Read Ireland Book Reviews, January 2000

Stone Mad for the Music: The Slibh Luachra Story by Donal Hickey
Slibh Luachra is the wet upland region, dominated by the imposing Paps mountains, that straddles the infant River Blackwater along the Cork-Kerry border. The area is famous for its poetry, and for traditional music and dance. In this lively and informative book, the author brings together the various strands that make Sliabh Luachra such a unique place: the music, the singing, the dance, the stories, the poetry, the indomitable spirit of the people in good times and bad.

The Story of Irish Dance by Helen Brennan
This book is a full account of the phenomenon of Irish Dance. Writing in a style that is authoritative but very accessible to the general reader, the author traces this story back to the early accounts of dance customs in medieval Ireland. She focuses on the developments of the 19th century (with the introduction of quadrilles, waltzes, etc.) and explores how dance played a vital role in the formation of a new national culture. A wealth of colourful anecdotes bring alive the surprisingly strong conflicts which arose in relation to dance - conflicts with puritanical church leaders; between native dancers and bureaucratic instructors; and over what constituted ‘real’ Irish dancing. In modern times there has been a revival of set-dancing, and there has been the enormous international success of Riverdance. This is a lively and fascinating account of the many aspects of Irish dance.

The Spirit of the City: Voices from Dublin’s Liberties by Bernadette Flanagan
The study of spirituality in a modern urban setting is a new challenge facing Christianity. In this book the author sets out to sketch the post-modern milieu in which the Christian experience of the residents of Dublin’s South Inner City is unfolding. She points out that spiritual experience is always embedded in a cultural matrix. The Liberties is well described by her in geographical and socio-cultural terms. Her historical sketch of the Liberties shows how this area became the Dublin of the poor. The Liberties, through the course of its history, has been a place of hospitality for those driven from their families and homelands, whether they be Huguenots, Jews or refugees. Through all these changes the community has always been characterised by enormous resilience and vibrancy.

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The Border: Personal Reflections from Ireland, North and South edited by Paddy Logue
Asked the question: ‘What is the border and what does it mean to you?’, a plethora of Irish and Northern Irish persons responded, including: Gerry Adams, Esmond Birnie, Seamus Deane, Polly Devlin, Hugh Frazer, Lord Anthony Gifford, Mary Holland, Jennifer Johnston, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, Bernadette McAliskey, Nell McCafferty, Eamon McCann, Frank McGuinness, Gary Mitchell, Christy Moore, Austen Morgan, Paul Muldoon, Dervla Murphy, Nuala O’Faolain, Ardal O’Hanlon and Rurairi Quinn to name only a few. Inis Meain Images: Ten Days in August 1912 by Henry Cecil Wilson (Hardback; 15.00 IEP/21.50 USD) In August 1912, Cecil Watson visited Inis Meain, the middle island of the Arans. Using a box camera, he took a series of pictures capturing, for ever, the people and landscape, and the interaction between the two. Published here for the first time is a selection of Cecil Watson’s photographs. They are striking images of the life of a community at a time when the people were seemingly unaware that their traditions and ways were on the brink of collapse. Dublin Today by Pat Liddy (Hardback; 10.00 IEP/13.50 USD) The city’s changing face, in text and illustrations selected from the Irish Times. The book is a mine of information on the aspects of building, street furniture, and miscellaneous objects passed daily in journeying through Dublin city. This book will bring a smile of reminiscence, add a little knowledge, and encourage the reader to seek further into the many fascinating aspects of Dublin city that can remain hidden from the everyday hurrying eyes. The author’s pen in text and illustration evidences his ever searching eye for detail which he brings to the attention of the reader in this personal choice based on the series published weekly in the Irish Times.

Dress in Ireland: A History by Mairead Dunlevy
Throughout much of our history, the clothes worn gave signals to contemporaries of the status, aspiration and wealth of the wearer, for many centuries this was shown through clothing that protected against wind and rain, the length of fabric used in a garment, the number of garments owned and the ownership of cloth which did not scratch the skin. Status was signalled too through the use of particular colours, which were controlled by law. These signals and many others are recalled in this book, all of which related to aspects of the lives and attitudes of our ancestors. The work is based on historical and archaeological research and on contemporary literature and documents. Each chapter begins with a brief historical summary of the political and military history of the period. Costume is then considered under the relevant headings of the period - English and Irish dress styles in Ireland as well as that at Court and that of the poor. At the end of each chapter a listing of the textiles used during the period is given as well as references to source material for students of Irish dress and textiles.

