Irish Emigrant Book Review, No.58 (May 2000)

Grace Gifford Plunkett and Irish Freedom by Marie O’Neill
- Many of us are familiar with the story of Grace Gifford, who married Irish Republican Joseph Mary Plunkett in Kilmainham Gaol on the night before he was executed for his part in the Easter Rising of 1916. Few of us, I suspect, are also aware that Grace Gifford was an accomplished artist and cartoonist who lived by those talents during her long years of widowhood. This is just one facet of her life outlined by the author in a biography which reveals a strong and determined character for whom life was seldom easy.
Grace Gifford was one of a large family whose parents were of different religions, so that while she and her sisters were raised as Protestants, their brothers were raised in their father’s Catholic religion. Grace, however, began to take an interest in the Catholic faith and it was this interest which led to her deepening relationship with Joseph Plunkett, whom she had first met at St Enda’s School, the establishment founded by Padraig Pearse to give boys an Irish education. Joseph Plunkett, the son of a papal count, suffered from tuberculosis and was already in poor health when he and Grace met, and had spent extensive periods abroad. At home again, he came under the influence of Pearse’s colleague, Thomas MacDonagh, who was to marry another Gifford sister, and Joseph’s enthusiasm for a rebellion was fostered by his teacher.
Ms O’Neill has provided copious references to support the wealth of detail to be found in this biography, and the description of the wedding of Joseph and Grace on May 3, 1916 is given in Grace’s own words, from a manuscript in the National Library. The marriage was not popular with either family, though Grace did live with the Plunketts for a short time after the Rising. It is at this time that the author places the miscarriage said to have been suffered by Grace, quoting her source as papers of Geraldine Dillon, Joseph’s sister, which are in the manuscripts department of the National Library. Grace Gifford’s life during the War of Independence, the Civil War and the establishment of the new state was filled with family and friends and financial worries. She never remarried and chose to live alone and, though she had a number of close and concerned friends, she died alone in 1955. She was buried with full military honours in the Plunkett family grave in Glasnevin. Thus a rather shadowy figure has been brought into the limelight, and Ms O’Neill’s work is enhanced by the inclusion of some of the artistic works of the lady who came to be known as “The tragic bride of 1916”.

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Vicars of Christ by Peter De Rosa
- The second of Peter de Rosa’s books to be reissued, this one after twelve years, is subtitled “The Dark Side of the Papacy” and it seems the author had no lack of material from which to choose. Those chosen as pontiff seem very early on to have lost sight of many of the beliefs of The One whom they are supposed to represent on this earth. The book is a chronicle of avarice, cruelty, corruption, both sexual and financial, with only a few exceptions in a litany of less than perfect popes. Some, such as Sixtus VI who sanctioned the Inquisition established by Gregory IX some two centuries earlier, had a number of “nephews” and introduced the selling of indulgences to release the dead as well as the living from Purgatory, was described as having “waded mitre-deep in crime and bloodshed”. The crusades, the persecution of the Jews, the witch hunts, the lust for power and the accumulation of wealth are all dealt with at length, and in the entire pontifical cavalcade there appears to be only one hero, Pope John XXIII. For much of this book dwells on the problems experienced by Catholics during the latter half of the 20th century and de Rosa believes that the only ray of light to offer itself was the election of Angelo Roncalli and his calling of the Second Vatican Council. He believes John XXIII to be “the least bigoted and the most truly catholic pope in history” who did what few other popes have done, he listened to what people had to say. That much of the promise of the Council was never realised is expressed simply by the author, “He died too soon”. / The controversial questions of contraception, abortion and divorce are dealt with at length, as is the subject of enforced clerical celibacy which, in de Rosa’s opinion, denies the fundamental right of every man to marry and has caused many of the major scandals of the church down through the centuries. He also expresses the belief that we will see little or no change during the lifetime of the present pope who, although he is received everywhere with love and affection, is not listened to simply because he does not seem to be listening. Many long-held beliefs have been called into question by Peter de Rosa’s investigation into papal behaviour, in which he, as Devil’s Advocate, has pointed out the worst excesses of the Church while continuing to hope that the papacy and the Church can learn from past mistakes to reach a new and ecumenical understanding with all the other branches of the Christian community.

