Irish Emigrant Book Review, No. 19 (February 1997)

The Lost Province by Thomas McCarthy
- Thomas McCarthy’s latest volume of poems, encompasses both the private and public aspects of his life and that of his family. The first section, “Love Medicine”, moves from the intensely personal in “A Navy Skirt”, in which the poet contemplates his wife clearing her wardrobe, “this vital reassessment in the encrusted ocean of our bedroom”, to the more objective view of a very public event, the damaging of cars and trucks on the ferry at Rosslare. The section entitled “The Lost Province of Alsace” reflects the failures of the political world, with a backward glance at the Dreyfus affair. With particularly vivid imagery McCarthy describes two Catholic girls from Tyrone who arrive in Dublin:
“Their fingernails were still lightly chipped from hanging off the ledge of the North.”
The poems in “Why The Earth Is Calm” reflect on his childhood and the way in which attitudes change as we move a generation further on with the birth of our own children, while in the final section, “Declan, Scientist”, an unusual view of history is given by Declan, who arrives in Ireland from Gaul on a boulder, with a shortwave radio as his companion.

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For Love of Mary Kate by Hazel McIntyre
- Set in the rural Ireland of the 1920s, the book records the experiences of three generations of women whose lives are directed by the prevailing moral and repressive attitudes of the time. Sara’s daughter Maura conceives and bears a child as a result of rape, and is forced by her father to abandon the child to an orphanage and herself travel to the United States so that the family name will not be tainted. The author underscores the irony of this situation by revealing that it is a member of the same extended family who is the father of the child. Sara rescues her granddaughter, the Mary Kate of the title, from the orphanage, leaves her husband and dedicates herself to looking after the child. The action moves backwards and forward across the Atlantic, with love for Mary Kate, and a wish to do what is best for her, influencing the life-decisions of all those with whom she comes into contact. I did find the printer’s errors a distraction, but I am assured by the author that they will be corrected in the next edition.

Iron Wheels On Rocky Lanes by Hazel McIntyre
- “Iron Wheels On Rocky Lanes”, first published in 1994, recalls fragments of her childhood and growing years in and around the village of Culdaff on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal. Anyone familiar with life in rural Ireland in the ’50s and ’60s will find much here to jog the memory. In poem and short story Hazel McIntyre recalls such events as the introduction of electricity and the reluctance of some of the older people to rely on it; the Christmas Rhyming expedition; the arrival of summer visitors; the era of sugar-starched petticoats, and the travelling picture show.

Divorce In Ireland by Kieron Wood and Paul O’Shea
- To coincide with the coming into effect of the Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996, barrister Kieron Wood and solicitor Paul O’Shea have published a book entitled “Divorce In Ireland”. The stated aim of the book is to give advice on matters relating to procedures dealing with marriage breakdown, with a particular emphasis on counselling and mediation. In a very practical way it covers the position with regard to divorce up to February 27, 1997 and the changes which have now occurred, including such aspects as the rights of children, child abduction, barring orders, the family home, pensions and taxes, and remarriage in church with reference to several different religions. “Divorce In Ireland” concludes with sample documents, a synopsis of the Act, a summary of marriage-related legislation since 1865, a glossary of legal terms and a list of useful addresses.

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