Read Ireland Book Reviews, December 2001

The Men Who Built Britain: A History of the Irish Navvy by Ultan Cowley
The term ‘navvy’ originated with the building of the 18th-century canals, the ‘inland navigation system’ in Britain. The diggers became known as ‘Navigators’, later shortened to ‘navvies’. The construction methods pioneered by the canal-builders were adapted by the railway engineers of the 19th century, and the elite excavators on these projects continued to be known as ‘Navvies’. By the middle of the 20th century, men who worked on hydroelectric schemes, motorways and other civil engineering works still retained the name. But it had become synonymous with Irish migrant labourers, ‘the heavy diggers’, who by this time dominated the groundworks aspects of British construction. This book examines how the Irish attained that dominance and the price they paid for it. High earnings were often offset by rough conditions, alienation and ill-health, while potential savings went towards maintaining generations of dependents back home in rural Ireland. It does so against the well-documented contexts of Irish emigration, and British civil engineering, over 250 years. This book is a proud and fitting tribute to the endeavors of countless Irish emigrants who ‘built Britain’!

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The Great Irish Potato Famine by James S. Donnelly, Jr.
This book provides an accessible, comprehensive account of the Irish famine, combining narrative, analysis, historiography, and scores of contemporary illustrations. It furnishes vivid insights into the misery of the famine and the additional nightmare of the mass evictions that followed. Professor Donnelly aims to answer the numerous vexed questions which have surrounded the subject ever since. Was Britain guilty of genocide against the Irish people, or was British culpability more complex? Could the disaster have been considerably reduced in its dimensions, even if not averted altogether? Scholarly and up-to-date, this book is required reading for anyone with an interest in Ireland or in the way natural disasters and government responses to them can lead to the destiny of nations.

The Decline of the Big House in Ireland by Terence Dooley
As late as the 1860s, Irish landlords were still the wealthy elite of the country. During the relative affluence of the post-Famine years, they continued to spend lavishly on the upkeep of their estates. However, for a variety of reasons, by the late nineteenth century, landlords had begun to find their disposable income greatly diminished. With the advent of the Land League, they faced increasing pressure to overturn the old ways of land management. The First World War proved an important watershed, and had a huge psychological effect. Big-house social life was thrown into disarray, and the fabric of a way of life began to disintegrate. The revolutionary years 1919-1923 proved to be a further catalyst in the decline of the big house, and the foundation of the Irish Free State finally spelt the end for landlordism in Ireland. This book in unique in its examination of the reasons for the economic, social and political demise of the Irish landlord class. The author’s fascinating investigation provides an insight into the lives, attitudes and outlooks of the landed class, and examines the motivation behind the financial, social and political decisions that an ever-changing world forced them to make.

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Do Penance or Perish: A Study of Magdalen Asylums in Ireland by Frances Finnegan
This book is a history of four of Ireland’s Convent Magdalen Asylums, established in the mid-nineteenth century for the detention of prostitutes undergoing reform. It traces the development of the Female Penitentiary Movement in Britain and examines how, following the arrival of the Good Shepherd Sisters in 1848, ‘Rescue Work’ in Ireland underwent a change. Short-term lay refuges became long-term Magdalen institutions, many of whose inmates were discouraged from leaving and were sometimes detained for life. Labouring in the adjoining laundries, unpaid workers were subjected to penance, harsh discipline, silence and prayer. As prostitute numbers dwindled other ‘fallen’ women were targeted including unmarried mothers and wayward or abused girls - many being incarcerated by their families or priests. Drawing on hitherto unpublished material, this book contains case-histories of individual women and insights into how the Homes were run. Though concentrating largely on the Victorian period, the study explores the survival of these institutions into the late twentieth-century. It discusses far-reaching consequences of such a system, especially for the poor - many of whose children were housed in the Order’s adjacent Industrial Schools; and it examines some of the misconceptions surrounding this significant episode in Irish women’s history.

