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Irish Emigrant Book Review, No.70 (May 2001)
A LIFE OF HER
OWN by Dee Cunningham
- The subject of priestly celibacy seems to have become a popular theme
and Dee Cunningham deals with the topic in this, her second novel. Cathy
Carmody has left her Cork childhood home to work in Dublin after her mother
remarries. She has experienced a number of difficulties in personal relationships
over the years, but these are nothing to what is ahead of her, a necessity
to choose between two brothers. The younger of the two, Jack, is available
but a known womaniser while Stephen is sympathetic and caring, but unfortunately
for Cathy a practising Catholic priest. In examining her reaction to Stephen
she is forced to face up to events in her childhood and youth which she
has tried to suppress, including the death of her father and betrayal
by a lifelong friend. An earlier brush with a seminarian has left her
wary of any involvement with Stephen, but circumstances dictate differently
and she finds herself inexorably drawn into an intense relationship. The
choices made by both Cathy and Stephen are influenced by others whose
lives touch theirs, Cathy’s friend and flatmate, the ambitious journalist
Liz, and Stephen’s fellow priest Brendan Hennessy, who has made his own
decision about his future. The two nuns working in his parish, Eileen
and Dolores, provide point and counterpoint to his anguish and eventually
he and Cathy find their own way to a decision, a way which leaves the
door open for both of them. Dee Cunningham’s novel is both believable
and entertaining, delving as it does into some of today’s moral and ethical
questions, and into the conflict between tradition and liberalism which
is to be encountered in our 21st century society.
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SELECTED SHORT
STORIES by Donall MacAmhlaigh
- This collection of the writings of Donall MacAmhlaigh originally appeared
in the Irish Democrat newspaper during the 1980s and is a combination
of short story and reflection on the Irish experience in Britain. MacAmhlaigh
was born in Galway, and indeed a commemorative plaque was recently erected
at the school he attended in the city. He secured his first job in Kilkenny,
where his father had been posted as a member of the armed forces, and
himself served for a time in the Irish Army, but most of his working life
was spent in Britain. After a spell as a hospital orderly, he joined the
army of labourers in post-war Britain and many of the pieces gathered
together here reflect on the conditions under which men were willing to
work for the sake of a secure job. MacAmhlaigh introduces us to quintessentially
English characters such as Tom Gooding who exemplified for him the working
man whose pleasure comes from the simple things of life, for whom “daily
familiar things never grew stale”. He was a man “completely at one with
his life and surroundings” and the author acknowledges that he and the
likes of Tom Gooding had much more in common than he did with fellow-Irishmen
such as Tony O’Reilly. We also hear something of MacAmhlaigh’s early life
in Kilkenny, of his first job in a mill and his first attempt at writing
a novel. But the main emphasis is nevertheless on his years in Britain,
on the Englishman’s view of the Irish worker and the collective xenophobia
of the English which is in such stark contrast to the individual tolerance
shown to the outsider in the 1950s. His visits home thirty years later
reveal that times are hard once again, the dole queues are lengthening
and the emigration levels of the 1950s are being matched if not passed.
There are only three chapters which can legitimately be designated short
stories, “The Crack”, “Kit’s Story” and “Sweeney”, with the latter two
dealing with commonplaces of the Irish in Britain, the young unmarried
girl who comes over to have her baby, and the alcoholic dreaming of returning
to his home town. “The Crack” is the most interesting of the three, dealing
as it does with the sense of betrayal felt by a group of Irishmen when
one of their number abandons the jigs and reels in the public bar for
the more romantic strains of the lounge piano. The final chapter, entitled
Donall Peadar MacAmlhlaigh, is written in Irish, the language in which
the author wrote many of his books, and is a short biography. But each
chapter of this intriguing look at the place of the Irish labourer in
Britain contains information about the author’s life, so that an inability
to read Irish is not as much of a drawback as it might seem.
