Read Ireland Book Reviews: August 2000

The Politics of Force: Conflict Management and State Violence in Northern Ireland by Fionnuala Ni Aolain
The use of lethal force by agents of the state between 1969 and 1994 in incidents like Bloody Sunday and the Gibraltar shootings has engendered profound public disquiet in Northern Ireland and indeed throughout the world. Much has been said and written about these controversial deaths, but until now there has been no comprehensive scrutiny of the use of lethal force in Northern Ireland. This important study fills that gap. Analysing the evidence gathered from her unprecedentedly rigorous research, the author demonstrates that lethal force in Northern Ireland is not an isolated aspect of state practice to be explained away as ‘spur-of-the-moment’ decisions by law-enforcers. It is an integral part of the state’s evolving policy of conflict management, along with emergency legislation and the use of legal process. The result is a unique mirror on Northern Ireland’s ‘legal limbo’ and how the state has attempted to manage a protracted emergency within the sometimes constricting framework of a democratic society.

Police Casualties in Ireland 1919-1922 by Richard Abbott
The year 1919 saw the beginning of a serious challenge to the Royal Irish Constabulary, a force whose members had peaceably served the community for many years. Within the space of three years policing had changed out of all recognition throughout Ireland. This book tells the story of these turbulent years and charts the history of both the RIC and the nationalist groups that rose to oppose them, leading to the establishment of the Irish Free State and the eventual disbandment of the force in 1922. The book records in detail accounts of the killing of serving and former members of the RIC, supplying available background details of many of these fatal attacks. These accounts are, where possible, accompanied by thumbnail sketches of the victims and by an overview of the complicated political situation that existed in Ireland at the time.

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Making Peace by George Mitchell
Fifteen minutes before five o’clock on Good Friday 1988, Senator George Mitchell was informed that his long and difficult quest for an Irish peace effort had succeeded the Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland, and the government of the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, would sign the agreement. In this book Mitchell, who served as independent chairman of the peace talks for the length of the process, tells the inside story of the gruelling road to this momentous accord and the subsequent developments that may threaten, or strengthen, the chance for lasting peace in Northern Ireland.

Soldier of the Queen by Bernard O’Mahony
At the age of 19, former juvenile criminal Bernard O’Mahony joined the British Army to escape a looming prison sentence. He signed up with a tank regiment he thought would never serve in Northern Ireland. But before too long he found himself foot-slogging on the border constituency of Bobby Sands just as the imprisoned republican Member of Parliament approached the end of his hunger strike and the north looked set to go up in flames. In his determination to get home alive, Bernard trampled on civilised values and the rule of law. This book is the shocking story of what he got up to. Many readers will find him and his revelations distasteful and outrageous. But the strength of his account lies in the unblinking honesty with which he tells it, neither trying to hide the sort of person he was then, nor offering easy excuses to explain the behaviour of himself and his unit, the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragon Guards. Almost all accounts of army life in Northern Ireland have been written by members of elite or specialist units. This book gives the ordinary British squaddie’s viewpoint of life on the ground at the height of the ‘dirty war’. This is a book which disturbs.

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Guardians of the Peace by Conor Brady
The establishment of an unarmed police force in the Irish Free State was one of the most significant achievements of the early years of Irish self-government. In this book, the author traces the story of the Garda Siochana from its foundation. He details the conflicts and tensions between the Garda leaders and their political masters. He recounts the establishment of the Special Branch in 1925 and the struggle by the Gardai to maintain the rule of law during the years of the Blueshirt movement and the emergency of 1939-1945.

The Outer Edge of Ulster: A Memoir of Social Life in 19th Century Donegal by Hugh Dorian
Hugh Dorian (1834-1914), a writing clerk, watches the ‘Donegal prisoners’ arrive at Derry gaol under a military escort. Indignant at their treatment in print as much as in prison he writes a ‘true historical narrative’ of the transformation of his home community in the nineteenth century. That community, though never named by Dorian, is the Fanaid peninsula on the Atlantic coast of north Donegal. Dorian describes the ordinary and the everyday births, deaths and marriages, hedge-schools and schoolmasters, the poitin industry and donkey races, local systems of land holding, the social position of craftsmen and musicians, and the personal and sectarian hatreds that shaped his childhood. And then he describes the extraordinary and the incomprehensible the Great Famine and the ‘mournful silence’, the sense of communal bereavement, that followed in its wake. The book is prefaced by a scholarly introduction which traces the personal and political troubles that befell the author.