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Dublin Burial Grounds and Graveyards by Vivien Igoe
The burial grounds and graveyards of Dublin are a reservoir of Ireland’s extraordinary past - a fascinating treasury of history, biography, archaeology and human interest. Dublin is studded with graveyards, churchyards and cemeteries dating from the early Christian period right up to those still in use at the beginning of the third millennium. Though many of these burial grounds are still well known, the existence of others has passed from public awareness. Bully’s Acre in Kilmainham is one of Dublin’s oldest burial grounds dating to the time of St. Maigneann in the sixth century. It has survived centuries of change in Ireland and it is not the only such place around the country’s capital. It was not until the nineteenth century that the development of the large multi-denominational graveyards, such as Glasnevin and Dean’s Grange, began outside the city limits. Consequently, many of the older sites left behind within the inner city have been forgotten or often ‘paved over’. But there is still much to be found if you know where to look. This book is a guide to 72 of the 200 or so sites that are to be discovered in and around Dublin city, from Killiney to Taney, from Kilbarrack to Howth. Spanning centuries of social, political and religious upheaval and development, this book recalls pivotal events in Irish history - Viking and Norman invasions, the reformation, penal times, Catholic emancipation and the various rebellions - as well as revealing how some of the country’s various inhabitants - great and unknown - contributed to the nation or simply lived and died. Rich with illustration, discovery and fascinating detail. This book gives a rare insight into an invaluable but often neglected part of Irish heritage.

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On the Verge of Want compiled and edited by James Morrissey
This book is a unique insight into living conditions along Ireland’s western seaboard in the late 19th century. In the later part of the 19th century, most of the inhabitants of the West of Ireland eked out a meager existence in conditions proximate to pathetic. Homes were akin to hovels as parents and offspring shared cramped accommodation with farm animals. Incomes were paltry - ranging from less than 10 pounds per year to just under 50 pounds for families. In many cases, receipts shaded expenditure by a few shillings. This book is filled with original documents which record the often appalling conditions which prevailed in the West of Ireland just over a century ago.

Ireland’s Holy Wars: The Struggle for a Nation’s Soul 1500-2000 by Marcus Tanner
For much of the 20th century, Ireland has been synonymous with conflict, the painful struggle for its national soul part of the regular fabric of life. And because the Irish have emigrated to all parts of the world - while always remaining Irish - ‘ the troubles’ have become part of a common heritage, well beyond their own borders. Within the immense literature on the Irish ‘problem’, the most usual focus is the political rivalry between Unionism and Republicanism. But the roots of the Irish conflict are profoundly and inescapably religious. As the author shows in this vivid, engaging and perceptive book, only by understanding the history - played out over five centuries - of the failed attempts by the English to make Ireland into a Protestant state can the pervasive tribal hatreds of today be seen in context. Tanner traces the emergence of a modern Irish national identity in the popular resistance to this imposed Protestantism and the common defense of Catholicism by the Gaelic Irish and the Old English of the Pale, who settled in Ireland after its twelfth-century conquest. In addition to a thorough study of the written sources, the book is enriched by a personal encounter with today’s Ireland, from Belfast to Dublin and Cork.

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Images of Dublin: A Time Remembered by Bill Doyle
Children at play on the cobbled streets of Smithfield; lovers embracing in St. Stephen’s Green; horse-drawn milk carts on their early-morning deliveries; a night-watchman’s lonely vigil; abandoned tram tracks; the bustling vitality of Moore Street traders; a woman polishing her doorstep; an elderly busker playing a tin whistle in Merchant’s Arch - these are just some of the remarkable images of a city and its citizens as seen through the lens of master photographer Bill Doyle. In 150 photographs that span half a century, Doyle captures and brings back to life the spirit of a time and place - a pre-boom Dublin still haunted by the ghosts of history. From the narrow alleyways and backstreets of the Liberties and the north inner city to the leafy environs of the south side, these beautiful, dramatic pictures constitute a singular photographic achievement. Also contains an introductory essay by Benedict Kiely.

Carolan: The Life Times and Music of an Irish Harper by Donal O’Sullivan
Originally published in 1958, this classic study of Turlough O Carolan became a musical and historical beacon for all those interested in Ireland’s past and present. It is an indispensable tool for Irish musicians, who through this remarkable volume of research can go beyond the music itself, and engross themselves in the colourful world of this unique travelling musician in a still largely feudal Ireland of the 17th and 18th centuries. This new edition contains all of the original sections on ‘The Life of Carolan’ , with all 213 tunes, the annotations to the tunes, ‘The Remarkable Memoirs of Arthur O’Neill’, and complete indexes. Of major importance is the inclusion of an Appendix which contains recently discovered O’Carolan compositions, as well as much other previously unpublished material.