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The Story of the Court Laundry by Robert Tweedy
The art of laundering fabric emerged thousands of years ago when people first brought their clothes to the nearest river and whacked them off a rock. As time went by, soap was developed and the craft was honed down to become a definable domestic skill. In the wake of the vast mechanisation of the industrial revolution, new technology brought some change to the laundering of clothes but it still remained as mainly a ‘cottage’ industry. In Ireland, the domestic commercial laundry did not really take a strong footing until the end of the 19th century. A hundred years later it had vanished as an industry and way of life for its workers. Domestic technology, together with modern fabrics and fashion trends, totally superseded this unique business. This illustrated volume chronicles the growth and demise of an industry which is a memory in the minds of only a very few. It overviews not only the workings of the laundry, but also the changing social and industrial circumstances and attitudes from the 1916 Rising through the First World War, Irish Independence right up to the 1960s.

Religion in Ireland: Past, Present and Future edited by Denis Carroll
Religion has been a formative ingredient in Irish society for a very long time. It recent times, religion, like every other aspect of our social and cultural life, has been experiencing rapid and challenging times. In Seán MacReamoinn’s phrase, ‘religion in Ireland seeks to be with the past, in the present and for the future.’ Ireland’s religious past has been a divided one, and this book provides the insights and hopes of the various religious groups in the country: Michael Drumm on Catholicism since the Reformation; Bishop Richard Clarke on the Church of Ireland; John Dunlop on Irish Prebysterians; Robert Dunlop on the minority churches; and Dermot Keogh on the Jewish contribution to Irish society. Josephy Liechty talks about sectarianism. And Sean MacReamoinn gives an historical overview of the relationship between faith and culture in Ireland, and Donal Flanagan recalls some of the lost voices in Irish religious history.

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Celtic Threads: Exploring the Wisdom of Our Heritage edited by Padraigin Clancy
Ireland in the late twentieth century is seeing a new turning towards matters Celtic, including a marked interest in Celtic spirituality. This book is a collection of essays on that subject. Edited by the Irish Folklorist, it features contributions from well-known scholars and personalities, including Sean O Duinn (Benedictine monk), Nuala Ahern MEP (Green Party), John Moriarty (philosopher/storyteller), Noirin Ni Riain (female vocalist), Mary Condren (feminist theologian), and Michael Rodgers (of the Geldalough Retreat Centre). Drawing from the pre-Christian and Christian ‘Celtic’ story, the collection moves through the wonders and the darkness of the Celtic tradition. It asks: Is Celtic Spirituality soul food or junk food? How can it be of value today? Why is the archetype of war pre-dominant in the Irish psyche? What about the quality of mercy? How can Celtic spirituality contribute to the process for peace? The book also includes an extensive resource list on Celtic spirituality in Ireland.

Celtic Rituals: An Authentic Guide to Ancient Celtic Spirituality by Alexei Kondratiev
Certain aspects of Celtic tradition offer resources to those who are attuned to it that will help them renew their deep links with the living reality of the Land they live on. This beautifully written book is devoted to suggesting guidelines for the establishment and running of Celtic ritual circles. It outlines possible rules for membership, the need to become conversant with Celtic culture and mythology and at least one of the surviving Celtic languages. As outstanding feature is the actual formula of words given for each of the Celtic rituals and visualisation sequences. The rituals are closely connected with the passage of time, especially the four seasons with their solstices and equinoxes, as well as other feast days.

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Ireland After History by David Lloyd
This collections of linked essays draws on a range of theoretical resources, from Walter Benjamin and the Frankfurt school to subaltern historiography and Marxist critiques of ideology. This volume addresses a wide variety of Irish cultural phenomena, from politics to cinema, from poetry to murals, but focuses primarily on the tired dichotomies of nationalism and revisionism in order to establish alternative possibilities, both theoretical and practical, from the understanding of the past and the shaping of the future. This book is an outstanding contribution to Irish studies; it is innovative and challenging, and it should provoke much debate.

Dublin Metropolitan Police by Mary Scanlon
In this fascinating and concise study, the author traces the history of the Dublin Metropolitan Police - through troubled times for Ireland to the force’s eventual demise.

Lie of the Land: Journeys Through Literary Cork by Mary Leland
The rich literary heritage of Cork city and county is brought to life in this engaging new guide to the region which will be indispensable to visitors and citizens alike. Each chapter is divided by geographical location inviting the reader to follow in the footsteps of writers who have been profoundly influenced by the unique landscape of Cork. Political rows, literary discords, romantic tragedy, and a host of heroes and heroines are to be encountered in this volume. The first legends, the bardic poets, the scribes and recorders, editors, collections and antiquarians join a vast array of well know writers united in their shared relationship with the landscape.