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1921 by Morgan
Llywelyn
- This second volume in Morgan Llywelyn’s trilogy on recent Irish history,
“The Irish Century”, takes up the story in 1917 with the main characters
from the previous work, but this time it is Henry Mooney rather than Ned
Halloran who plays the major part in recording the continuing violence
in Ireland. In giving Mooney the occupation of reporter, the author has
facilitated the relaying of historical fact, using the device of interviews
with some of the major political players of the period as well as direct
quotations from the character Mooney’s own writings for a number of publications
both at home and overseas. The story has cleverly woven fictional and
historical characters into a narrative which throws some light on the
confusing details of the post-Rising period in Ireland until the election
of Eamon de Valera in Clare in 1923. As a reporter Henry Mooney tries
desperately to provide a balanced account of events and in doing so wins
the trust of politicians and soldiers who will find themselves on different
sides in the Civil War. We are led through the arrivalof the Black and
Tans and the War of Independence, and the emerging of de Valera and Michael
Collins as leaders in the quest for an Irish Republic. Ms Llywelyn is
particularly strong in her description of the events leading up to the
signing of the Treaty in London and the political manoeuvring practised
by Lloyd George and his associates in forcing Arthur Griffith and Michael
Collins into putting their signatures to a document which they knew to
be flawed. Michael Collins is treated with significantly more sympathy
than is de Valera, and if the book were to be seen as a contest between
the Big Fellow and the Long Fellow, the former would win out, though the
author is at pains to point out both good and bad points in each man’s
character. The strength of “1921” lies in its bringing to life a range
of characters who have been merely names in history books for most of
us - Mulcahy, Fitzgerald, Griffith and O’Malley, Barry, Traynor and McKelvey
come alive within its pages. At the same time we are kept informed of
events outside Ireland by newspaper headlines at the beginnings of some
chapters telling us, for example, of Egypt’s claim to independence, or
of Hitler’s rally at Nuremberg in 1923. In parallel with the unfolding
story of Ireland’s fight for independence is Henry Mooney’s own story,
of his duty visits to his family in Limerick, his secret love for his
friend’s wife and his romance with a woman who appears to be socially
beyond his reach. The theme of brother against brother is echoed in his
deteriorating relationship with his friend, Ned, a rift which sees no
immediate solution, but the story ends on a positive note for Henry as
he looks forward to a more settled and contented period in his life. I
must confess, however, that this parallel story interested me less than
the events of 1921 and at times I found it a distraction from what proved
to be, despite a number of small inaccuracies, a wonderfully accessible
account of a turbulent period in our history.
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EVIL EMPIRE
by Paul Williams
- The title of journalist Paul Williams’ account of John Gilligan and
his gang perfectly encapsulates the overriding impression given by the
narrative - of pure evil at large in Dublin. Noted for his deep knowledge
of the subject, the author has here brought both his journalistic and
his narrative skills to bear in chronicling a period when criminals ruled
in Dublin, when the gardai were all but powerless to combat their activities
and when fear was the chief weapon used by such as John Gilligan to retain
control over an ever-growing empire. There was a distinct lack of groups
of special expertise within the gardai at the time of an upsurge of violent
crime following the outbreak of the troubles in the North, and the realization
by Dublin criminals of the easy money to be made in drug-dealing. This
produced a breathtaking level of arrogance in criminals such as John Gilligan
and Martin Cahill, both of whom were expert at manipulating the system
so that the length of time they spent in custody bore no relation to the
sentences their crimes should have carried. Into this scenario came journalists
such as Paul Williams and Veronica Guerin, and it was the latter’s murder
that led to the setting up of tighter controls and, in particular, the
Criminal Assets Bureau and the Witness Protection Programme, which eventually
led to the collapse of the Gilligan empire. Dubliner John Gilligan was
one of a number of criminals who had grown up in the new estates on what
were then the outskirts of Dublin, but there was a ruthlessness to Gilligan,
matched certainly by Martin Cahill, that produced a climate of fear among
fellow-criminals and public servants with whom he came into contact. The
road that led to his eventually organizing the shooting of Veronica Guerin
is meticulously recorded by the author and makes for impelling reading.
The sheer volume of the money made on drug deals is astounding, as is
the apparent facility with which the money was laundered, putting Gilligan
outside the reach of the law. The painstaking investigative work carried
out to bring all the members of his gang to justice, the mounting tension
and excitement as all the pieces fell into place, are perfectly portrayed
by the author, who has also supplied detailed accounts of the trials which
eventually brought Gilligan, Meehan and their colleagues to some kind
of justice. There was one jarring note in the narrative, however, and
this was the author’s occasional misuse of words, surprising in a man
for whom words are his stock in trade. The killing of Veronica Guerin
brought home to all the people of this country, but particularly to gardai
and investigative journalists, just how vulnerable they are, and there
is little doubt that this book was inspired to a great degree by a desire
to pay tribute to the dogged courage of Guerin in her pursuit of Gilligan
and Traynor. And Williams ends on a cautionary note, that there are other
’Gilligans’ building up their empires and we cannot be complacent in our
fight against crime.
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SQUIRES, SPALPEENS
AND SPATS by Noel P. Wilkins
- The sub-heading to Professor Wilkins’ book, “Oysters and Oystering in
Galway Bay”, was not particularly appealing to one who has little interest
in fishing and even less stomach for the oyster, but what a revelation
this book is. Covering every possible aspect of the oyster tradition in
south Galway and north Clare, the author treats us to chapters ranging
from the anatomy of the oyster to the history of those who have dredged
for the shellfish and the effects of the area on the literary and theatrical
traditions of Ireland. On the one hand we are given statistics of the
millions of oysters removed from beds in the 19th century, and the devastation
this caused to the industry, while the subsequent chapter will give a
highly entertaining account of members of the St George family or the
various occupants of the ’great’ houses dotted around the bay. One chapter
is devoted to describing with affection the virtues of the various pubs
associated with the oyster; Burkes of Clarenbridge, Morans of the Weir
and Linehans in New Quay are three mentioned. Complemented by maps, photographs
and line drawings, Professor Wilkins’ “Squires, Spalpeens and Spats” has
firmly placed the oyster in its geographical and historical context.
DESIRE LINES
by Annie McCartney
- In her first novel playwright Annie McCartney has also taken the theme
of priestly celibacy, this time setting the scene in her native Belfast.