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Fish Stone Water: Holy Wells of Ireland by Anna Rackard and Liam O’Callaghan
Holy wells are places of popular religious devotion where people come to pray and leave simple offerings. There are hundreds of holy wells all over Ireland, many of them still in use. They vary greatly in appearance, some are very simple, decorated only with rounded river pebbles, others are highly ornate and adorned with holy statues, medals, pictures, rosary beads, flowers and candles. The water at these wells is believed to have healing powers, and a few are said to have power over the weather. This book captures the unique spirit of these sites through stunning photography and illuminating text, exploring the individuality of each well, their many forms and settings and the assorted personal offerings that decorate them. The authors visited the wells on special days of devotion to record the activities of local people. They travelled the length and breadth of the island to locate wells and to learn about the different attributes of each. The result is a glimpse into a beautiful and strange landscape of faith, imbued with intimate expressions of hope.

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Atlas of the Celts edited by Barry Raftery
This book is a highly-illustrated account of the history of the Celts, their expansion, decline and modern revival, their art and religion, and their impact on the Western world. It features more than 300 photographs and more than 80 specially commissioned maps and artworks. In terms of historical and geographic coverage, it is the most comprehensive reference work on the Celts available. It is arranged chronologically and spread-by-spread. It chronicles and maps the Celts’ involvement in salt-mining during the Late Bronze Age in Europe, their outstanding artistic achievement in pre-Roman Europe, their conflict with the Roman Empire, the role of the Celtic Church in early Christianity, and the Celtic emigration to North America in the 19th century. The final chapter examines major themes such as jewelry, women and gods. The appendices include: a detailed time chart of key events in Celtic history from 800 BC to AD 1000, at atlas of Celtic sites and museums, and a Who’s Who in the Celtic World. This book is an both an indispensable reference source and a beautifully illustrated guide for anyone interested in the enduring history of the Celts.

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The Spirit of Rural Ireland by Christopher Somerville
The author of this book has conducted a passionate love affair with Ireland for many years. Here he writes lyrically and with characteristic humour, about the landscape of a country that he has walked and explored from end to end - the rugged mountainous west of Connemara and Mayo, the music pubs of County Clare, the limestone hills of the Burren, the vast peat bogs of the Midlands, the ceilidh houses and small farms of the North, the holy wells and standing stones that are still visited for cures and inspirations. Above all, Somerville celebrates the people of north and south Ireland: their humour that varies from gentle to black, their tremendous unstinting hospitality, the hard times they have suffered and are still undergoing, and the enduring relationship they have with the land, the weather, the seasons and the other rhythms of rural life. The evocative text is enhanced throughout by Chris Coe’s breathtaking array of characteristic and atmospheric images that bring to life the rich appeal of this enchanting country.

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Singing Stone Whispering Wind: Voices of Connemara by Raymonde Standun and Bill Long
When Raymonde Standun set about photographing the local people of the South Connemara Gaeltacht, she quickly sense that here were stories to be told that lay far beyond the reach of her camera. This unique place, these unique people, were for her a nucleus of Irish culture: its language, music and dance. Yet these people, like their ways, were old, and many were passing away. Collected here are 51 interviews she subsequently conducted, stories at once singular and closely intertwined with shared themes. Martin Flaherty on the Black and Tans; Julia Greaney on Fair Day at Spiddal; Cait Nic an Iomaire on making her own wedding dress; Festy Conlon on his father’s first fife. Set against Standun’s stunning images are stories of poitin for two bob, the baker’s island delivery boat and the trials of line-fishing, alongside darker tales, still vibrant in the collective memory, of landlord brutality, famine and emigration. Edited by Bill Long, who also introduces the volume, here are the extraordinary voices of the ordinary people of Connemara, the voices of the living and the dead.

