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Irish Emigrant Book Review, No. 33 (April 1998)
In The Beginning by Catherine
Dunne
- ”In The Beginning” is a remarkable first novel which examines minutely
the stages through which a deserted wife goes in her efforts to put her
life back together. Rose has been married to Ben for 20 years when he
suddenly announces one morning that he is leaving her and their three
children, after telling her that he no longer loves her. The description
of Rose’s efforts to endure the next few hours under a veneer of normality,
and her retreat to the safety of her home, bring us directly to the heart
of her suffering. The movement of the action back and forth from the days
of their courtship and marriage, through the beginnings of Ben’s affair
with his work colleague, Caroline, to the traumas experienced by Rose
and her children in the weeks following his flight works well in that
it provides an understanding of what has led to the present crisis. Through
the device we learn more about the characters involved and the stages
through which their relationship has passed, with particular attention
being paid to the loss of their second child, Michael, who was stillborn.
Despite having such an unhappy theme, Ms Dunne manages to inject a good
deal of humour into the narrative, in the way Rose deals with her situation;
in one episode Rose and her friend Jane drive out to Dublin Airport and
move Ben’s car to a far corner of the parking lot so that he’ll be unable
to find it when he returns from Spain, then head off, giggling, for a
celebratory lunch in Malahide. The author also emphasises Rose’s very
positive attitude and her sudden realisation that she is capable of taking
charge of her life, of dealing with the difficulties experienced by Damien,
Brian and Lisa, who react to their father’s absence in very different
ways. This is a book which compels one to continue reading and offers
a remarkable insight into the anatomy of a modern marriage.
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”Diaries of Ireland, an Anthology,
1590-1987”, Edited by Melosina Lenox-Conyngham
- ”Diaries of Ireland, an Anthology, 1590-1987”, is a wonderful selection
of eye-witness accounts of events both historic and domestic in Ireland
from the pens of young girls, politicians, soldiers and writers. A number
are particularly topical in describing the unrest in Dublin, Wicklow and
Kildare during the 1798 rising, while we are also given firsthand accounts
of the Siege of Limerick Castle in 1642 and the battles of 1690. The extracts
from John Wesley’s diary show him to have been indefatigable in his journeying
and include an interesting comment on the people of Galway where he found
20,000 Papists and five hundred Protestants:
“ but which of them are Christians, have the mind that was in Christ,
and walk as he walked? And without this, how little does it avail whether
they are called Protestants of Papists?”
The diaries of lesser-known people are particularly entertaining in the
light they throw on day-to-day living. In the early 19th century the two
Ponsonby girls, Frances and Emily, described for their siblings a visit
they paid to a house in Donegal where they encountered the formidable
Miss McNeill who sent them into paroxysms of suppressed laughter. Dubliner
Joseph Holloway in 1904 declared of John McCormack, that “what might have
been a remarkable voice, if trained properly, will fizzle out into a cracked
robust tenor of the pot-house order of merit”. He had rather more complimentary
things to say about the light tenor voice of Mr James A. Joyce.
Beginning with the visit of Ludolf von Munchhausen to Ireland in 1580
and ending with extracts from the diaries of Gemma Hussey in 1987, Ms
Lenox-Conyngham’s collection is both informative and entertaining, and
each diarist is given a comprehensive biography by way of introduction.
1916, A Novel of the Irish Rebellion
by Morgan Llywelyn
- ”1916, A Novel of the Irish Rebellion”, brings to life the characters
and events of Easter 1916 as does no other work with which I am familiar.
Ms Llywelyn’s drawing of the passion that drove Padraic Pearse and his companions
to take on the might of the British Empire gives us a knowledge and understanding
of the times through which they lived. Pearse’s school, St Enda’s in Rathfarnham,
is introduced with the arrival there of Ned O’Halloran from Clare, survivor
of the Titanic and protege of Lord Inchiquin. The school serves as a calm
and peaceful contrast to the chaos of the city centre, and it is to this
refuge that Ned finally returns. Through his eyes, and his work as a messenger,
the reader is drawn into the gradual unfolding of the revolutionaries’ schemes,
the failures and successes in gathering arms, the confusion and conflicting
orders in the days prior to the Rising, and the reaction of those in Dublin
Castle responsible for keeping law and order.
The hopelessness of the situation offset by the determination, idealism
and singlemindedness of the protagonists, is beautifully portrayed. It would
be hard to forget the strength and integrity of the physically frail Joseph
Plunkett, the unswerving doggedness of Thomas Clarke, the vision and sense
of purpose of the Pearse brothers. And all of this is balanced by the fictional
story of Ned and Sile, the Clare girl who came to Dublin and became a prostitute,
and their concern and care for Precious, the child left motherless after
the Bachelors Walk attack by the British Army. The comprehensive list of
notes, chapter by chapter, included at the end of the book, is testament
to Morgan Llywelyn’s attention to detail which, allied with her gift for
storytelling, makes “1916” a reading experience to be savoured.
