Irish Emigrant Book Review, No.65 (Dec 2000)

Jonathan Bardo
Carole Bellacera
Esler Crawford
Sean Duffy
Darach MacDonald
Brian Mackey
W.A. Maguir
Hazel McIntyre
Maedhbh McNamara
Paschal Mooney
Peter Murtagh
Frank Ormsby
John Walsh

THE FALLING ANGELS by John Walsh
- To all of us who have spent childhood and youth between Ireland and England, and have found difficulty in finding where we actually belong, John Walsh’s autobiographical work strikes an immediate chord. The search for identity is also bound up with his relationship with his parents, the doctor father who yearns to return to Ireland and inevitably finds it a foreign country, and the mother who would rather remain in England but is much more successful in settling into her new environment. John and his sister Madelyn were typical of many children brought up by Irish parents in London, they saw themselves as Irish, mixed hardly at all with their English neighbours and became entranced when they eventually met their Irish relatives in Galway. The author manages to capture the total strangeness and attractiveness to the English-reared psyche of the nuances of Irish life, and his gradual acceptance into this life. A later attempt to become totally Irish, through choosing to take a postgraduate course in a Dublin university, was less successful and he came to understand that he was an unreconstructed Englishman, he spoke with an English accent, dressed like an Englishman and liked English girls best. Ironically, after he came to accept his own quintessential Englishness his father made the final decision to return to Ireland, but felt uneasy at leaving his son behind in London. The narrative both begins and ends at the hospital bedside of his mother and in between the author chronicles the minutiae of his family relationships. There are many hilarious incidents in the book but the scenes that stick in the mind are the more sombre and painful episodes, such as the effect on his father when John discussed with him his own loss of faith, and the scene in the Galway clothes shop when his father’s frailty and vulnerability were startlingly brought home to him. But it is his mother’s final illness and death which bring both the funniest and the most poignant moments. The local priest who insists on reciting the day of the week and the time of day to each of his elderly patients, to give them “something to hold on to”, brings forth the response from the author that he might also think of giving a weather update and the winner of the 2.30 at Leopardstown. In contrast, and in the final chapter when the reader has been given an insight into the character of his mother, the author describes her final days with love, with regret, with sadness and with courage hen he accedes to her request and sings for her John Denver’s “Leaving on a jet plane” despite the fact that she is in a public ward. Finally John Walsh comes to a conclusion about his identity, listening to advice from a Presentation nun at his mother’s funeral. She tells him that he belongs not with his parents and ancestors but wherever his children are, but that every heart is allowed sacred spaces where they feel most alive. The final chapter sees him unconsciously echoing his father’s character and personality, while at the same time declaring his independence from parental influence. “The Falling Angels”, those displaced beings who are forever caught between two places, symbolise perfectly the uncertainty permeating the young John’s life. However it was a life filled with incident and colourful characters beautifully detailed with humour, affection, love and honesty; a book to be savoured.

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ECHOES OF ANOTHER TIME by Hazel McIntyre
- This book of memories is firmly rooted in one particular spot on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal where the author spent her childhood. Opening with a poem entitled “Winter at Kinnagoe Bay” (better known to those familiar with the area as the Glen Shore), the first story then plunges us into the world of young people in the middle of the 20th century and their efforts to travel the twenty miles or so to a dance hall near the border. The eternal folly of youth is captured in Hanna’s refusal to spoil her outfit by wearing a coat, and a sense of hospitality long gone is epitomized in the kindness of a woman woken up late at night who provided warmth, food and a change of clothing for the frozen revellers. This sense of a disappearing world permeates many of the stories, the “hellfire and brimstone” missions being particularly vividly described, and from the vantage point of maturity the author condemns all religions who “were guilty, to a greater or lesser extent, of using the tactics of fear and guilt as weapons of control”. More lighthearted times are also recorded, such as the cross-border smuggling after a trip to Derry when the young Hanna’s outbreak of measles saved herself and her companion from being searched at the customs post. The ’Presbyterian’ cow that bucked when blessed with holy water, and the rooster with the broken leg who was put to sit on a clutch of eggs are just two memorable incidents from this record of life in days gone by. The memories reflect the author’s childhood and teenage years while some, such as “A City Man’s Gifts”, reflect her adult years. This random movement from one part of her life to the other I found slightly confusing, but this is the only quibble I have with Hazel McIntyre’s entertaining and thought-provoking memoir.