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100 Years of Derry by Roy Hamilton
Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Inishowen mountains, Derry has one of the most beautiful and panoramic locations of any Irish city, with its steep streets rising high about the River Foyle. Dating from a small monastic settlement in the 6th century, its strategic position meant that by Elizabethan times it was a fortress city, making it witness to some of the most bitter conflicts in Irish history, right down to the very recent past. All of this have given Derry and its people a unique, robust identity, an identity that is vividly captured here in over 200 black-and-white photographs of the city in the 20th century. Accompanied by lively and informative captions and text, and arranged by decade, the photographs depict emigrant ships leaving for America, hiring fairs, the First World War, the depression, the Second World War, visiting showbands, civil rights agitation and the outbreak of the Troubles, Bloody Sunday, President Clinton’s visit and the recent regeneration of a city now poised self-confidently on the threshold of the new millennium.

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Private Ireland by Simon McBride and Karen Howes
This book opens the door on a unique style of living and gains entry into the castles, fine Georgian terraces, farmhouses, provincial cottage and eccentric follies that make up so many of the country’s private homes. A visual exploration of Irish living style, both north and south, this book documents the setting, the character and idiosyncrasies of each featured home - whether an historic abbey, a romantic castle, a Dublin townhouse, or a simple white-washed cottage by the sea. The houses and studios of some of the country’s most interesting and creative spirits are included here, from writers, artists and musicians to artisans, architects and designers.

A Season of Sundays: Images of the 1999 Gaelic Games by the Sportsfile photographers
This book embraces the very heart and soul of Ireland’s national games as captured by the award winning team of photographers at the Sportsfile photographic agency. With text by Sports Journalist of the Year, Tom Humphries, it is a treasured record of the 1999 GAA season to be savoured and enjoyed by players, spectators and enthusiasts worldwide.

Murder Madness: True Crimes of the Troubles by Alan Simpson
This book is an account of many of the crimes that the author helped to investigate in the course of his career. He combines these cases with recollections of his varied police career through the years, conveying the tense atmosphere in which member of the RUC operated during the height of the Troubles. He joined the RUC as a Constable in 1970 and retired in 1993 as a Detective Superintendent and Deputy Head of Belfast CID. He was stationed in some of the most difficult areas of the city and witnessed at first hand much of mayhem caused by the Troubles. This book is not simply a series of true murder tales, although it is that. It recaptures the atmosphere and tension of the Troubles from a uniquely privileged perspective. Among the cases the author investigated were the kidnapping of Thomas Neidermayer, the West German consul in Belfast; the series of appalling murders committed by Lenny Murphy and the Shankill Butchers, including the notorious ‘romper room’ killings; and the Provisional IRA’s murder of the prison officer William McConnell, a crime for which the essential intelligence preparation had been done by a disgruntled civil servant.

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Father Ted: The Complete Scripts edited by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews
Since they were banished to a remote island off the coast of Ireland because of mysterious clerical misdeeds, Father Ted Crilly, Father Dougal McGuire, Father Jack Hackett and their housekeeper Mrs. Doyle have been entertaining countless television viewers. While Ted dreams of a more high-class parish, Dougal attempts to grasp complex theological issues between games of Cluedo, Jack shouts ‘Drink! Feek! Arse! Girls! With little or no provocation and Mrs. Doyle does her best to give Irish friendliness and hospitality a bad name. This book is a collection of late, but not final drafts - jokes, characters and scenes that didn’t make it into the popular comedy series are here, along with an introduction to each episode by the authors, which explains how the insane plotlines arose. So whether you are a fan of the show, or simply interested in how a comedy programme makes the final leap from page to screen, this book will delight and inform you.

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After the Good Friday Agreement: Analysing Political Change in Northern Ireland edited by Joseph Ruane and Jennifer Todd
This book is an up-to-date account of the impact of the Good Friday Agreement offering a theoretical understanding of the processes and forces at work in making and implementing the Agreement. The contributors draw on theories of globalisation, conflict resolution, employment equality, liberalism, postmodernism, and theories of the state and citizenship to analyse the changes and the continuities.

Ten-Thirty-Three: The Inside Story of Britain’s Secret Killing Machine in Northern Ireland by Nicholas Davies
This book reveals the secret conspiracy between British Military Intelligence and the gunmen of the Ulster Defence Association who targeted and killed Republican terrorists, Sinn Fein activists and even ordinary Catholics. Ten-Thirty-three was the code number given to Brian Nelson, the UDA’s chief intelligence officer, who worked for the Force Research Unit, Britain’s secret Northern Ireland Intelligence Unit. It reveals how British Army intelligence gave details of Provo and Sinn Fein activists to Ten-Thirty-Three, providing photographs, names, addresses, car registration numbers and any other information necessary for Loyalist gunmen to carry out their murderous activities. This secret partnership was known about at the very highest level of Government, and full details of planned operations, including killings, were passed through the Joint Irish Section - staffed by MI5 officers - directly to the British Government’s Joint Intelligence Committee in London.