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Granuaile - The Life and Times
of Grace O’Malley c.1530-1603 by Anne Chambers
Anne Chambers has used additional material gleaned from the archives in
Westport House, and a number of public institutions, to delve more deeply
into the life of this powerful 16th century woman. Quoting freely from,
and reproducing much of this material, Ms Chambers presents us with a
formidable figure who became dominant on both land and sea and won acceptance
and respect from friends and enemies. Grace O’Malley’s two marriages,
her changing relationships with her sons in the political climate of the
times, and the final days of the old Gaelic order are included in this
portrait of one whom the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Philip Sidney, described
as “a notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland”.
Of particular interest are the two intertwined strands of her rivalry
with Sir Richard Bingham and her visits to the English court where she
was granted an audience with that other formidable and powerful woman,
Queen Elizabeth 1. The meeting of the two leaders has become legendary,
but the author dispels the myth with the no less compelling factual details
of the meeting. Such were Granuaile’s powers of persuasion that she returned
to her native Mayo with instructions from the English queen for Bingham
to provide for her out of her sons’ estates, and to offer the family his
protection. The inclusion of a number of appendices giving the actual
texts of important relevant documents, a genealogical chart of the O’Malley
clan, and a number of poems and songs dedicated to Grace O’Malley, contribute
to the overall quality of this new study of the Mayo seafarer and her
family. It is ironic that one of her attested descendants, Nicholas Brabourne,
died with his grandfather Lord Mountbatten in the very waters which were
once the territory of his fourteenth great grandmother.
The Village by Alice Taylor
- In “The Village”, one of the first publications by the new Brandon
Press, Alice Taylor has left childhood behind and brings us through her
first job in Killarney to her meeting with her future husband at a dance
in Innishannon. We are introduced to the place which was to be her married
home with a chapter giving a short history of the village and the people
who lived there, including the many craftsmen whose craft had died with
them in an age of mass-production. The author’s entry into Innishannon
coincided with Ireland’s entry into the modern world of supermarkets and
mass-produced furniture, and she and Gabriel, her husband, opened the
first supermarket in the village when they converted the grocery-cum-post
office which had been in Gabriel’s family for five generations. The pair
also responded to the upswing in tourism in the 1960s and converted an
old house into a guest house and we are treated to pen-portraits of a
number of intriguing guests.
While Alice Taylor seems to have been entirely resourceful and able to
cope with anything which came her way, the whole business of pregnancy
and motherhood caused her to question her own competency. The horrors
of morning sickness, the pain of childbirth and the difficulty of managing
a small baby caused her to question her “suitability for the call of motherhood”.
As she saw it, “All in all he knew nothing about routine or how to behave
as a baby”, and she was convinced she would be “the first woman ever whose
baby died because his mother lacked the capabilities that every normal
mother possessed”. As so often happens, Ms Taylor found her confidence
restored when her second son was born.
“The Village” reveals all aspects of Innishannon and Alice Taylor’s intimate
style allows us into the heart of the place. The final chapter is devoted
to a description of the beauties of nature to be found there in all seasons
and one sentence, I think, best conveys the feelings she has for her home:
“In Innishannon we are surrounded by woods on both sides of the river
and to drive along the road in the autumn from Bandon to Innishannon and
on to Kinsale must surely be one of the most glorious journeys in the
country.”
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Blood, Sweat and Tears by Glenys
Spray
-Glenys Spray has examined in detail the Hepatitis C scandal which has
affected some 1,600 men and women, in Ireland, focusing in particular
on the case of Mrs Bridget McCole, who died from the condition. Ms Spray
provides a chronological outline of the events leading to the issuing
of letters to those involved in 1994, the apparent mismanagement of the
case by the BTSB and the Tribunal which followed. She questions the way
in which State institutions function, and the fact that no one held to
be responsible for the scandal has been brought before the courts.
Stolen Childhood by by Iseult
O’Doherty
- ”Stolen Childhood”, in which a number of survivors describe the nature
of the abuse to which they were subjected, and explain how they have been
helped to come to terms with it, is not for the fainthearted. Each account
has its own horror, whether the abuse be sexual, physical or both, and
what comes across most forcibly is that those who were in a position to
help or to end the situation failed to do so. The book, by Iseult O’Doherty,
is the result of two programmes made for RTE’s religious programme, “Would
You Believe?” and the case studies included represent only a small percentage
of the numbers of survivors who made contact following a letter in the
Irish Times from the makers of the programme. The final section is devoted
to a list of addresses, telephone numbers, both in Ireland and in the
UK, which will be of assistance to anyone who finds him/herself in a similar
situation.