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The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Fein Party 1916-1923 by Michael Laffan
This book examines how, after the Easter Rising of 1916, radical revolutionaries formed a precarious coalition with (relatively) moderate politicians, and analyses the political organization of Irish republicanism during a crucial period. The new Sinn Fein party routed its enemies, co-operated uneasily with the underground Irish government which it had helped to create, and achieved most of its objectives before disintegrating in 1922. Its rapid collapse should not distract from its achievements in particular, its role in ‘democratising’ the Irish revolution. Its successors have dominated the political life of independent Ireland. The book studies in some of the party’s membership and ideology, and also its often tense relationship with the Irish Republican Army. A final chapter examines the fluctuating careers of the later Sinn Fein parties throughout the rest of the twentieth century.

Trinity College Dublin: A Beautiful Place edited by Lynn Mitchell and Elizabeth Mayes
Trinity College is Ireland’s oldest and most famous university, founded by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1592. Originally located outside the city walls, it now stands at the heart of the city, its beautiful buildings and gracious squares formed a forty-two acre oasis of quiet and learning. It is famous for the splendour of its 18th century Georgian architecture, for its numerous treasures, most notably the magnificent early Christian manuscript: the Book of Kells. This book recounts the history of the college, and captures its spirit and charm in a collection of photographs. The book is a pleasing momento of the college’s historical and cultural riches.

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Irish Folk History: Tales from the North by Henry Glassie
Made of the words of the people who live today in the beautiful, embattled countryside of Ulster, this book is the people’s own statement of their past. In story, song, and spontaneous essay, these texts tell of the coming of Christianity, of endless war, of the hardships and delights of rural life. During a time of trouble, the author came into a community of active story-tellers in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and in this book he sets their voices before the reader to present a tale that is at once the story of their tiny community and the story of all of Ireland.

Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions by Ruth Dudley Edwards
Every summer throughout Northern Ireland, tens of thousands of Protestants parade; wearing bowler hats and collarettes and carrying banners with biblical and historical scenes, they are viewed by outsiders as triumphalist bigots lording it over the minority population. However, to the members of the loyal institutions Apprentice Boys, Orange Order and Royal Black Preceptory they are merely commemorating the courage and their forefathers, proudly celebrating hard-won civil and religious freedoms, demonstrating their loyalty to God and the Crown and having an enjoyable day out with their families and friends. During the last five years, organised opposition to these parades has led to violent confrontations: hundreds of journalists and cameramen from around the world arrive at flashpoints like Derry, Drumcree and the Ormeau Road in Belfast to record the violence that could lead to civil war. And almost all outsiders blame the loyal institutions for intransigence and insensitivity in marching where they are not wanted. Noted author and historian Ruth Dudley Edwards tell their story for the first time. A veteran of dozens of parades peaceful and violent she has developed close friendships within the institutions that have given her a unique insight into what their members do and think and stand for, while her Dublin Roman Catholic background provides a critical vantage point from which to assess them. This book presents the untold account of perhaps the most controversial group of people in the United Kingdom and tell as well of their brethren and sisters abroad, from Africa to the United States. Hopelessly inept at public relations, the Ulster Protestants stay silent while their heritage and traditions are traduced around the world. In this book, the author gives them their voice. She brings us the people beneath the ceremonial regalia the farmers and labourers, businessmen and teachers, ministers and pensioners many of whom speak wistfully of the days when their Roman Catholic neighbours would come out and enjoy the parade. She examines their history, traditions and symbolism, records their fears and their joys, and explains how their parades have so often been the symbolic background of the tribal struggles of Northern Ireland

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Looking Back at Francis Bacon by David Sylvester
Controversial in both life and art, Francis Bacon was one of the most important painters of the twentieth century. His monumental, unsettling images have an extraordinary power to disturb, shock and haunt the spectator. In this book, the eminent writer and curator David Sylvester provides the definitive account of the career of an artist whose friend and collaborator he was for more than forty years. Drawing on his unparalleled personal knowledge of Bacon’s inspirations and intentions, he first offers a critical overview of the work’s development from 1933 to the early 1990s, and the addresses its crucial aspects. He also reproduces previously unpublished extracts from his celebrated conversations with Bacon in which the artist speaks about himself, modern painters and the art of the past. Finally, Sylvester gives a brief account of Bacon’s life, correcting errors that elsewhere have been presented as facts. Accompanying the incisive and revealing text are reproductions of almost every Bacon work discussed, as well as some of the images by other artists and photographers that provided their inspiration. This book is the most complete and authoritative book on Francis Bacon yet, a unique portrait of one of the creative geniuses of our age. With 230 illustrations, 84 in colour, including 12 triptych fold-outs.