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Cries of an Irish Caveman by Paul Durcan
This book is Durcan’s most inspired and surprising collection of poems. Through four distinct sections, he brings his tender lyricism to bear on the themes of love and loss, life and death. The first section describes an experience in Australia which provides a starting point for reassessing his past relationships and loves. The second returns to Ireland, its people and places, the celebrated and the unknown. The third section is a meditation on his daughter’s marriage, placing within an historical and sacramental context a very personal event. And finally, in some of his more daring and original writing, Durcan describes his own twentieth-century romance, replete with ecstasies and inevitable agonies, beauty and hope, but also brutality and self-abasement.

Collected Poems by Michael Hartnett
Michael Harnett’s death, at the age of 58, robbed poetry readers of one of Ireland’s beloved poets. Seamus Heaney noted his ‘focus and intensity He followed his own impulse and never had his eye on any audience. I’ll never forget reading his first short hypnotic poems in the early sixties; they had a kind of Orphic throb, as if a new Lorca had emerged from Newcastle West. In fact, Michael shared Lorca’s ability to combine avant-garde daring with native traditions; he took the boldest of technical and emotional risks, living in and through and for his poetry to the end.’ Harnett conjured, through a repertoire of exquisite lyrics and more recent extended work which is etched indelibly in contemporary literature. This book, which includes a number of unpublished gems, represent forty years of coruscating art.

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Electric Light by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney’s new collection travels widely in time and space, visiting the sites of the classical world, revisiting the poet’s childhood: rural electrification and the light of ancient evenings are reconciled within the orbit of a single lifetime. This is a book about origins (not least the orgins of words) and oracles: the places where things start from, the ground of understanding - whether in Arcadia or Anahorish, the sanctuary at Epidaurus on the Bann valley in County Derry. The book ranges from short takes (’glosses’) to conversation poems whose cunning passagework gives rein to ‘the must and drift of talk’. The pre-Socratic wisdom that everything flows is held in tension with the fixities of remembrance: elegizing friends and fellow poets, naming ‘the real names’ of contemporaries behind the Shakespearean roles they played at school. These gifts of recollection renew the poet’s calling to assign the things their proper names; once again Heaney can be heard extending his word-hoard and roll-call in this new collection.

Poems 1968-1998 by Paul Muldoon
Drawing on Muldoon’s eight major collections, this book allows readers old and new to take the full measure of the writer whose ‘influence on the otherwise torpid aesthetics of post-war poetry alone makes him the most significant English language poet born since the Second World War’ (Times Literary Supplement).

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The Fisher Child by Philip Casey
Growing up in Irish families in London, Dan and Kate first met unenthusiastically as children in the 1970s. Now, years later, they are on holiday in Italy, married, in love, parents to a boy and girl. And when Kate discovers she is pregnant again, it seems they will be closer than ever. But when Meg is born, their lives are changed utterly. Trust is replaced with suspicion and anger. Dan flees to Ireland and to his father, seeking to understand what has happened to his family and to himself. It is clear, however, that his bewilderment has much older roots. The reader is taken back to 1798 where Dan’s ancestor, Hugh Byrne, is fighting on Vinegar Hill in the Rebellion. Troubled by the violence done to his family, and the violence in himself, Hugh goes into exile in the tropics, where he gradually overcomes his prejudice and remorse and begins a family with a young local woman, Ama. This novel demonstrates, with acute sensitivity, the threads of the past in every family. At time touching, it is an agonizing exploration of the constantly shifting nature of love.

Cutting the Night in Two: Short Stories by Irish Women Writers edited by Evelyn Conlon and Hans-Christian Oeser
This is a stunning collection of 34 short stories by Irish women writers both past and present. The first anthology of its kind for decades, it serves to showcase work that is often overlooked in the literary ledger, despite the widely acknowledged gift that Irish women writers have shown for the short story in the twentieth century. This collection re-introduces well known voices and introduces the less well-known. Spanning almost the entire century, and set in such diverse locations as Dublin, New York, Kerry, and Greece, these stories reveal a collective voice both imaginative and tough, together with an eclectic vision that shrewdly exposes what lies just below the surface - of people’s lives, and the worlds they inhabit.