Studies in Local History, Irish
Townlands”, edited by Brian O Dalaigh, Denis A. Cronin and Paul Connell.
- A study of individual townlands in nine counties comprises “Studies
in Local History, Irish Townlands”, edited by Brian O Dalaigh, Denis A.
Cronin and Paul Connell. Nine writers have chosen townlands from different
parts of the country, reflecting differing topographical and social aspects,
and have studied them in respect of their development as a response to historical
and sociological changes. Each essay gives a plethora of interesting detail
gleaned from, among a number of sources, the Tithe Applotment Books and
Griffith’s Valuation, the interest being intensified should the reader have
personal knowledge of the area. Townlands covered include Drumcavan in Co.
Clare, Dysart in Co. Westmeath, Ballynahalisk & Sweet Rockmills in Co.
Cork, Kilmacud in Co. Dublin, Cloonfush in Co. Galway, Eskerbaun in Co.
Roscommon, Cloncurry in Co. Kildare, Lacken in Co. Wicklow and Kildoney
in Co. Donegal.
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Island Home - The Blasket Heritage
by George Thompson
- George Thompson’s work on the Blasket Islands, “Island Home - The
Blasket Heritage”, has been reissued in an amended and enlarged edition,
with a memoir of the author written by Tim Enright. Thompson, a noted
Greek scholar, was fascinated by the Homeric character of the island storytelling
and was instrumental in persuading Muiris O Suilleabhain to record his
growing-up on Blasket in “Twenty Years A_Growing”. In this work he examines
the evolution and gradual decline of the storytelling tradition, while
a second section is devoted to photographs of island people and a series
of drawings by Muiris O Suilleabhain.
Land of Milk and Honey by Brid
Mahon
- Brid Mahon, who worked for many years with the Irish Folklore Commission,
has compiled an entertaining history of the traditional food and drink
of Ireland. Using as her sources both legend and historical document,
Ms Mahon gives us a comprehensive view of the way in which our ancestors
sustained life and celebrated noteworthy occasions. Moving from the different
types of drink to fish, meat and vegetables, we are given the various
methods of preparing the food and drink, the special occasions on which
each was consumed, and the effects of historical events, notably the Great
Famine, on the nation’s eating habits. In a final chapter the author takes
us through the year, festival by festival, explaining how each was celebrated
through the ages and the foodstuffs associated with each. Altogether this
is an immensely entertaining book which will leave the reader anxious
to sample the many dishes mentioned.
The Great Famine in South-West
Donegal 1845-1850 by Pat Conaghan
- The Great Famine in South-West Donegal 1845-1850 contains a wealth
of detail which, though it deals specifically with one small section of
the country, in truth depicts life in Ireland during the Famine years,
both for those suffering severe deprivation and those whose job it was
to alleviate it. The specific areas covered are Ardara and Inniskeel,
Kilcar and Glencolumbkille, Donegal town and Glenties, and Mr Conaghan
provides statistics even to the amount of food allowed each day to those
on indoor or outdoor relief. He also addresses the question as to why
an island people were unable to avail of the stocks of fish available
so close to hand, and includes a chapter on the emigrant ships which left
the west of Ireland for America and Canada. His painstaking research has
provided the reader with a vivid picture of life in Donegal during those
difficult years, while he accepts that South Donegal was by no means the
hardest hit area. It would have been helpful, I think, if a map of the
area concerned had been included, especially for those readers who might
not be familiar with the geography of Ireland.
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The Road to Vinegar Hill -
A 1798 Love Story by Harry McHugh
- “The Road to Vinegar Hill - A 1798 Love Story”, draws together the twin
threads of the French Revolution and the Rising in Ireland, through the
character of Conal O’Carran. Forced to leave his school in France he returns
to the family home in the North and comes into contact with Nuala Grogan,
whose family have also fallen on hard times. The story follows their separate
paths to Wexford and culminates in the famous battle of Vinegar Hill,
bringing the history of the period vividly to life.
Encounters with Modern Ireland
edited by Michel Peillon and Eamon Slater
- ”Encounters with Modern Ireland” is a series of essays edited by
Michel Peillon and Eamon Slater which sets out to provide an understanding
of the sociology of modern Ireland. A number of academics were asked to
choose a particular subject and look at its development in the years 1995-1996.
Among topics covered are the development of the Temple Bar area of Dublin,
the introduction of professionalism to Irish rugby, the question of national
waste disposal and the twin problems of New Age Travellers and attitudes
towards the Travelling community in Ireland.
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