God Is an Astronaut album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.