Irish Emigrant Book Review, No. 27 (Oct. 1997)

The Sligo-Leitrim World of Kate Cullen, 1832-1913 by Hilary Pyle
- The personal memoirs of an ordinary member of society often prove far more attractive to the non-historian reader than more worthy works on great personalities of the past. Such a book is “The Sligo-Leitrim World of Kate Cullen, 1832-1913” which is dubbed a 19th century memoir revealed by Hilary Pyle. Kate Cullen’s daughter, the poet Susan L. Mitchell, urged her to write down the memories of her childhood in Co Leitrim. After a sheltered and idyllic childhood in the years before the Famine in Skreeney, just eleven miles from Sligo town, the Cullen family moved to Dublin after the death of Kate’s father. Kate spent some years of her early adulthood visiting married sisters in Donegal, Carrick-on-Shannon and England, and became engaged to a bank manager called Michael Mitchell whom she married and with whom she had seven children. The diaries continue through her marriage until her move to Sligo after Michael’s death, and are filled with the minutiae of daily life in 19th century Ireland. Kate’s life was touched by some of the notable events of the day, such as Queen Victoria’s visit to Dublin, and familiar names and places are interspersed throughout the book.

The Woman of the House by Alice Taylor
- Alice Taylor, best known for her books evoking a bygone era in rural Ireland, has published her first novel. “The Woman of the House” is the cleverly chosen title of the story of love for a particular piece of land which causes dissent among members of the Phelan family. The woman in question could be Kate, the strongest character, who fights to keep the family farm for her nephew and niece after the death of her brother; it might be Martha, the brother’s widow who has never felt accepted by the Phelan family and who sees her chance to exact revenge; it might even be Martha’s mother-in-law, Nellie, long dead but still remembered by all who knew her as someone who loved Mossgrove. What is certain is that the female characters dominate the narrative, while the males, with the possible exception of Kate’s grandfather, Billy, all seem to have some flaw. The twists and turns of the plot have a satisfactory, if rather predictable ending, and the author has succumbed to the recent trend of including a sub-plot of child sexual abuse, though in this case it is treated with admirable subtlety. Having said that, however, reading Alice Taylor’s first novel is an enjoyable experience, not least due to its authentic 1950s setting.

[ top ]

Mary Robinson - An Independent Voice by John Horgan
Horgan has had a long association with Mrs Robinson, having been elected to the Senate on the same day in 1969, and in this work he traces her development as a lawyer and a fighter for social justice. He does not omit her failures, however, particularly her two attempts to be elected to the Dáil, and he also chronicles her differences with the Labour Party over the Anglo-Irish Agreement and her ultimate triumph in reshaping the position of president of this country. The author gathered his material through a number of interviews, including one with Mary Robinson herself, and his book gives a comprehensive overview of her political life while somehow missing out on the personal touch.

An Irish Voice - The Quest for Peace by Gerry Adams
- “An Irish Voice - The Quest for Peace” is a collection of some of the columns Gerry Adams contributed to the New York-based Irish Voice newspaper. It is a diverse selection, with comment on the contemporary political scene in the North interspersed with reminiscences of the author’s childhood in Belfast. The first-hand accounts of the events leading to the two ceasefires make interesting reading and are in marked contrast to such pieces as the author’s appreciation of his mother-in-law, Maggie McCardle, and the light touch of his ostracization by the teashops on the Falls Road into which he didn’t steer President Clinton for the famous cup of tea. With a postscript, a chronology, biographies and a glossary, “An Irish Voice” goes some way towards revealing the thought processes of the Sinn Fein leader.

[ top ]

Cool About the Ankles by John Kelly
Kelly recalls his childhood in Enniskillen and his realisation at the age of three that it was not enough to know that he was a boy, he also had to answer the question, “Are you a Prodesan or a Catlick?”, posed by the small boy next door. The narrative travels freely between a snowbound New York and the eternal sunshine of childhood and youth in Fermanagh, reflecting on the various influences that have shaped his life.

The World of Percy French by Percy French
- There can be very few people with Irish connections who have not at some point in their lives come across the works of Percy French, writer of songs and landscape painter, and many of us were introduced to his less well-known numbers by tenor Brendan O’Dowda. Now in “The World of Percy French”, O’Dowda has produced a collection of songs, parodies and poems by French, with an introductory biography. Over 100 songs and poems are included, the songs accompanied by musical notation and all interspersed with original sketches by Rowel Friers. In the selection of poetry is an interesting and extremely entertaining series of nursery rhymes rewritten in the style of various noted poets; for example the opening stanza of Little Bo-Peep, as written by Wordsworth, might be:
“I walked with her upon the hill, Her grief was very deep, Her tears were running like a rill, For she had lost her sheep.”
A number of monologues are also featured, including the familiar “The Four Farrellys” and “Carmody’s Mare”.
This is an invaluable volume to have on hand, if only to provide the words of all those half-known songs whose airs are so familiar, but it is also succeeds in introducing to a wider audience the man behind the songs.

