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Read Ireland Book Reviews, July 2002
Irish Historic Towns
Atlas, no. 11 Dublin, part 1, to 1610 [...] by H.B. Clarke.
Includes historical and archaeological
details of over 1,300 sites and a range of large format maps, reconstructions
and photographs, all offering an unprecedented study of medieval Dublin.
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The Millennium Legacy:
Ireland 2000 compiled and edited by Tom Rowley and Laurie Cearr
Ireland’s celebration of the Millennium
was unique. The National Millennium Committee responded to a clear signal
from the Irish people that the marking of this milestone in history should
be inclusive and memorable. Instead of one single grandiose national statement,
thousands of different projects, events and celebrations in cities, towns
and villages were funded. Uniquely, some reached into every home in the
country: Memories of the moving Last Light Ceremony with the Millennium
Candle will long endure; the People’s Millennium Forests will thrive for
centuries. In addition to many other high profile projects, thousands
more modest initiatives sprung from within the community itself. This
book captures in words and photographs a country in all its diversity
and creativity celebrating this extraordinary event in an imaginative
and lasting way. It also includes a comprehensive listing of the 2,500
projects and events that combined to create that one-in-a-thousand occasion,
a ‘People’s Millennium’, for Ireland.
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Justice and Truth:
The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven by Patrick Victory
There were two serious miscarriages of
justice when the Guildford Four were convicted in 1975 and the Maguire
Seven the following year. A number of distinguished observers had doubts
about the safety of the convictions. January 1987 saw the final coming
together, with Cardinal Basil Hume, of two of probably the greatest Law
Lords of the twentieth century, Lord Devlin and Lord Scarman, and two
distinguished former Home Secretaries, Roy Jenkins and Merlyn Rees, to
form what came to be known as the Deputation. Over succeeding years they
fought tirelessly behind the scenes to get the verdicts overturned, in
the face of considerable opposition and difficulties from political and
legal authorities. This book is that story.
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Shackleton’s Boat Journey
by F.A. Worsley
This book is the classic account of Sir
Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-1916 Antarctic expedition, first published in
1940. Written by the captain of the ‘Endurance,’ the ship used by Shackleton
on this ill-fated journey, it is a remarkable tale of courage and bravery
in the face of extreme odds and a vivid portrait of one of the world’s
greatest explorers. First trapped, then crushed by ice of her way south,
the ‘Endurance’ drifted in an ice floe for five months. After reaching
the uninhabited Elephant Island, Shackelton, Worsley and four others set
off in a small boat on the 800-mile journey to South Georgia. They then
made the first crossing of the island to the whaling station at Grytviken.
It is a testament to Shackleton’s indomitable spirit that during the whole
expedition, now one man was lost.
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Journeys of a Lifetime
by Mary Russell
Since beginning her travels, the author
has been nearly everywhere. From Donegal in Ireland to Lesotho and Sudan,
from the West Bank of the Sahara to Russia, from the Caribbean to South
Africa, from Bosnia to the Arctic to Syria and home again to Ireland.
In this inspiring travelogue, with an outsider’s eye for new peoples and
cultures, she reflects on the need for new horizons that lies at the restless
heart of every traveller. The book is set against a backdrop of her own
personal adventure through life: the joys and sorrows of marriage, an
illicit affair and the death of her partner. It also brilliantly encapsulates
one woman’s need to establish her own personal identity separate to family
and friends. This book illustrates that often the most dramatic journeys
are the ones within.
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Errislannan: Scenes
from a Painter’s Life by Alannah Heather
Errislannan, or Flannan’s peninsula, juts
out into the North Atlantic on Europe’s western extremity south of Clifden,
Connemara, Co. Galway. The home of the author of this book, it gave shape
to her life. Her ancestors were minor Protestant gentry and estate-owners
who occupied Errislannan Manor for five generations from the 1790s to
the 1960s. This book tells their story, using family diaries and letters
salvaged from a coach-house loft before the auction, and enlarges upon
it in this remarkable self-portrait, articulating a childhood and landscape
peopled by cottagers and fisherfolk, islanders and evangelicals, and a
richly eccentric body of relatives. Their history reveals Ireland in microcosm
- touching upon the Great Famine and subsequent diaspora, the 1916 Rising
and Civil War, the Alcock and Brown landing on Derrygimlagh bog, and the
more intimate dramas of unrequited love, bereavement and isolation, in
a perpetual cycle of exile and repatriation.
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How Shall They Hear?:
Sermons and Addresses by Robert MacCarthy
Robert MacCarthy was installed as the
sixty-fifth Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, on 11 September 1999.
This book contains a selection of his sermons and addresses preached in
Ireland and England since his ordination in 1979. To the Dean, the sermon
is not an outworn method of communication; and one of its purposes, in
fact, has always been to present the work of theologians and religious
thinkers to a non-academic audience. The book includes sections on: the
Liturgical Year, Saints’ Days, Memorial Addresses, including ones on Bishop
William Bedell, Dean Swift and Henry Francis Lyte, and the Church’s Ministry.