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Collected Stories by Benedict Kiely
Benedict Kiely is a writer of national and international status. His writing is at once quintessentially Irish and marvelously universal, and a generation of younger writers owes him an enduring debt of inspiration. This celebratory collection brings together for the first time Kiely’s short fiction written between 1963 and 1987. The stories in this volume are rich in imagination and invention, their characters unforgettable, their humour at once affectionate and incisive. Written with apparently effortless style and craft, they amply demonstrate how Kiely’s stories have become classics of the genre while at the same time expanding that genre’s horizons.

Anatomy School by Bernard Mac Laverty
This novel is the story of the growing up of Martin Brennan: a troubled boy in troubled times, a boy who knows all the questions but none of the answers. This is Belfast in the late sixties. Before he can become an adult, Martin must unravel the sacred and contradictory mysteries of religion, science and sex; he must learn the value of friendship, but most of all he must pass his exams - at any cost. A book that celebrates the desire to speak and the need to say nothing, this novel moves from the enforced silence of Martin’s Catholic school retreat, through the hilarious tea-and-biscuits repartee of his eccentric elders to the awkward wit and loose profanity of his two friends - the charismatic Kavanagh and the subversive Blaise Foley. An absorbing, tense and often very funny novel which takes Martin from the initiations of youth to the devoutly wished consummation of the flesh, this novel is a remarkable re-creation of the high anxieties and deep joys of learning to find a place in the world.

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That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern
‘The morning was clear. There was no wind on the lake. There was also a great stillness. When the bells rang out for Mass, the strokes trembling on the water, they had the entire world to themselves.’ ‘The doors of the house were open. Jamesie entered without knocking and came in noiselessly until he stood in the doorway of a large room where the Ruttledges were sitting. He stood as if waiting under trees for returning wildfowl. He expected his discovery to be quick. There would a cry of surprise and reproach; he would counter by accusing them of not being watchful enough. There would be welcome and laughter. When the Ruttledges continued to converse calmly about a visit they were expecting that same afternoon, he could contain himself no longer. Such was his continual expectation of discovery that in his eavesdropping he was nearly always disappointed by the innocence he came upon.’ From the very opening pages, the reader sees many memorable Irish characters as they move about Joe and Kate Ruttledge, who have come to Ireland from London in search of a different life. There is John Quinn, who will stop at nothing to ensure a flow of women; Johnny, who left for England twenty years before in pursuit of love; and Jimmy Joe McKiernan, head of the IRA, both auctioneer and undertaker. The gentle Jamsie and his wife Mary embody the spirit of the place. They have never left the lake but know everything that ever stirred or moved there. In passages of beauty and truth, the drama of a year in the lives of these and many other characters unfolds through the action, the rituals of work, religious observances and play. By the novel’s close, the reader will feel that he/she has been introduced, with deceptive simplicity, to a complete representation of existence - an enclosed world has been transformed into an Everywhere.

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At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill
Set in Dublin and its surrounds, this novel follows the year to Easter 1916, the time of Ireland’s brave but fractured uprising against British rule. At its core it tells the love of two boys, Jim, a naEFve and reticent scholar, the younger son of foolish, aspirant shopkeeper Mr. Mack, and Doyler, the dark rough diamond son of Mr Mack’s old army pal. Doyler might once have made a scholar like Jim, might once have had prospects like Jim: but his folks hadn’t the beans, they sent him down the country. Now he has returned, schoolboy no more, but hauler of the parish midden cart, with socialism and revolution and wilful blasphemy stuffed under his cocksure cap. And yet the future is rosy, Jim’s father is sure. His elder son is away fighting the Hun for God and the British Army and he has such plans for Jim and their corner shop empire. But Mr Mack cannot see that the landscape is changing, nore dies he realise the depth of Jim’s burgeoning friendship with Doyler. Out at the Forth Foot, that great jut of rock where gentlemen bathe in the scandalous nude, the two boys meet day after day. There they make a pact that Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year hence, Easter 1916, they will jump from the Forty Foot and swim the bay to the distant beacon of the Muglins rock, there to raise the Green and claim that island for their country, and for themselves. As Ireland sets forth towards her uncertain glory there unfolds a love story of the utmost tenderness, carrying the reader through the turbulence of the times like a full-blown sail. Ten years in the writing, this novel reveals an artist whose mastery is not simply of his craft but of his realm and the people who live and breathe in it. This is the most ‘talked-about’ novel in Ireland this year.

