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Read Ireland Book Reviews, December 2000
Catherine Hayes:
The Hibernian Prima Donna by Basil Walsh
The achievements of the Irish-born prima donna Catherine Hayes are relatively
unknown to the musical world and opera connoisseurs of the present day.
This is the first definitive biography of this important nineteenth-century
Ireland singer, thoroughly researched and presented in an accessible and
entertaining style, with related photographs and a chronology of her performances.
Catherine Hayes was born in Limerick in 1818 into abject poverty. She
rose from total obscurity to great fame in the opera houses and concert
halls of Europe, America and Australia in the mid-nineteenth century.
She competed on the stages of Europe’s best opera houses with Jenny Lind
and Henrietta Sontag. Queen Victoria mentioned her in her diaries. Catherine
Hayes learned to speak French, wrote and spoke Italian fluently despite
having no formal education. Tragically, she died from a stroke in London,
aged 42. Her short life as packed with excitement, great success, fame
and fortune, and phenomenal earnings. She was fiercely Irish, though born
in an era when it was more prudent to be British. This book tells the
story of the achievements of this unique, young woman who embodied all
the spirit, tenacity and perseverance of her race, and who made a very
important contribution to Irish musical history.
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Finally and
In Conclusion: A Political Memoir by Barry Desmond
Barry Desmond’s habit of telling it like he saw it kept him close to controversy
during 30 years in politics from the 1960s to the 1990s, repeatedly challenging
the once high and mighty, from beef barons to bishops and trade unionists
to Taoisigh. Throughout, he remained his own man, as often at loggerheads
with some within his own party as with his opponents. From a young upstart
in the Labour Party he went on to become a central participant in the
party’s fortunes in and out of government and a reforming Minister for
Health. From opposing his own party’s stand on EU membership in the 1970s,
he took on the Catholic Church over contraception in the 1980s and played
a crucial back-room role in Labour’s success in the 1990s.
At the Coalface:
Recollections of a City and Country Priest, 1950-2000 by J. Anthony Gaughan
Fr. J. Anthony Gaughan has experienced many aspects of life in the Archdiocese
of Dublin during the past fifty years. His recollections provide a fascinating
insight into the lives and work of Dublin priests during that period.
Of particular interest are his shrewd, amusing and kindly, even critical,
sketches of colleagues and others which will bring a smile to many a face.
In addition to memories of parishes where he served as curate and parish
priest, Fr. Gaughan also recounts what it was like to be a clerical student
in the 1950s when vocations to the priesthood were plentiful.
James Dillon:
A Biography by Maurice Manning
This book fills a significant gap in the recent political history of Ireland.
It adds considerably to our understanding of how the State’s institutions
and political system became defined after independence. It examines, from
a hitherto unexplored perspective, how the processes of parliamentary
opposition operated in the new democracy which as the Irish Free State
and later the Republic of Ireland. The book is a valuable and original
chronicle, from a unique perspective, of Ireland in formative, difficult
and challenging times. It is an Ireland that is scarcely recognisable
today.
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Noel Brown:
Passionate Order by John Horgan
In three short years, from 1948 to 1951, Dr. Noel Browne left an indelible
mark on the Irish political landscape. His controversial Mother and Child
Scheme, which was vetoed by the Catholic bishops at the instigation of
the medical profession and was then abandoned by the Cabinet, was a defining
moment in Irish church-state relations, and in the Irish political history
of the twentieth century. This first major biography explores in fascinating
detail the entire life of the man and gives the reader the first rounded
picture of a complex, passionate and controversial individual.
An Hourglass
on the Run: The Story of a Preacher by James A. Feehan
The author grew up in the rural Ballinure area of County Tipperary. In
this book, he vividly evokes the varied cast of characters he knew as
a child. He was ordained as a priest for the diocese of Cashel in 1950
and went to minister in New Zealand until a vacancy should occur in his
own Irish diocese. When he returned to Ireland in 1957, he found a changed
society. In this book he lets his life run through an hourglass and picks
out some individual grains of sand that makes for great stories.
Stealing Sunlight:
Growing up in Irishtown by Angeline Kearns Blain
Growing up in a south Dublin slum, the author observed with the intense
vision of a child how the lives of men and women diverged. Her father,
a soldier, went on manoeuvres around Ireland (picking up syphilis along
the way) while ‘Ma begged and borrowed to keep us from dying young.’ The
author and her three brothers roamed the streets. At thirteen she left
school and for a year trawled the Ringsend dump for cinders, which she
sold for a shilling a sack. Funny, sad and harsh, with the bitter ring
of truth, this extraordinary memoir of Dublin in the 1940s and 1950s recreates
a forgotten community.