As in Dee Cunningham’s book the heroine is haunted by a broken relationship,
though this time of more recent vintage, and finds herself attracted to
the local curate. Actor Clare Murphy has returned to Belfast from London
after the break-up of a long-term relationship and attempts to rebuild
her life in the context of her family and childhood friends. In this she
is partially successful but that very success leads to further complications
with a much younger man, Robert, who views their relationship very differently
from herself. And all the time that Clare is dwelling on Robert and Tim,
the man she had left in London, she is avoiding accepting her growing
feelings for Lorcan O’Carroll, the local curate whom she has met through
her involvement with a local amateur drama group. The gradual development
of their relationship is played out against a backdrop of jealousy, her
father’s illness and her own need to accept that she and Tim have no future.
The story is told with both compassion and humour, and the descriptions
of amateur dramatic in-fighting, and the North Down garden party are particularly
well-executed.
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DINGLE IN PICTURES
- Steve MacDonagh
- Publisher Steve MacDonagh is the author of a number of books about the
Dingle Peninsula and this latest edition is notable for the quality of
the photographs of all aspects of the area. Accessibility to the text
is achieved with commentary and captions in English, Irish, French and
German, and in addition each page incorporates a small map of the peninsula
indicating the position of the feature mentioned. As well as scenic locations,
we are also shown photographs of archaeological monuments and local events
such as the Blessing of the Boats and the Wrenboys’ parade.
NEW HIBERNIA
REVIEW ed. Thomas Dillon Renshaw
- This fifth edition of the quarterly review, which comes from the Center
for Irish Studies at University of St Thomas in Minnesota, comprises a
number of essays, each of which deals with an aspect of Ireland. “Filiocht
Nua: New Poetry” features the work of John Montague while Professor Michael
Molino examines the role of the industrial school system in Irish literature.
In line with its policy of promoting an interest in the Irish language,
this issue includes an examination of the place of Irish over the last
two hundred years and its chances of survival, in which Professor A.J.
Hughes calls for the establishment of a “Gaelic Academy” in Ireland. With
topics ranging from the symbolic importance of coarse earthenware, to
the visit of abolitionist Frederick Douglass to Ireland in the 1845, the
New Hibernia Review is required reading for those with an interest in
Irish Studies.
YOU SAY POTATO!
by Elgy Gillespie
- This is another book about the ubiquitous potato, but Elgy Gillespie
does not confine herself to Irish recipes, or even home grown varieties
of potato. The different entries reflect the author’s peripatetic career,
from Ireland and Europe to Bolivia to San Francisco so we have traditional
boxty which, she tells us, is much the same as the latkes served up in
Chicago by Minny Goodkin. Peruvian and Indonesian recipes jostle for attention
with ideas from Malta and Greece, and Ms Gillespie caters for all tastes
and abilities, with sections on microwaving potatoes and producing perfect
mashed potatoes to what she describes as “Partying Potatoes” which include
Lithuanian Varenikis and Boulanee Kuchaloo from Afghanistan. To add to
the flavour the author has interspersed her recipes with apposite quotations
and interesting facts about what she calls “this most forgiving of veggies”.
THE METHODISTS
IN IRELAND by Dudley Levistone Cooney
- President of the Irish branch of the Wesley Historical Society since
1997, Dudley Levistone Cooney has undertaken a study of the Methodist
church in this country since its formation in Dublin in 1745, two years
before John Wesley made the first of twenty-one visits to this country.
Though the number of Methodists in Ireland has never exceeded 60,000 their
contribution in such fields as education, preaching the Gospel and relieving
distress has been considerable and this is fully documented by the author.
He focuses on the role of Irish Methodists in spreading the religion overseas,
in the time-honoured missionary role of this country, and has succeeded
in producing a volume which will enlighten both Methodist and non-Methodist
alike.
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FINDING FIRE
with TONY DE MELLO by John Callanan SJ
- Fr John Callanan, a follower of spiritual guide and retreat director
Tony de Mello, has here collected together a series of subjects for meditation
based on the methods used by the Indian Jesuit priest. Firmly believing
that preparation is paramount when leading prayer and meditation workshops,
Fr Callanan has devoted the first section to advice on choosing a suitable
occasion, and tips on how to relax and allow oneself to be open to the
Holy Spirit. He then sets out a series of meditations, based on the teachings
of Tony de Mello, which encompass all aspects of our spiritual life.
MAPPING IRELAND
by Sean Connors
- Thirty-two county maps, based on the 300-year-old maps drawn up by William
Petty, have been reproduced here with accompanying text giving notable
facts about each county, which will be of special interest to those of
Irish descent living abroad. The meaning of each county name is given,
some straightforward such as Kilkenny, the Church of St Cainnech, while
for others more than one derivation is given. Meath is said to be a translation
of the Irish word ’mi’, the middle place, while D.P.W.Joyce asserted that
the name came from ’meidhe’, translated as ’neck’ and signifying the four
pieces of land taken from other provinces in its establishment. The baronies
of each county are then listed, followed by the names most commonly found
in that particular county, and for ease of identification the author supplies
an index of these names.
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