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The Skywriter by Terry Prone
This is novel with steel and menace at its core but it is also warm, funny and engaging - about family life and relationships of all kinds. At twenty, Dominique has it all. Fame - as the star of a TV soap. An award-winning advertising executive boyfriend who adores her. She has good looks, money and a career to die for. Then a family tragedy changes her life. It puts her under pressure to marry a man she does not love, to live in a way she never planned. Coping with two adopted children, stalked by a deadly enemy from her past, finding her husband has secrets she never anticipated, she breaks through to new possibilities and falls fiercely, passionately in love.

Ghosts in Sunlight by Gretta Curran Browne
Into the gripping plot of this novel, the author has woven the eternal themes of love and loss, cruelty and revenge, wealth and power. This is the story of an orphan’s search for an identity, a mother’s obsessive jealousy, a killer’s cold callousness. Above all, it is the compelling story of a search for love, and a quest to avenge the death of a loved one. No ordinary thriller, this complex modern tale is germinated in the fertile soils of the past. Set primarily in London, the book spans the years from 1940 to 1995 - from Paris during the French Resistance through 1960s London and the Kennedy era. It is a story of tender love and youth, which suddenly takes a startling change of direction, racing into the publishing world of the 1990s.

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Lines of Most Resistance: The Lords, The Tories and Ireland, 1886-1914 by Edward Peace
This book concerns the furious and bitter politics of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, but in its description of fights over Ireland and the House of Lords it could hardly be more topical. The author has undertaken original research in the press and political records of a hundred years ago. He catches the enraged mood of Conservatives at the thought of granting to Ireland then what has just now been conceded to Scotland. The recurring crisis, from Bladstone’s first attempt to solve ‘the Irish problem’ in 1886 and the arming of Ulster Volunteers to resist the horror of a Dublin Parliament in 1913-14, is explored, and with it two related political explosions: the Lloyd George budget of 1909, which the House of Lords rejected, and the Parliament Act of 1911 which, after a tense and vicious struggle, stripped the Lords of their veto. The author has also unearthed the extravagance and paranoia of right-wing politics before the First World War.

Longings and Legacies: Irish Perspectives on the New Millennium by Ann Marie McMahon
This book peeps into the mind of the Irish people on the brink of the new millennium, and listens to the words of wisdom emanating from all sections of Irish society, including the high and mighty and the ordinary person in the street. It looks at the aspirations and longings of all who are about to shape - or are involved in - the future.

Civil War in Ulster by Joseph Johnston
This book, originally published in 1913, analyses the events leading up to the massive arming of the Orangemen which followed the Larne gunrunning. Joseph Johnston, an Ulster Protestant writing as a Liberal supporter of Home Rule, debunks the supposed dangers to Protestantism, analyses the role of Church and State in various European countries and exposes how the people of Ulster were used as pawns in the armed Tory conspiracy to undermine the then Liberal government. He gives the book’s target Protestant readership an outline of recent Irish history, making the case that Home Rule had many positive features, and that none of the perceived negative features would be worth fighting a civil war to avoid. Although Johnston’s objective in writing the book was unsuccessful and the point of view has been largely forgotten, his highly readable book provides a fascinating insight into the thoughts and fears of the population of Ulster at a critical time in Irish history.

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Irish Act of Union by Patrick Geoghegan
The Act of Union has dominated Irish history for almost two centuries. Symbolically, it is the defining event of modern Ireland, a focal point for the swirling issues of nationalism and political identity. The union of Great Britain and Ireland was a genuine if flawed attempt to create a new Anglo-Irish relationship. It failed because of the protracted circumstances of its birth, the corruption that accompanied its passing and the inability of Pitt’s government to carry Catholic emancipation with it. This book examines two key areas which although inextricably linked have previously been separated by historians: the passage of the Act of Union and the resignation of Pitt in 1801. Uniquely, the author argues that the two events are part of the same story.