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Letters from
the Front edited by Jean Kelly
The letters collected in this book tell the true love story of Eric Apple
by and Phyllis Kelly, who met and fell in love during the First World
War. Eric was from Liverpool who enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery
in 1914 and was sent to Athlone for training. There he met Phyllis who
was a native of the town. The collection consists of some 200 letters,
field service postcards and telegrams. Eric’s 1916 diary has been used
to verify the locations and events. The letters cover Eric’s experiences
from the time he left Athlone in 1915 until October 1916, the tail-end
of the Somme offensive. They show how much he depended on Phyllis’s love
and her letters to help him deal with the horrors of war.
Donal McCann
Remembered: A Tribute edited by Pat Laffan and Faith O’Grady
This book is remarkable blend of reminiscence, anecdote and image that
offers a fascinating insight into the life and personality of the late
actor. The wide range of contributors - from his acting and directing
contemporaries to his bookie and favourite barman - reveal the many sides
to his complex and unpredictable character: his unique talent, his struggles
with personal demons, his deep spirituality, and his mercurial nature
- at once gentle and volatile, sensitive and irascible. Replete with drawings
by the actor, a talented caricaturist, along with photographs from his
life on and off the state and screen, this book is a captivating scrapbook
on the life and times of one of the greatest Irish actors of all time.
The Dublin
and Monaghan Bombings by Don Mullen
The Dublin and Monaghan bombings constitute the biggest unsolved murder
case in the Irish State. They account for the single greatest loss of
life in any one day of the so-called Troubles. Thirty-one Irish people,
together with a French and an Italian citizen, were murdered, and hundreds
were maimed. After a quarter of a century the bereaved and injured consider
themselves doubly wounded because of their treatment by the Irish State
and its agents. They seek public accountability. They want to know the
truth. The author’s research on Bloody Sunday was crucial in forcing the
establishment of the Saville Inquiry. He now examines the Dublin and Monaghan
bombings, the subsequent investigations, the political responses and the
media coverage. Mullan says: ‘The suspected involvement of British military
intelligence in assisting Loyalist paramilitaries to place no-warning
bombs, dwarfs Bloody Sunday in its implications.’ This book tackles questions
unanswered since 1974 - questions with far-reaching ramifications for
the Irish and British states and their institutions and citizens.
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Disappeared:
The Search for Jean McConville by Seamus McKendry
In 1972, a young widow was dragged from her bath screaming and bundled
into a waiting van while her children looked on in horror. Although accused
of many things, Jean McConville’s only ‘crime’ was to be a Protestant
married to a Catholic in a bitter sectarian society. Her fifteen year-old
daughter, Helen, was left to take care of her younger siblings and ask
in vain what had become of her mother. She received little help in the
years that followed and grew tired of defending her mother and waiting
for her to come home. When Helen married Seamus McKendry in 1976, he made
her a promise to seek out the truth. This promise took them on a journey
which lasted almost thirty years and ruing which they suffered endless
threats and abuse from a hostile community which resented Seamus and Helen’s
condemnation of the ‘People’s Army.’ In 1994, Helen and Seamus started
the Families of the Disappeared organisation to provide help and support
to other families in the same situation. Putting their own lives at risk,
they spoke to senior members of the IRA and had meeting with Sinn Fein
representatives in an effort to secure the truth about Jean and other
people who had been ‘disappeared’. This is their courageous story.
The Chosen
Few: Exploding Myths in South Armagh by Darach MacDonald
In the early 1970s, Britain’s then Northern Secretary, Merlyn Rees, disdainfully
dubbed South Armagh ‘Bandit Country’. The name stuck and the blanket military
presence transformed a district with a peaceful past into the most infamous
‘killing field’ for British soldiers stationed in Northern Ireland. In
this book, the author determines that the people of South Armagh are neither
gangsters nor bandits, and it is not a lawless place. Yet the myth persists.
This book is a compelling account of the life of a community under siege
and a significant contribution to the history of Ireland, north and south.
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The Northern
Ireland Peace Process: Ending the Troubles? By Thomas Hennessey
This book traces the genesis and evolution of the Irish Peace Process.
It is the first book that has had access to all the relevant documentation,
much of it not yet in the public domain. The author argues that the Peace
Process was the merging of two quite separate streams. First, there were
inter-party talks which involved the British and Irish governments and
the constitutional parties of Northern Ireland. Second, there was the
internationalist dialogue, initiated by John Hume, which gradually moved
republicans away from violence towards the political arena. The Belfast
agreement was a junction of these two processes, attempting a compromise
between the centre of unionist and nationalist politics. This book begins
with a short survey of the period from 1920 to 1986. Part two looks at
the years following the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985, when unionists
were in turmoil. Parts three and four deal with the endgame from 1990
to 2000, including political developments since the Belfast agreement.