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Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government by Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnson
Martin McGuinness, former Chief of Staff of the IRA and first Minister for Education in the Northern Ireland Assembly, is the lynchpin of the current ceasefire. McGuinness has been described as ‘excellent officer material’, ‘the second most powerful man in Britain after Rupert Murdooch’, ‘the personification of the armed struggle,’ and ‘IRA godfather of godfathers. ‘Yet he is also a devout Catholic, a husband and father of four and a keen poet and fisherman. In his native Derry, he is equally revered and reviled. In this book, the authors uncover the truth about the enigmatic and intensely private individual who holds the Northern Ireland peace process in his hands. Following interviews with friends and family, IRA volunteers, police officers, IRA victims, civil servants and politicians, the book tells the remarkable story of how McGuinness steered the IRA through war to peace.

Rory Gallagher: A Biography by Jean-Noel Coghe
This book is the incredible story of the boy from Cork whose talent as a guitarist emerged at an early age. He began his musical career in the showband era, playing support for the likes of the Everly Brothers, the Animals and the Byrds, but turned his back on that world and founded the band taste, with whom he toured Europe in 1968, gaining great acclaim. Touring North Americ and Canada, they rubbed shoulders with Eric Clapton, Stevie Winwood, Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix, but broke up soon afterwards, as Rory’s star outshone the others. Rory recorded his first solo album in 1971. It was the gateway to over 20 years of recording, playing live and collaborations with the Fureys, the Davey Spillance Band, the Dubliners, and many others. The tragic death of Rory Gallagher in 1995 at the age of only 47 robbed Ireland of one of its finest musicians, an artist whose development closely mirrored that of Irish music in general. At his funeral in Cork, the musical world - stars, fans, friends and colleagues - mourned on of the all-time greats. This book is the first biography of one of Ireland’s legendary musicians.

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It’s a Long Way from Penny Apples by Bill Cullen
Born and bred in the tough inner city slums of Summerhill in Dublin, Bill Cullen was one of fourteen children. Selling on the streets from the age of six, be it fruit, flowers, newspapers, toys, balloons, Christmas decorations, football colours or programmes, was a means of putting food on the table for Bill and his family. He finished school at thirteen to go on the streets full-time. In 1956, he got a job as a messenger boy for a pound a week in Waldens Ford Dealer in Dublin. Through hard work and unrelenting determination, he was appointed director general of the company in 1964. He went on to set up Fairlane Motor Company which became the biggest Ford dealership in Ireland. In 1986, he took over the troubled Renault car distribution franchise from Waterford Crystal. His turnaround of that company into what is now the Glencullen Group is a phenomenal business success story - the group now has an annual turnover in excess of A3250 Irish pounds. The Bill Cullen story is an account of incredible poverty and deprivation in the Dublin slums. It highlights the frustration of a father and mother feeling their relationship creumble as they fight to give their children a better life. It is also a story of courage, joy and happiness. Of how a mother gave inspirations and values to her children, saying, ‘the best thing I can give you is your independence to stand on your own two feet.’

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Gusty Spence by Roy Garland
Gusty Spence, one of the most famous ‘hard men’ of the Northern Ireland conflict, started life in the 1930s in the tough Hammer district of Belfast’s lower Shankill. After serving in Cyprus with the Royal Ulster Rifles during the EOKA campaign, he became leader of the Shankill Ulster Volunteer Force, a dormant paramilitary organization that was reactivated in 1965 in a climate of growing loyalist disquiet. In 1966 he was sentenced to a minimum of twenty years imprisonment for the murder of a Catholic barman, a charge he has always denied. In 1977, as UVF commander inside the Maze prison, he issued a message supporting reconciliation and attacking violence as counter-productive. Released in 1983, he devoted himself to community politics and became a key strategist with the Progressive Unionist Party, playing a very significant role in the developing peace process. His central role was underlined in 1994 at a Combined Loyalist Military Command press conference, when he announced a loyalist ceasefire, and offered ‘abject and true remorse’ to ‘innocent victims.’ As a close friend of Gusty Spence, the author has had access to a wealth of new material and remarkably candid interviews. The result is a lively - and heartening - insight into one of the most influential figures of the Troubles.