[ top ]

Linen, Family and Community in Tullylish, Co. Down, 1690-1914 by Marilyn Cohen
This book looks at the development and decline of the linen industry in the North of Ireland through the study of one small area on the banks of the River Bann. In the course of the work the author examines the role played by England in promoting the linen industry, the arrival of Quaker landlords and their involvement in all aspects of the community and the effects of the Great Famine on the linen workers. Ms Cohen also focuses on the importance of the role of women to the linen industry, gathering a significant amount of material through interviews with former linen workers. This is a detailed and scholarly study of a way of life now gone that saw its boom years in the second half of the last century. (Four Courts Press, ISBN 1-85182-312-3, pp287, IR45.00) - In “The Blueshirts and Irish Politics” Mike Cronin takes as his theme the correction of the mythical image of the Blueshirts as the Irish version of the European fascist movement. He demonstrates that the Irish organisation arose from opposition to the new Fianna Fail government in 1932 and not from a desire to emulate the European trend. Those who had created the new Irish state were fearful of the direction in which De Valera was taking the country. The Cumann na nGaedheal party was unable to stop De Valera’s actions such as the Economic War. When it found that the new movement was more effective in such opposition, the party quickly moved to control it. For a short time, the leader of the Blueshirts, O’Duffy, tried to push his own version of fascism but the author shows that the bulk of the grass-roots support had no interest in such an agenda. Their aim was to protect their domestic position and to oppose De Valera. As soon as O’Duffy resigned, the older political hands took control again. The author traces the history of the movement and emphasises the contrasting views and aims of the Dublin leadership with those of the rank and file and in doing so provides a new perspective on this movement and its historical context. His account is marred only by a few grammatical and typographical errors, and more annoyingly, by his own praise of his work in the conclusion. He might have been advised to allow the reader to decide what praise is merited
Reviewed by John McAvoy.

[ top ]

Lasting Light by Michael Fanning
- In his latest volume of poetry Michael Fanning draws on his own part of Kerry for inspiration in such works as “Lasting Light”, in which “Day surrenders to interminable evening”. There is a particular intimacy in the way in which he writes of members of his family, from childhood memories of his parents to the palpable grief of “Kieran”. In “Verbum et Verbum”, from which the collection takes its title, Fanning bases each short poem on different folios of the Book of Kells, giving variety with the use of different stanza forms.

Sparrow’s Trap by Brendan O’Carroll
- I have never been a great fan of Brendan O’Carroll as a comedian, and his books to date I have found easy to read but on the whole unmemorable. However with “Sparrow’s Trap” I not only enjoyed the story but recommended it to others, and I think the difference is in part that O’Carroll has drawn believable characters rather than the stock Dublin “types” who inhabited his previous works. Anthony McCabe, the eponymous Sparrow, finally triumphs over his own frailties in a scenario that takes in gangsters, extortion rackets and the unfortunate topicality of low standards in high places. (O’Brien Press, ISBN 0-86278-538-3, pp204, IR5.99) - With a childhood which spanned the north of the country from Inishowen in Donegal to Belfast, Elizabeth McCullough is justified in the title of her reminiscences, “A Square Peg - An Ulster Childhood”. She felt herself to be the square peg of the title, always rebelling against the constrictions of her female-dominated world, her parents having divorced when she was very small. The book is divided into two sections, the first dealing with her extended family and her life growing up in Belfast, where she became apprenticed to a photographer and enjoyed a varied social life. This is complemented by the series of excerpts from the diaries she kept at the time, so that we see the way she felt about events as they happened side by side with the view from the perspective of a number of decades.

[ top ]

The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin
- Argentina at the time of the Falklands War is the setting for Colm Toibin’s latest novel, in which Richard, the son of an English mother and an Argentinian father, tries to come to terms with his ambivalent nationality at a time when the two countries are in conflict. At the same time he is learning to acknowledge his homosexuality and his venture into this world leads to the final tragedy of his contracting AIDS. As an insight into the reality of the illness, “The Story of the Night” leaves a lasting impression that could never be gained from mere statistics.

There’s Only One Red Army by Eamonn Sweeney
This book shows us a family held together by their devotion to a football team, Sligo Rovers. To say that they were held together is not quite accurate, since his parents’ marriage did not last, but the team was the common denominator, the subject on which all the family could agree and which was the only thing to draw them together. It is possible for this book to be enjoyed by those with only a limited interest in football in general and Sligo Rovers in particular, revealing as it does a combination of humour and sadness and a notable honesty.

[ top ]