The Arms Trial
by Justin O’Brien
In May 1970, two Irish Cabinet Ministers, Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey,
were dismissed by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, for allegedly using Government
money to import arms for the fledgling Irish Republican Army. It was the
early days of the Northern Ireland troubles and the crisis in Belfast
and Derry threatened to destabilise the entire island. This dramatic moment
in modern Irish life is here retold. The Arms Crisis split the Dublin
establishment and briefly threatened the stability of the Republic of
Ireland. It nearly finished the political career of Charles Haughey, the
most prominent and charismatic of the defendants, who spent most of the
1970s in the political wilderness before staging a comeback to power in
1979.
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Inside the
Maze: The Untold Story of the Northern Ireland Prison Service by Chris
Ryder
With the historic closure of the Maze Prison this year, this book reveals
the story of one of the most turbulent battlegrounds of the Ulster troubles,
and examines how Northern Ireland’s prison service - the third arm of
the security forces after the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British
Army - has survived the years of conflict and made its mark on the province’s
future. This book records how the Northern Ireland Prison Service struggled
to cope with the volatile forces it had to contain. After the outbreak
of the Troubles in 1968, the hastily built Maze Prison became a university
of terrorism, where the confrontation and violence it was intended to
control continued to rage behind bars. Ten inmates died in the hunger
strike of 1981, and two years later thirty-eight prisoners broke out in
the largest ever prison escape. Yet against all odds, and despite the
continual terrorist threat, the prison that was one of the most notorious
symbols of the Troubles at last became a powerhouse for peace, with former
and present terrorist inmates playing leading roles in the search for
a lasting political settlement. The book is the definitive history on
this controversial subject, casting new light on the sources of conflict
and the origins of the peace process in Northern Ireland which culminated
in the Belfast Agreement on 1998.
The Power Game:
Fianna Fail since Lemass by Stephen Collins
Since 1932 Fianna Fail has rarely been out of power, and the party has
had an extraordinary hold over Irish politics. In office for 53 out of
68 years, it is one of the longest-reigning political parties in the world.
Its early leaders, Eamon de Valera and Sean Lemass, were looked upon with
awe and reverence. But the sudden resignation of Lemass, in November 1966,
precipitated the first leadership challenge in the history of Fianna Fail.
The generation which had fought in 1916 and later set up the party, had
finally relinquished control. Since then there have been four party leaders
- and a change in style and approach more dramatic than anyone could have
foreseen. Because these new leaders had not shared the experiences of
the founding fathers, neither did they share the same values and sense
of commitment that animated their elders. The battle for control of Fianna
Fail turned into a series of struggles for the soul of the party. In this
book the author tells the almost unbelievable stories of the modern struggles
for power within Fianna Fail, including the arms crisis, the various heaves
against Charles Haughey, the shafting of Albert Reynolds. He explores,
in detail, the careers of Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey, Albert Reynolds
and Bertie Ahern, and delves into the strengths and weaknesses of each
of these leaders. He discusses the effects on party morale of the revelations
of the various tribunals, and examines the enduring hold the party has
on its followers and on the Irish electorate despite the most unprecedented
events.
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An Irishman’s
Diary by Kevin Myers
Since the early 19902, Kevin Myers has been the mainstay of the Irish
Times ‘Irishman’s Diary’ column. Outspoken, whimsical, outrageous, funny,
deadly serious - the reader never knows what to expect. Myers is sometimes
jester, sometimes the conscience of the nation. This book collects and
selects from a decade of the diary to provide an intriguing look on life
in Ireland.
Will You Murder
My Husband: Catherine Nevin and the IRA by Gerard Doherty
This book lifts the lid on the IRA’s involvement in the Nevin trial. The
success of the murder trial inevitably rested on the evidence given by
the three principal witnesses - the men she asked to kill her husband.
For the three men, two of them republicans, the witness box in the Central
Criminal Court was the last place they wanted to be, and this reluctance
enhanced their credibility when the jury came to consider the veracity
of their evidence. The involvement of the IRA in the prosecution’s case
was unprecedented. Republicans had never before recognised the legitimacy
of the court, let alone given evidence, but these witnesses played a pivotal
role in Catherine Nevin’s conviction on all four counts. It contains new
revelations about her attempts to ingratiate herself with the IRA and
the lengths to which she was prepared to go to achieve her aim.