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A Very Private Affair by Dee Cunningham
- For her debut novel Ms Cunningham has chosen to explore the dangers surrounding the reunion with his birth mother of a young man who was adopted as a baby. Married himself now and with a child of his own, Mick Cleary decides to try to find his own mother. The success of his search, and his meeting with Margaret, prompt a sequence of events which leave a trail of unhappiness affecting all his relationships. His wife, Fran, cannot understand his obsession with his mother, his adoptive parents are hurt that he is apparently rejecting all the years of love and attention they have given him, and Margaret’s husband and daughter feel threatened by the new and unexpected addition to the family. These all represent a natural reaction to such an event, but the author’s imagination has taken a quantum leap to lead us to an extraordinary situation in which the lines between son, mother and lover become blurred. In a scenario which at times seems hardly credible, Mick’s obsession with Margaret becomes much more than a desire to find his own identity, while Margaret herself is drawn unwillingly into a situation which is totally alien to her beliefs. / The scene is set for an interesting development as we wait to find out how the pair will extricate themselves from the predicament in which they have become embroiled and pick up the threads of their lives. Until this point Ms Cunningham’s well-written novel holds the attention, but she seems to have faltered at the final hurdle. Without revealing the ending, I will just say that the author has chosen the “happy ever after” path despite a trail of broken relationships and deeply hurt people, leaving this reader with a sense of a lost opportunity.

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Northern Protestants, an Unsettled People by Susan McKay
- The impression that there are as many Protestant views as there are Protestants is not totally accurate, though reading Susan McKay’s series of interviews one would be forgiven for thinking so. Ms McKay has recorded conversations with Protestant members of the North’s community from a number of different areas, including the middle class enclave of north Co. Down, Portadown and Drumcree, north Belfast and Derry city. It was first necessary for the author to establish her own credentials as coming from a Protestant background, before suspicion was overcome and people expressed their true opinions. In North Down the interviewer was told by one housewife, “On the whole, people we know don’t talk politics because they know you can’t change people anyway”, and this was confirmed by another women who claimed, “Politics is not talked about among the women in the coffee-morning circuit”. In Rathcoole in North Belfast, on the other hand, Billy Mitchell was early in life inculcated with the belief that the Protestant culture was under siege, though, he says, “We knew what we were against, but we didn’t know what we were for”. There seems to be a general feeling among the Protestant community that Catholics were given far more by way of grants, that they had formed themselves into a cohesive community in a way that the Protestants seemed unable to achieve, and it is suggested that this failure may be due in part to the Protestant work ethic which frowns on hand-outs. / The deaths of the three Quinn brothers in Carnany has had a deep effect on those living in Ballymoney, but still there is a denial that the deaths had a sectarian basis. The estate was a mixed one and there was a strong belief that there was a degree of tolerance for diversity. However it is an indication of the way in which those who think they are tolerated can suffer. Ms McKay has opened her book with the murders of two young Catholics, Bernadette Martin and James Morgan, who both got on well with their Protestant neighbours and were killed simply because they were from “the other side”. It becomes apparent however that, as she herself says in the introduction, these are not typical events. Rather they are the inevitable outcome of the worst excesses of Protestant hatred and bigotry. The diverse views expressed in “Northern Protestants” include those of Derryman Ivan Cooper, a Protestant who firmly supports John Hume and has voted SDLP, to those of a loyalist women in the Waterside in Derry who stated categorically that there had been no murders on Bloody Sunday, that the bodies, those of IRA men who had previously been shot, had been taken from the morgue. What comes across, however, is that for the majority of Protestants living in the North the violence perpetrated by “staunch” Protestants is totally alien.

