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Irish Emigrant Book Review, No. 40 (Nov 1998)
Technical Virgins by Elaine Crowley
- Caught up in the general restlessness of the immediate post war years
and suffering from unrequited love, at almost 18 Elaine Crowley travelled
to Belfast with a small group of Irish girls to sign up with the Women’s
Auxilliary Territorial Service. Filled with romantic ideas of army life
and hoping that the addition of a smart army uniform will at last attract
the man of her dreams, Elaine had a rude awakening in the Spartan atmosphere
of her first billet in Cheshire. The first of many disillusionments occurred
on the boat taking the Dublin group to Liverpool, but these were offset
by the camaraderie of the group of 24, the sudden realisation that she was
not totally unattractive to the opposite sex, and a burning ambition to
be a P.T. Instructor.
The years the author spent in the ATS are related with honesty and humour.
Her ignorance of matters sexual was exposed fairly early on in her army
career, an ignorance shared by a number of the other Irish girls at the
camp. However there were plenty of very knowledgeable colleagues to correct
this naivete, including enlightening her as to the meaning of the term she
chose for the title of her book. The more serious side of her life is chronicled
in her unsuccessful visit to her late father’s family in Sussex, the problems
inherent in her love for a South African soldier, and the tragic death through
a combination of carelessness and accident of an army friend. It is as a
much wiser young woman that Elaine travels back to Dublin on Christmas leave,
purposely abandoning an assignment at Crewe which would have seen her engaged
to a medical student from Scotland. She has learnt to accept her mother’s
rather contradictory character and also accepts that she can never return
to the Dublin factory life of her pre-army days. “Technical Virgins” is
written with an attention to detail which will provide instant recall to
anyone who lived through the ’40s and ’50s, but will also strike a chord
with all who have experienced the uncertainties of adolescence.
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Cassa by Lilian Roberts Finlay
- Dublin 30 years ago seems to have become a popular setting for a number
of recent novels, and Lilian Roberts Finlay’s “Cassa” takes this time
and location as its starting point, though the action brings us well into
the 1980s. Cassa has lived in fear of her domineering older sister, Nicole,
all her life, and the novel traces the influence of this emotion from
her childhood to her eventual escape in her early 30s. The two girls live
in Donnybrook with their parents, in a large house which has been in the
Blake family for more than 100 years, and we first meet them when Cassa
is 12 years old. While her sister grows up to marry a local businessman
Cassa stays at home to look after her invalid mother and, latterly, as
companion to her father until his death four years later. Her sister’s
determination to use Cassa for her own ends takes a new direction at this
point, and is compounded by her brother-in-law Dermot’s less than honourable
intentions towards her. Her life as a cleaning supervisor in a hospital
run by nuns, a job arranged by Nicole and Dermot, brings a bizarre series
of events including suicide, incest, the death of a child and attempted
murder. Betrayed by so many she thought were her friends and fleeing from
a job which she hates, Cassa at last finds a strange haven with two brothers
who, each in his own way, offers her a chance of lasting happiness.
Lilian Roberts Finlay has neatly married the faded gentility of 1950s
Dublin with the brasher money-conscious years of the ’70s and ’80s in
contrasting the lives of the two sisters, one living in the old family
home on her dividends, the other a successful wife and mother who devotes
her time to bridge and charities. Combined with a sympathetic treatment
of the deprivation experienced by the Dublin women with whom Cassa works
in the hospital, and their treatment at the hands of reactionary nuns,
the author has created an absorbing view of the different levels of society
co-existing in our capital city in that particular era.
The Grass of the People by Walter
Macken
- With the inclusion of twelve previously unpublished stories, “The Grass
of the People” is particularly enjoyable. Macken rooted his stories in
the people and places of the West of Ireland but in this collection he
broadens his canvas a little and many of the most memorable tales deal
with visitors to the west. “Sukos” is a haunting account of one man’s
remorse for an action carried out in an Eastern Bloc country, and his
means of restitution; the disillusionment of an Irish-American is well
captured in “The Green Dream”; while the final story takes the theme of
unresolved grief and its effect on three people, one a visitor from Dublin,
many years later. The essential humour and resourcefulness of the countryman
is well captured in the title story and the author also devotes several
of the tales to the joys and trials of love, from the first awakenings
in a 12-year-old boy to an old man’s memories of a lost love.
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Clann na Poblachta by Eithne
McDermott
- Eithne McDermott has succeeded in detailing the rise and fall of this
political party in a manner which makes it accessible to the non-politically
minded reader. Beginning with the background of the party and its formation
in Barry’s Hotel in Dublin on July 6, 1946, Ms McDermott introduces some
of the key players including Sean McBride, Noel Hartnett, Peadar Cowan,
Con Lehane and Donal O’Donoghue. The 1947 by-elections are extensively
covered, with the appointment as ministers of McBride and Noel Browne,
and the successes and failures of the following three years are dealt
with comprehensively. The External Relations Act and, above all, the Mother
and Child scheme, in which McBride chose to side with the conservative
element against his own colleague, are cited as causes for the ultimate
demise of the party, together with McBride’s inability to work with those
with whom he disagreed. The author emphasises, however, the historical
importance of Clann na Poblachta, both in the introduction of the concept
of coalition government to the State and in its role as the means by which
an entire generation became politically mobilised.