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Patrick Kavanagh: A Life by Antoinette Quinn
Seamus Heaney has coupled Patrick Kavanagh (1904-67) with W.B.Yeats as the two most important figures in twentieth-century Irish poetry. Patrick Kavanagh was born in County Monaghan, the son of a cobbler-cum-small farmer. He left school at thirteen but continued to educate himself, reading and writing poetry in his spare time. In 1929 he began contributing verses to the Irish Statesman and was soon publishing in Irish and English journals. His first collection, Ploughman and Other Poems, appeared in 1936 and was followed by the autobiography The Green Fool (still available in paperback) in 1938. In 1939 he moved to Dublin where he spent the rest of his life as a freelance writer. He first emerged as an important literary voice with his long poem, the Great Hunger, in 1942. Other collections and the novel Tarry Flynn (also still available in paperback) appeared in the following decades to growing critical acclaim. Kavanagh was also part of the social and literary Dublin for almost thirty years in the company of a gifted generation of writers, among them Flann O’Brien and Brendan Behan. His position in the history of Irish poetry is secure. This biography traces his life and work in a comprehensive and accessible manner, and is essential reading for all interested in Irish poetry.

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Forty-Seven Roses: A Memoir by Peter Sheridan
When Peter Sheridan’s father died suddenly and unexpectedly, the loss devastated his close-knit family, who swiftly returned to Dublin to ease their mother’s grief and give their father a rousing send-off. But it soon became apparent that an awkward situation would have to be resolved. For over 47 years, Peter’s father had maintained a relationship - mainly on paper - with another woman, Doris. She first met him in the 1940s and determinedly kept up a correspondence that would span five decades, secretly hoping against hope that eventually Peter’s father would be hers. Doris would need to be told about the death of her old friend. The author has written a moving account of his parents’ relationship, from their first encounter over a poker game in a Dundalk canteen to their final, happy days together in retirement. But he also tackles the difficult subject of Doris, a shadowy partner in their marriage, and the thorn in the side of his mother. This book is a compelling memoir that deals with themes of everlasting love, family pride and the nature of obsession, and is a powerful follow-up to his highly-acclaimed Dublin memoir, ‘44’.

The Fall of Light by Niall Williams
The men of the Foley family have always been proud and fearless, fashioned by the harsh, cold elements of their country, and by years of fighting tooth and nail for survival. Their story begins in Ireland, in the difficultyears of the mid-nineteenth century. The family have lost their home and suffered another loss which proves even more vital - beautiful Emer Fole, wife of Francis, mother to Tomas, Finbar, Finan and the youngest boy, Teige. With nothing to told them they move on, setting out across Ireland to its western short, searching for the untenanted land that is to be their next Eden. But Francis Foley is a bitter man, and his flinty sould can only bring destruction. Inevitably the five Foleys are scattered, each to his own road and his own future. In the novel, the author leads the reader along on their great journeys, through the bittersweet heart of rural Ireland and far beyond its shores to Europe, America and Africa. He guides his characters through fire and water, earth and sky, magic and reality, loss and consolation, until finally they come to terms with their own freedom and dreams. Niall Williams previous novels, Four Letters of Love and As It Is In Heaven, were published to wide critical acclaim and became international bestsellers.

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Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl is the book that caused a sensation months before it was even published. This exciting, original novel has captured the imagination of film companies, publishers, the press and readers all over the world. It is Ireland’s answer to Harry Potter! Twelve year-old Artemis Fowl is a brilliant criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn’t know what he’s taken on when he kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit. These are the fairies of bedtime stories. These fairies are armed and they’re dangerous. Artemis thinks he’s got them just where he wants them, but then they stop playing by the rules a brilliantly realized parallel world, this book has redefined the fairytale and done Harry Potter one better! We also have abridged audio versions in stock, on both cassette and CD, of approximately 3.5 hours, read by Adrian Dunbar, priced also at 12.99 Irish pounds. And we have 1 Signed First Edition only left - priced at 100 Irish pounds. 

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