Francis Bacon in Dublin by David Sylvester
Published in association with the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, this volume accompanies the first exhibition of Francis Bacon’s paintings to be held in his native city for four decades. Curated by David Sylvester, the internationally renowned critic and curator, and Bacon’s close friend for more than forty years, the exhibition surveys the whole of the artist’s career from the early 1930s through to the late 1980s. The paintings in the show, all of which are reproduced in this book in full colour, include some of his most important and finest works, and several which have never been exhibited in a public gallery. Sylvester’s notes to the plates present a concise account of Bacon’s artistic development, highlighting the central themes, motifs and techniques that evolved or remained constant throughout his career. In addition, accompanying texts by Grey Gowrie, Louis le Brocquy, Anthony Cronin and Paul Durcan, all of whom new Bacon personally, provide fascinating insights into the artist’s life, work and personality. With 66 colour illustrations.

Tracings: Volume 1 edited by Hugh Campbell and Bill Hastings
Architecture in Ireland has begun to assume a place in the public mind. There is, however, still very little critical discussion of the ideas and purposes that animate it, or of its place in the wider national and international context of environmental provision. This journal aims to create a forum for exposition and debate. The theme of this first volume is the sense of belonging to a place and is a reflection on social and cultural change which keeps the contemporary Irish experience in sight.

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Screening Ireland: Film and Television Representation by Lance Pettitt
This book examines a century of screen representation of Ireland from a cultural studies perspective. Skillfully exploring historical and contemporary examples from Irish Destiny to Father Ted this book provides an innovative, theoretically informed analysis of both film and television that is comprehensively researched and clearly written. The book succinctly synthesises current debates about Irish history and cultural criticism, as well as providing concise histories of cinema and television in Ireland. It offer a wide-ranging discussion of Hollywood, British, indigenous Irish and independent diaspora films and a selection of different television genres. It argues that Ireland’s case exemplifies and complicates conventional models of national cinema, television history and postcolonial theories of culture.

Irish Genealogical Sources No. 17 Index to the 1821 Census of Crosserlough, Co. Cavan by Marie Keogh
This volume has over 8000 names, addresses, occupations and ages of people in over seventy Townlands in the Civil Parish of Crosserlough (Kildrumfertin) in the Ulster county of Cavan. Various occupations are listed ranging from apothecary to weaver providing an unique study of the population of this area over a generation before Civil Registration was introduced in Ireland. Many of the inhabitants listed by Marie Keogh were born in the late 1700s and since fragments of the 1821 Census are rare and, indeed, no full Census of Ireland exists prior to 1901, this volume should prove to be of considerable interest to genealogists, social historians and others research this part of Ireland. The Genealogical Society of Ireland acknowledges the kind donation towards the cost of the production of this valuable heritage publication received from Cavan County.

Irish Genealogical Sources No. 18 Dublin’s Riviera in the Mid 19th Century

This fine publication was compiled by Brendan Hall & George H. O’Reilly and its production received financial assistance from Mr. Norman Duffy, Chief Executive of DFAn Laoghaire Rathdown County Tourism. “Dublin’s Riviera” stretching from Booterstown to Killiney Bay and taking in Kingstown, Dalkey and areas in between, Dublin’s Riviera has been successfully marketed in recent times as a place to go and a place to spend some time enjoying the scenes and sights of one of the oldest tourist destinations on this island. This book of over 155 pages provides descriptive extracts from Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary, originally published in 1837, covering the main areas of the Riviera, with the names and addresses of local residents extracted from Thom’s Directory of 1846 and from a local Directory published in 1867. It is hoped that this information will be of use to the family historian and genealogist in tracing family and friends who may have lived in the area in times past.

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Irish Genealogical Sources No. 19 Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny 1901 Census compiled by Tom Delaney
This 292 page volume contains details of the over five and a half thousand individuals who lived in the various townlands making up the Electoral Division of Castlecomer in County Kilkenny in 1901. The most popular surname in the area was Brennan followed by Ryan, Bolger, Boyle, Brophy, Wilson, Buggy, Byrne, Campion, Cantwell with Comerford, McDonald and Delaney also very numerous. Included are age, occupation, relationships with households etc. and with each family listed separately this volume will be an invaluable aid to the genealogist and local historian with an interest in Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.