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Far from Over by Sheila O’Flanagan
- Ms Flanagan’s decision to leave her full time job in financial services appears to have been well justified, with the publication of her latest book. Set in Dublin, “Far From Over” examines the intricacies of two marriages, with David Garvey taking the role of husband in each. He and Gemma have divorced and he has married Orla, a much younger woman whom his former wife describes to herself as “that flame-haired bimbo bitch”. Although Gemma was the one who initiated the divorce she is affected against her will by David’s remarriage, as are their two children, Keelin and Ronan. The art in this novel is contained in depicting the shifting relationships of all those immediately involved, the recalling of past days and past passions, the efforts to adjust to a constantly changing situation. What emerges is a strength on the part of the women which far surpasses anything shown by David or by the two other men who impinge on the situation, Jonathan and Sam. It is the women, Gemma and Orla, who show the decisiveness lacking in David and to a lesser extent in the other two, and even Keelin shows a degree of maturity beyond her teenage years when her father looks to her for support. Although the subject matter is not out of the ordinary, it is Msv Flanagan’s treatment of it which lifts this book from the commonplace and makes it so enjoyable. Well and convincingly written, the title “Far From Over” could just as aptly be applied to the author’s writing career.

Crosscurrents and Confluences by Eamon Maher
- In this examination of the spiritual element in the works of French and Irish writers of the 20th century, the author has looked at five writers from each tradition. He emphasises the French influence on a number of Irish writers, notably Brian Moore, an admirer of Francois Mauriac, as was John Broderick. Among French works evaluated, Georges Bernanos’ “Diary of a Country Priest” is selected for its achievement in depicting the gift of grace, while Maher draws a parallel between the settings of Mauriac’s novels, in dwindling rural communities, and similar locations in Ireland today. Francois Mauriac also draws characters with strong Catholic convictions who are nonetheless not averse to acquiring money or land by less than honest means. Irish writers include John McGahern, whose “Amongst Women” is saturated with traditional religious values and religion is used as a means of retaining family control. Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes” illustrates the perceived indifference of the Church to the poor in the Limerick of his childhood. This is a thought-provoking study of two separate but not dissimilar cultures and also serves as an introduction to the works of possibly unfamiliar writers.

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Scotland’s Shame? ed. T.M. Devine
- Arising from a keynote address at the Edinburgh International Festival given by composer and Visiting Professor of Education at Strathclyde University, James MacMillan, this series of reflections looks at a subject which many might have felt belonged firmly to the past. In his speech MacMillan stated that anti-Catholicism in Scotland “even when it is not particularly malign, is as endemic as it is second nature”, and expressed the view that the Catholic experience had much to offer beyond the confines of the religious grouping. Among the 21 contributors are those for and against Professor MacMillan’s contention, including Graham Walker of the Politics Department in Queen’s University, Belfast who suggests that not all sectarian behaviour in Scotland has a basis in malice; Edinburgh University sociologists Michael Rose and David McCrone argue that sociological surveys undertaken in the 1990s have shown that Catholics have been largely assimilated into Scottish society and no longer feel alienated. The last word goes to Professor MacMillan who has welcomed the debate arising from his lecture and has reiterated his belief that the differing views expressed lead him to the conclusion that “...things may not be as clear-cut as I had previously thought. I had not thought about it like that before”.

Ireland and the Second World War by Brian Girvin and Geoffrey Roberts
- A recent upsurge in interest in the Irish contribution to Britain’s wars in the last century has seen the publication of a number of books on the subject, and this latest is the result of a UCC research programme entitled the Volunteers Project. A number of contributors give their perspective on the political, social and economic factors which led to many thousands of Irishmen and women either joining the British forces or travelling to Britain to work during the war years. Those who volunteered to join in the fighting seem to have been motivated by family tradition, poverty or the desire for adventure, while those who joined the war effort in industrial Britain were usually unemployed at home but also felt they could return if things didn’t turn out well for them. The chapter dealing with censorship, by Donal O Drisceoil, is particularly interesting, and includes the wonderfully inventive ways in which Irish Times editor Robert Smylie circumvented the stringent laws. His final act of defiance was to print photographs of seven allied leaders in a large V-formation, on the day after hostilities ceased.