Frank Henderson’s Easter Rising: Recollections of a Dublin Volunteer edited by Michael Hopkinson
Frank Henderson, who became Commandant of the Second Battalion of Dublin’s Irish Volunteers, was brought up in Fairview, an inner northside suburb of Dublin. Both parents had imbibed Fenian sentiments in Manchester, although the Henderson line had Scottish, Protestant and even Orange antecedents. In a family memoir originally in Irish, Frank Henderson reveals the influence of his parents and the Christian Brothers in moulding his militancy and pride in Irish culture. His second memoir related the wartime growth of the Irish Volunteers, Henderson’s contacts with leaders such as Pearse and de Valera, and his experiences in, on and beyond the General Post Office. Equally fascinating is his account of internment in Stafford and Frongoch. The editor surveys Henderson’s subsequent involvement in armed resistance against Britain and later the Irish Free State. The publication of these recollections will illuminate the mentality and outlook of the revolutionary generation.

The 1916 Proclamation by John O’Connor
On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, the tricolour flag was hoisted over the General Post Office. Shortly after noon Padraig Pearse, standing beneath the high portico, read the Proclamation publicly proclaiming Ireland a republic and a sovereign independent state. In this classic book, first published in 1986 and recently updated, the author recounts the birth of this historic document which was to become one of the cornerstones of the new state.

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Ireland in the 1930s edited by Joost Augusteijn
The history of independent Ireland and in particular the somewhat shadowy period of the inter-war years has so far mainly been dealt with in a general manner. Much of the existing work has concentrated on the constitutional relationship between Ireland and Britain. This volume brings together some of the wealth of exciting research on the 1930s which has been done in recent years. Contents include chapters on: Holy crosses, guns and roses: themes in popular reading material; Cultural imperatives: the Irish language revival and the education system; Root them in the land: cottage schemes for agricultural labourers; Dr. Dorothy Price and the elimination of childhood tuberculosis; Ireland, the pope and vocationalism; General O’Duffy, the National Corporate Party and the Irish Brigade.

Irish Prehistory: A Social Perspective by Gabriel Cooney and Eoin Grogan
This book is an important study of the process of social change in the prehistoric period. It pulls together the links between different kinds of archaeological evidence and data, and analyses the major social transitions that occurred, resulting in the dramatic changes that were a feature of Irish society over the course of prehistory.

Prelude to Restoration in Ireland: End of the Commonwealth, 1659 -1660 by Aidan Clarke
This study fills a major gap in the mainstream narrative of Irish history by reconstructing political developments in the year before the restoration of Charles II. It is the first treatment of the complex Irish dimension of the king’s return. The issue of the monarchy did not stand alone in Ireland. Entangled with it was the question of how the restoration of the old regime would affect a Protestant colonial community which had changed in character and fortune as a result of the Cromwellian conquest, the immigration that had accompanied it, and the massive transfer of land that followed. As the return of Charles became increasingly probably, Cromwellian and pre-Cromwellian settlers were united in their determination to ensure that the restoration of Charles did not deprive them of their gains. This account discloses how the leaders of the Protestant establishment protected its interests by managing the transition back to monarchy.

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Irish Men and Women in the Second World War by Richard Doherty
Almost all the Irish men and women who took part in World War Two were volunteers - the greater proportion of them from the Irish Free State, a country that was officially neutral. Using personal interviews and memoirs, the author provides a vivid account of their experiences. This is what the war was like for those who won decoration and also for the unsung heroes, men and women, service personnel, medics, chaplains, and nurses.

A New Day Dawning: A Portrait of Ireland in 1900 by Daniel Mulhall
This book describes the political and cultural ferment that gripped Ireland the last time a century turned. Based on contemporary books and newspaper sources, and copiously illustrated with photographs from the period, this book offers a stark insight into the conditions that prevailed in the Ireland on 1900. There is an account of the crimes that captured public attention at a time when urban and rural poverty were rife, the emigrant ship remained a common experience and the workhouse often provided a last refuge for the poor and the old. Readers are offered an opportunity to contrast Ireland’s plight with its current situation. A final chapter draws conclusions about Ireland’s advancement during the twentieth century.

A Candle in the Window: A History of the Barony of Castleknock by Jim Lacey
The Barony of Castleknock lies six miles from Dublin on the Navan Road. Its first castle was built by the Norman Hugh Tyrell but it was the rallying point for the forces of the last High King of Ireland, Rory O’Connor, in his vain attempt to drive the Gall from the village of Dublin in 1171. And that was only the beginning. The author’s family has lived in the area for four generations. His sparkling text is enhanced by the photographs and paintings of the local parish priest, Father Eugene Kennedy. The story of the unquenchable candle of the title is one of many fascinating tales from the area. His coverage is extensive, taking in Luttrellstown, Porterstown, Coolmine, Mulhuddart, Blanchardstown, Dunsink, Cabra, Ashtown, Chapelizod, Clonsilla, Corduff and Phoenix Park.

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