The Hill Bachelors
by William Trevor
This collection contains twelve new stories from one of Ireland’s master
storytellers. Set mostly in Ireland, they show the author to be writing
at the height of his powers. In ‘Three People’, an ageing father waits
for the proposal for his daughter that will never some from the man who
once told a lie to save her; in ‘Against the Odds’, a con-woman who has
plied her trade across the entire Six Counties fixes this time on a widower
in a small inland town; and in the poignant title-story, the youngest
son returns for his father’s funeral to the family hill farm to find it
has become his unwelcome inheritance. Trevor writes with understatement
and precision about the lonely and the sad, about those who have something
to hide and those who barely have control over their lives.
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Someone Like
You by Cathy Kelly
This new novel from the best-selling author of Irish
contemporary romance features Leonie, Emma and Hannah - all want just
one thing in life and then they’ll be truly happy. For Leonie, divorced
40-something mum-of-three, happiness means finding the true love she ended
her marriage for. For the insecure and just-married Emma, it means escaping
the control of her domineering family and conceiving a longed-for child
with her beloved husband. And for fiercely independent, beautiful Hannah,
happiness means money and security - something she doesn’t think any many
can ever provide. But as these three very different women discover, wanting
something with all your heart and actually getting it are two very different
things. Because sometimes when you get it you may discover it’s not what
you wanted after all.
Sushi for Beginners
by Marian Keyes
London magazine editor, Lisa Edwards, shiny and hard as an M&M, thinks
her life has ended. Her ‘fabulous’ new job turns out to be deportation
to Dublin, launching ‘Colleen’ magazine. If it weren’t for the decorative
presence of her new boss she might just turn on her Prada heel and take
the first plane back. And Ashling Kennedy, ‘Colleen’s’ assistant editor,
has her own problems. There’s a homeless boy asleep in her doorway, her
life is overrun with stand-up comedians and she can’t stop buying handbags.
The person she envies most in the world is her oldest friend Clodagh,
and for very good reason. Known as the princess, life has always delivered
what Clodagh Kelly wants - and why not when you are traffic-stopping beautiful.
She’s living with her prince in a maple-floored castle. So why, lately,
has she had the urge to kiss a frog? Sharp, funny and sweet, this novel
confirms the author’s place as the new queen of contemporary Irish romantic
fiction writers.
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Three Times
a Lady by Sarah Webb
This debut romantic novel is fast-moving, compelling, sexy and fun! It
follows three very different women. Sally is back from the Caribbean where
she had been working on a luxury yacht. She eats men for breakfast and
now she has a certain man in mind for her next meal! Eve is an accountant,
a solitary control freak who has chosen career over love and lived toregret
it. Ashling is a journalist, bringing up a six-year old son on her own.
The only man she trusts is hundreds of miles away Three women who have
one thing in common: Mark Mulhearne. And now he is back for a certain
school reunion.
In Secret Sin
by Rose Doyle
Bridget Baldacci’s long marriage to Victor defined her life. When he dies
suddenly, the family and childhood past he’s kept from her die with him.
But Bridget finds the exclusion she accepted while he was alive intolerable
now he is dead. From her home in Ireland, she heads for Seattle and to
Victor’s family, hoping to discover what it was that turned the boy who
grew up there into the obsessively secretive man she married.
Once Upon a
Summer by Patricia O’Reilly
It is 1959, and the class of 4A at Rose Horn’s convent school in Dublin
have discovered boys and dating and kissing. Rose dreams of love, and
of exchanging her thick lisle stockings and bulky school uniform for the
daring black chiffon numbers of the gorgeous Rita Hayworth. When her mother
discovers Rose’s secret trysts with Frank Fennelly, she banishes her to
spend the summer in the depths of Kerry - far from the temptation she
believes. But beneath the peaceful exterior of Fenit village, lurks a
wild place of social undercurrents.
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Liv by Kathleen
Coyle
This classic Irish novel was first published in 1928. In it, Liv Evensen
aches to escape the confines of her sheltered existence. In her soul she
knows that there is more to life than her engagement to Harald. Like her
aunt a generation before, she travels to Paris on a journey of self--discovery.
After a short time in Paris she comes face to face with danger - in the
person of world-weary Per Malom. With ppassionate empathy, the author
relates Liv’s crisis as she struggles to follow her own sense of truth
to the end.
For Love or
Money by Tony Flannery
In the middle of the night, the peace of St. Carthage’s monastery is shattered.
A body has been discovered - a priest has hanged himself. The community
is thrown into chaos as the religious life is exposed to the scrutiny
of a hostile world that no longer holds the teachings of the Church in
reverence.
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