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SPOTLIGHT by Carole Bellacer
- Both of these novels by American author Carole Bellacera deal with the situation in the North as it affects people’s lives, and the main characters in both are an American woman attracted to an Irishman who has been drawn into the conflict against his will. In “Border Crossings” Pearse O’Faolain feels compelled to move back to Fermanagh from his settled and peaceful life in Dublin after the death by violence of his brother, Kennet. His American wife, Kathy, is not so happy but makes the best of it until the violence comes close to home and her son is put in danger. Her subsequent flight to Dublin, and the dilemma faced by Pearse as he is torn between patriotic duty and love for his wife and child, provide the climax to a well-told story. - In “Spotlight” much of the action takes place in the US, though the theme is similar, with an Irishman traumatized by the events of Bloody Sunday who has turned his back on the conflict and has become a successful singer. He meets an American girl who is assigned to do a story on him for her paper, but the long arm of the terrorist movement catches up with him and almost sucks him back into the world he has firmly denounced. The inevitable happy ending is achieved with credibility by means of a fast-paced narrative that carries the reader along in its excitement. In both books the author has managed to strike an authentic note, though the American voice is undeniable. The only note that really jarred was the scene in “Spotlight” in which Caitlyn MacManus and Sheedy are in Armagh, making their way south to the border and safety. Sheedy, in advising her to act naturally should they meet anyone, says, “...should anyone come along, just say ’Top o’ the mornin’, like you’re out for a stroll”. Ms Bellacera has portrayed characters who are believable on the whole, and both major and minor characters are equally successfully drawn. Both books leave the reader with a feeling of hope for the future of the North, though one suspects it might be a touch rose-tinted.

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BEYOND THE STUDIO by Jonathan Bardon
- Noted Northern historian Jonathan Bardon has here tackled the subject of the BBC’s presence in Northern Ireland from its first broadcast on September 15, 1924, when a young Tyrone Guthrie was the announcer for the evening, to the arrival of the digital age in 1998. From its first base in Linenhall Street in Belfast, the broadcasting station moved to the purpose-built Broadcasting House on Ormeau Avenue in 1941, a building officially opened on the morning after the second German air raid on the city. While radio became more and more popular as technology and therefore reception improved across the province, television was slow to catch on in the North and it wasn’t until the Coronation in 1953 that the number of households owning televisions grew significantly. The author has dealt with many aspects of broadcasting in the North including the question of party political broadcasts, the beginnings of outside broadcasts with their attendant cumbersome equipment, the variety of programmes covering the arts, music, children’s programmes and sport, and the emergence of Radio Foyle. “Beyond the Studio”, with its numerous photographs, will bring back memories of past programmes on both radio and television and is also a fitting tribute to a broadcasting company which is noted for the way in which it has served and involved the people of the North over the past seventy-five years.

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THE HIP FLASK ed. Frank Ormsby
- Frank Ormsby has collected short poems, no more than ten lines, by Irish poets in this anthology whose title reflects the perceived function, to be carried with the reader and “nips” taken when sustenance is necessary. Among poets chosen by the author are Yeats and Synge, Beckett and Clarke, as well as living poets. Many contributions are in the form of haikus, for example Tony Curtis’ stark “Shot twice in the head. Once in each astonished eye. History is blind.” Many of the poems deal with death, some poignantly as in Richard Murphy’s “Lullaby”, while others have a humorous and tension-breaking note, as in Dermot Healy’s “The Prayer”. The author has been successful in his aim, to give due attention to poems often overlooked in anthologies, a success which is also indebted to Barbara Childs’ woodcuts and the high quality of the presentation.

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT by Maedhbh McNamara & Paschal Mooney
- This book is a combination of an interesting survey on the low numbers of women in Irish government and the reasons for the shortage, and a series of biographical details of all the women who have held political office, both in the Republic and the North. The survey, which was carried out by the authors in association with Yvonne Galligan, Kathleen Knight and Una Nic Giolla Choille, notes the numbers of elected women who have been related to prominent male politicians, especially in the earlier years of the century. These include Nora Connolly-O’Brien, Margaret Pearse and Mary McSwiney, with later representatives featuring Nora Owen and Mary Banotti, Sheila de Valera and Mary O’Rourke. A common obstacle to women entering political life is the difficulty of juggling home and a very demanding career, and the guilt engendered by the necessary long absences from home. This was forcibly put by Senator Madeleine Taylor-Quinn who said that the maximum time she could stay out of circulation after the birth of her children was two weeks. It is recognised in the survey that there is a need to increase the representation of women in parliament which will require a concerted effort from the political parties. The biographical section of the book lists all the women who have been elected to either house of the Oireachtas, the European Parliament and the Northern Ireland Parliaments. The chronicle begins, of course, with Constance Markievicz and takes us through to Dana Rosemary Scallon, giving a brief sketch of the career of each parliamentarian and, where relevant, quotations relating to their responsibilities. Apart from giving us an absorbing study of the advance of women in political life, the authors have provided a useful reference book.