Irish Genealogical Sources No. 20 Directory of Merchants & Traders of Dublin in 1798 Compiled by Sheila Martin
The Dublin of 1798 was a city with a University, Cathedrals, Banks, and businesses aplenty. A new Custom House had just been completed in 1791 replacing that near Parliament Street. The Bank of Ireland had been established in 1782. The Merchants of Dublin had partially funded the building of City Hall in 1769. The Royal Canal Company was founded in 1793. John’s Lane Distillery opened in that year, also. The foundation stone for Commercial Buildings was laid in 1796. This book is an attempt to give some understanding of what trades and businesses existed in Dublin in 1798 and on which the normal everyday life of a major city depends. Over 4,800 people, working at occupations as diverse as silk throwster and peruke maker, are listed herein. Bearing in mind that the population of Dublin in 1795 was around 180,000 the relative importance of the Traders and Merchants in the city of Dublin can be seen. Some of the people listed would have been sole traders while others, no doubt, employed many. The names, trades and addresses in the Directory have been extracted by Sheila Martin from ‘The Gentleman’s and Citizen’s Almanack’ itself compiled by John Watson Stewart in 1798. For ease of reference the names are in alphabetical order and later in street order.

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The Walled Garden by Catherine Dunne
Beth flew the coop as soon as she could, making a life for herself in London. James, her more dutiful brother, stayed in Dublin, raising a family not far from their mother, Alice. Now Alice is dying and Beth has returned to the shabby grandeur of her childhood home to keep vigil by her bedside. Unable to speak, the only way Alice feels she can bridge the gap of misunderstanding between her and Beth is to write to her to seek reconciliation. Set during the last days of Alice’s life, this novel explores the fragile nature of a mother-daughter relationship, its hopes and expectations, its guilt and regrets. It is also an extraordinarily perceptive novel about childhood and growing old, magical and gripping in subtlety of its telling.

Track & Field by Cormac James
Set in the immediate aftermath of civil war in Ireland, this novel tells the story of a thirty-six hour journey in which three brothers set out to return the remains of a fourth member of their party to its final resting place. As events unfold, however, it becomes clear the chaos they encounter enroute only mirrors the violent anarchy in their own relations. Unspoken tensions, both personal and patriotic, continue to mount until one roadblock too many sets the scene for an intense and brutal climax. Underscored by a dark and sometimes vicious humour, this novel is a compelling story of three men’s struggle to express their own desolation, as well as a sharp-edged snapshot of a fledgling state.

Any Other Time by John Trolan
It’s 1986, Dublin. Meet Davy Bleedin’ Byrne. Hardworking, enterprising, and full of initiative, Davy is a sign of the time. Dribbling at the brim with intent, and with the reluctant support of his buddy Mickey Hughes, Davy doesn’t take what he thinks should be his, he takes what he wants. The consequences are comical, disastrous and tragic. This novel evokes a time and a place with startling immediacy. Set in the underworld of junkie Dublin and refreshingly written from the inside out, it conveys the inescapable feeling that nothing has been omitted, besides the numbers on the doors.

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Take 2 by Marian Murphy
Clare looked around her apartment one last time, took a deep breath, and left. The click of the door behind her had a satisfying finality. Now all she had to do was find a life she might want to live. Clare needs escape from the city, from a humdrum career, from the aftermath of a disastrous love affair. And for Clare ‘escape’ means only one thing: her little cottage in Connemara in the West of Ireland. There, she finds herself converting the cottage outbuildings into holiday home and though her blueprint does not include a new man in her life, relationships too have a way of developing

Big Mouth by Blanaid McKinney
This book is the author’s first book, a collection of eleven superbly-crafted short stories. These are stories of jewel-like precision, the work of a writer passionate about the word. A beautiful young man systematically trashes the car that destroyed his world, piece by piece, with calm violence in the shimmering metallic heat. A middle-aged woman attains a kind of release from her mute husband an underground train driver silenced by the horror of a ‘leaper’ in London’s subterranean waterways. Aga in and again, McKinney returns to her fascination with the power of the voice, her characters finding freedom of speech in the author’s own extraordinary imagination.

The Largest Baby in Ireland After the Famine by Anne Barnett
This novel is set in mid-Ulster, during World War I. Every Sunday the men meet at the bridge. Felix Campbell was there with a couple dozen others. Farmers all, some creating the impression that they lived a more urgent and passionate existence in the fighting fields of France than in the potato fields of reality. Felix was smoking and talking when the bridge-gatherers spotted a figure moving over the brae. The walker was a woman, most certainly, but who? And where could a stranger be heading when there was nowhere she could go that the men wouldn’t have known about? Then she appeared. She was all colour and sway, and as far away as imaginable from the local women. Pale, pale skin and strong dark auburn hair falling free to large wide hips. She wore a purple shawl. That night, Felix, a bachelor, aged 43, living in the house he was born in, dreamt of purple.

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