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Receiving Erin’s Children by J. Matthew Gallman
- This book looks at the effect on two cities of famine migrants from Ireland in the 19th century. Both Philadelphia and Liverpool were host to a major influx of Irish people fleeing hunger in their own country, and the author has set out to explore how the two cities, similar in many ways, coped with the new arrivals. Gallman, Professor of History at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, addresses the subject from a number of different viewpoints, including the way in which each city dealt with the increase in beggars, the impact on local health services of epidemics exacerbated by the increased population, and the problems posed for the police forces by an increase in violence, particularly in Philadelphia. In choosing the comparative format for his study, the author has increased our knowledge and understanding of the differing national characteristics of the US and Britain.

The Irish aboard the Titanic by Senan Molony
- Senan Molony’s book is the perfect antidote to the glittering romantic view of the sinking of the Titanic as depicted in the recent film. Here we are introduced to the Irish on board the vessel, only three of whom travelled first class and seven were in second. The remainder travelled steerage. The author’s introduction evaluates the “stiff upper lip” mentality of the British at the time and the concomitant view of other races as somehow inferior. He rather loses me in his questioning whether the confinement by the crew of the steerage class below decks was premeditated murder or simply a measure taken to ensure efficiency but it does seem, as he asserts, that the familiar cry on this occasion might well have been “First class women and children first”. The major and most interesting part of this work is taken up with details of the Irish who travelled on the Titanic, using letters and contemporary newspaper reports to enliven the basic statistics of name, ticket number, place of birth and the designation beside each, “Lost” or “Saved”. An example is the story of 16-year-old Katie Gilnagh from Co. Longford (and a sizeable number of those on board the Titanic were from the same county), who managed to gain the last place in a lifeboat by claiming that her sister was already on board. Not only do we hear of her survival from her own description and that of others who encountered her, her later life is also well chronicled until her death in 1971. “The Irish Aboard Titanic” beautifully evokes the atmosphere of the early years of the 20th century and the many reasons why Irish people boarded the “unsinkable” ship.

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Catherine Mcauley and the Tradition of Mercy by Mary C. Sullivan
- Another volume looking at the life of a person through her own writings and what others wrote about her is represented in this work on the founder of the Sisters of Mercy. Opening with a brief chronology of the life of Catherine McAuley, the book then quotes extensively from letters exchanged between those members of her order who had known her personally from the order’s foundation in Dublin’s Baggot Street, those whom she referred to as her “first-born”. The fact that these women took time out of their busy lives, and for many years after her death, to record their memories of their Foundress, is seen by the author as testament to her extreme holiness. Catherine McCauley’s own manuscript, setting out the rules of the new order, is also examined in some detail. The Rules and Constitution were based on those of the Presentation Sisters, drawn up by Nano Nagle in 1775, and here the author uses two copies, the Dundee manuscript and the copy dated May 3, 1835, which is kept in the archives of the Bermondsey convent. Again we are given a chronology prior to the more detailed examination of the text and a reprinting of the founder’s own complete text which had been revised by Archbishop Daniel Murray of Dublin. This is an exhaustive study of one of the major figures in Irish religious life by a member of the order she founded.

The Mournes by Paddy Dillon
- This collection of walks in the Mourne mountains is an extremely practical book giving precise details of each route, any places to be avoided, and the best means of public transport to be used in conjunction with each. At the same time Mr Dillon includes interesting historical features of each area, so that on the shortest (five-mile) walk along the Mourne Coastal Path we are given details of the Presbyterian massacre at Bloody Bridge in 1641. The most testing route, the Mourne Wall Walk, covers 20 miles following the massive structure built in the early years of the last century as part of the water catchment scheme. The book is generously illustrated with maps and line drawings of local flora and fauna and will be an invaluable aid to anyone embarking on the walking trail in this area of the country.

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Celtic Decorative Art by Deborah O’Brien
- In addition to being beautifully illustrated, this book gives practical guidelines for the creation of art in the Celtic tradition. Deborah O’Brien outlines the history of the genre with accompanying photographs of some of the better-known examples such as the Broighter Collar and the Oseberg ship in Norway. This is followed by an examination of the different subjects associated with Celtic art, from the oak to the rowan, from the salmon to the swan. An easy to follow example of the use of each is shown in outline and in colour, while a final section offers suggestion of ways in which these designs might be used in the home. Ms O’Brien’s book will prove invaluable to anyone wishing to incorporate Celtic art into their own lives and homes.

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