A Makeshift Majority by David
McCullagh
Taking his title from Sean Lemass’ description of Ireland’s first coalition
government, McCullagh sets out to examine the three-year tenure of the
inter-party government comprising Fine Gael, Labour, Clann na Talmhan,
Clann na Poblachta, National Labour and six Independents which is mainly
remembered for the Mother and Child Scheme and the Declaration of the
Republic.
The Famine Secret & Titanic
voyage from Drumshee by Cora Harrison
- Two new books by Cora Harrison, in the Drumshee Timeline Series for children,
continue the story of the old castle in County Clare through the time of
the Famine and the launching of the Titanic. “The Famine Secret” looks at
the Famine through the eyes of the McMahon children, who are sent to the
workhouse after their parents die of fever, but survive against all odds
through a combination of determination and a discovery in Drumshee fort.
Some 60 years later it is also a chance discovery made in the family home
in Drumshee that gives orphaned Kitty McMahon the chance to become nanny
to two children who are travelling to America with their mother. The group
sets out on the Titanic and the story of the disaster, and of her efforts
to rescue her two charges, is told through Kitty’s eyes.
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Fionn the Cool by Aislinn O’Loughlin
-A story for children which moves backwards and forwards from the time
of Fionn McCuail to modern day O’Connell Street in Dublin. “Fionn the
Cool”, a mixture of Celtic warrior and 20th century rock star, of different
kinds of magic and of wrongdoers being justly punished, is related with
the author’s usual light touch and sense of fun.
Fowl Play by Jim Halligan and
John Newman
A delightful fantasy involving a (slightly) mad professor, the chance
survival of a number of dodos and an evil chicken-processor by the name
of Biddle. Twins Terry and Alex, with the help of Professor Miller, do
all they can to outwit Biddle and his restaurateur accomplice Marcel La
Bouche in an action-packed adventure.
Titanic, Belfast’s Own by Stephen
Cameron
- A refreshing antidote to the romanticised versions of this story which
have been the usual fare. Stephen Cameron strongly conveys the notion that
the immense ship was a cause for Belfast pride when she was launched and
a cause for Belfast devastation when she was lost: “When news of the disaster
came through, these same people, who had witnessed history only a few days
earlier, were openly reduced to tears. Their finest work lay at the bottom
of the Atlantic”. Of particular interest is a chapter entitled “The Human
Connection” which gives a short biography of each of the Ulster men and
women who sailed on the Titanic’s maiden voyage, many of whom were lost.
The book is generously illustrated and also contains the Signing-on Log,
which lists all the crew members on the vessel’s maiden voyage.
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A Close Shave with the Devil
by Ena May
- Dublin actress and playwright Ena May has combined a rare collection
of stories set in Dublin of the late 1940s in “A Close Shave with the
Devil”. Seen though the eyes of young Eily Doolin, the Ireland of those
years was a confusing place of secrets kept by grown-ups, from the pitifully
brow-beaten Mr Smith next door in “The Red Sandals”, to the hidden past
of country girl Kathleen in “A Sunday Visit”. In each of the nine stories
the author explores Eily’s attempts to make sense of the events which
touch her life, introducing us to a range of characters who live in the
same street in Dublin. Many of the themes reflect issues still relevant
today, racial and religious intolerance, sexual and physical abuse, thus
giving us some understanding of the confusions and misunderstandings which
can arise when a child attempts to interpret the words or actions of adults.
Gangland by Paul Williams
- Within the covers of “Gangland” we meet such inhabitants of Dublin’s
underworld as the Dunne brothers, in particular the oldest one known as
“Bronco” who trained his young brothers to the criminal life. The Cunningham
brothers and Tony Kelly, responsible for the kidnapping of Jennifer Guinness,
are also featured, as are such familiar pseudonyms as The Monk, The Penguin
and The Boxer. The author manages to convey the deviousness and violence
of these men without in any way glorifying them, and jolts the reader
out of any complacency he or she might feel about the moral and social
health of the country.
Red-Haired Rebel by Hilary
Pyle
- The poet and satirist Susan L. Mitchell, a friend and contemporary of
John Butler Yeats and AE, is the subject of Hilary Pyle’s biography. Susan
Mitchell, daughter of Kate Cullen whose memoirs she was instrumental in
bringing to publication, was prominent in many of the literary and political
movements in the early years of the century. Her friendship with Horace
Plunkett led to her becoming a founder member of the United Irishwomen,
later to be known as the Irish Countrywomen’s Association, and she was
also to the fore in the fight for women’s suffrage. Though Ms Mitchell
was a committed advocate of Irish independence she abhorred the violence
carried out in its pursuit, and used her undoubted satirical skills to
state her opposition in such journals as “The Lady of the House” and “The
Irish Statesman”. Hilary Pyle has given us a portrait of a woman who had
a strong affection for her family, despite being brought up away from
them, who was both a satirist and a mystic and who, above all, was possessed
of a wonderful sense of humour.
A Country Miscellany by Alice
Taylor
- Alice Taylor’s latest book, contains a number of stories and reflections
which continue to demonstrate her interest in village and country living.
This volume is beautifully illustrated with photographs by Richard Mills
and, though some of the stories have previously appeared in print, none
has appeared in Ms Taylor’s earlier collections.
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