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THE IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR by Peter Murtagh
- Covering the year from September 1999 to September 2000, Peter Murtagh has selected a representative series of articles and photographs so that we move from Maeve Binchy in self-mocking mode to the horrific murder of a young Dublin girl, from Brendan McWilliams casting a meteorologist’s eye on the world of Anne Frank to Gerry Thornley’s interview with young rugby international Brian O’Driscoll. As well as work from some of the paper’s award winning photographers, we are treated to a number of Martyn Turner cartoons and caricatures by Peter Hanan. In this compilation you might well find the article you never found the time to read and you will certainly remember some of the remarkable photographs, a particularly striking example being Alan Betson’s study of sunlight striking the interior of Newgrange megalithic tomb

LISBURN, THE TOWN AND ITS PEOPLE by Brian Mackey
- Brian Mackey has amassed a collection of photographs of Lisburn over a 100-year period from 1873 to 1973, each accompanied by an explanatory text, and what makes this collection slightly unusual is that many of the illustrations are by local photographers. The author begins by giving a short history of the town from its foundation in the 17th century, though the period covered by the photographs begins with the arrival of Sir Richard Wallace, known chiefly nowadays for his famous art collection, and ends with the disbandment of the Lisburn Borough Council in 1973. The linen industry played a major role in the development of the town and its importance is reflected in the text, as is the River Lagan on which the town stands. Brian Mackey has provided a nostalgic look at a Northern town in times of both peace and unrest in a book which will have particular appeal for those familiar with the Lagan Valley.

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THE NORTH FROM THE AIR by Esler Crawford
- Another view of the North is provided by Esler Crawford’s stunning collection of photographs, with the cover shot of Carrick-a-Rede bridge giving a foretaste of what is to come. A professional photographer, Crawford has gone to some lengths to produce clear and breathtakingly beautifully photographs, not always easy in the Irish climate. A prominent feature is the sea in all its moods, from the gentle waves at White Rocks, Co. Antrim to the white water battering the rocks at the Giant’s Causeway, and the tapestry of fields provides an interesting blend of colour, most notably in the view of brassica fields in Co. Down. The 134 photographs will surely provide a totally new view of the North to those familiar only with the streets of Belfast, Derry and other towns through television news programmes.

A CENTURY IN FOCUS by W.A. Maguire
- The North is well-served by photographers this month, with W.A. Maguire’s book making a trilogy of records of the North. This volume covers a slightly different period and has a wider brief, from 1839 to 1939 in all nine counties of Ulster. I am always surprised to discover just how far back photography reaches; the oldest included here is a picture of George Augustus Chichester, the 2nd Marquis Donegall, in 1843 and Maguire also includes a photograph of Mary Anne McCracken taken in 1865. However the author celebrates not only the art of photography but also the artist and his instruments, and an appendix has a comprehensive list of photographers and their studios in the century under consideration.

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THE CONCISE HISTORY OF IRELAND by Sean Duffy
- A lecturer in the Department of Mediaeval History at Trinity College Dublin, Sean Duffy has brought his professional expertise to bear in the production of this accessible and well-presented history of Ireland. Each period from the dawn of history to the present era of the Celtic Tiger is dealt with concisely, providing a clear view of events that in other volumes have often become obscured by a surfeit of words. The maps, photographs and drawings add to our understanding of the text and the author has also provided a chronology as a handy reference to the sequence of events. The final illustration, of the statue of Carson outside Stormont with a “Yield” traffic sign captured by a strategically positioned photographer, is a final comment and perhaps a sign for the future.

THE CHOSEN FEWS by Darach MacDonald
- The subtitle to MacDonald’s book, “Exploding Myths in South Armagh”, endorses what is a refutation of the tag originating with Merlyn Rees, that South Armagh is “bandit country”. Obviously totally committed to his native area, the author writes lovingly of the townlands and the countryside, of the characters who populate the region known as the Fews, and in doing so succeeds in conveying the community spirit and the sense of continuity inherent in a place which he feels has an unwarranted reputation for discord. The almost Alice Taylor-like descriptions of country life are interspersed with historical anecdotes of friction, and more contemporary accounts of the relationship between the British military presence and the local inhabitants. The juxtaposition can, at times, be somewhat disconcerting, giving a lack of coherence to the narrative, but there is no doubting the sincerity of the views expressed.

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