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Irish Emigration Since
1921 by Enda Delaney
Between the early 1920s and the end of
the 20th century, two million people left the island of Ireland. For many
this continued exodus of mainly young men and women represented damning
evidence of economic and political failure. Yet the reasons behind the
decision to emigrate could be far more complex than simple economic necessity.
Moreover, the meaning of emigration for the individual was also changing
rapidly, as Great Britain replaced North America as the destination of
the majority and affordable air transport revolutionised travel. Drawing
together the results of the latest research, the author offers a comprehensive
survey of the causes, chronology and character of emigration from Ireland,
north and south, from the troubled aftermath of the First World War to
the end of the 20th century, when what had long been a nation of emigrants
became for the first time host to a growing immigrant population of its
own.
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The SAVI Report: Sexual
Abuse and Violence in Ireland by Hannah McGee et. al.
In Ireland, there has been a substantial
increase in the number of sexual offences being reported in the past 20
years. While the recorded crime numbers increase, there is still concern
that there is considerable under-reporting of abuse and, in particular,
a shortfall in those seeking legal redress. This book, commissioned by
the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, provides the results of the first national
survey to assess sexual abuse and violence in Ireland. It details specific
information about the prevalence of sexual violence in relation to age
and gender for over 3,000 adults, and identifies the barriers accessing
law enforcement, medical and therapeutic services for those abused and
their families. The study focuses not only on the responses of those abused,
but also includes attitudes and perceptions of the general public to sexual
violence, and the myths and negative attitudes that make disclosure difficult.
With concrete and specific recommendations for addressing this issue,
this book is a landmark national study of Irish experiences, beliefs and
attitudes concerning sexual violence.
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Confessions of a Shanty
Irishman by Michel Corrigan
Born in San Francisco during World War
II, raised by a single father and Irish Catholic grandparents, the author
grew up between clashing cultures. Each chapter in this dark comedy is
a personal story of love, rebellion, and rebirth, from the Ireland his
grandparents fled to the America he discovered.
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Poems 1930-1989 by
Samuel Beckett
This book is the most complete collection
of Samuel Beckett’s poetry yet to appear, containing much previously uncollected
work - both in English and French. As well as late work written after
1978, when the last volume was published, there is also a section of early
poems, probably all written before 1930, when the author was a young man.
This volume illustrates the many stages in the development of Beckett’s
style, from his modernist early work - thick with allusions and references
from his readings and studies - to the simpler and very moving post-war
poems - many of which have become much loved and quoted, and many set
as songs by numerous composers. The Beckettian preoccupations, with their
inherent protest at the tragedy of the human condition, are all present
here, as is the author’s humour and his attitudes to love, friendship,
loss and tragedy. Some of the most lyrical poems take the form of beautiful
philosophical musings. Beckett wrote poems in English and French. Both
are included in this volume, together with his own translations when he
made them.
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Getting Out of the
House: Women Returning to Employment, Education and Training by Helen
Russell, et. al
The last decade has witnessed a significant
move out of full-time home duties into paid employment among women in
Ireland. This book focuses on the experiences of the women driving this
social change. Drawing on information from surveys and from in-depth interviews
with women returners and service providers, this book explores the push
and pull factors that prompt women to make a move back into employment,
education or training. The study also highlights the difficulties facing
women who wish to return and finds that the key barriers include poor
information, lack of childcare, low levels of formal qualifications, inadequate
recognition of skills obtained outside the workplace, limited opportunities
for flexible work/training, and loss of self-confidence. The research
shows that a significant proportion of women in the home re-enter paid
employment during the second half of the 1990s, but many enter low-paid
jobs and experience occupational downgrading on their return.
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The Turning Tide:
New Writing from County Waterford edited by Thomas McCarthy
This new anthology is an energetic gathering
of voices, a snapshot of County Waterford writing today. County Waterford
has always had a rich, bilingual literary history - from the poetry of
Padraig Denn and Padraig O Milleadha to the prose of Arland Ussher and
Dervla Murphy. The winning entries for the Molly Keane Memorial Creative
Writing Award are published here for the first time: short story writers,
Liz Ryan, Stephen O’Reilly, Carole Gurnett and Richard Cahill, give the
reader a flavour of the variety and excellence of Waterford fiction today.
Dungarvan poets Padraig J. Daly and Mai O’Higgins are represented here
also, as well as gifted Irish language poets like Aine Ui Fhoghiu. Country
Waterford has always been particularly rich in its non-fiction writing
- Lismore-born George O’Brien meditates here upon the meaning of exile,
while Dervla Murphy, the doyenne of Lismore authors, gives a trenchant
and uncompromising account of her visit to Bosnia. There are nearly forty
writers represented in this book; each is a vital part of the new wave
of literary creativity that has been encouraged and supported by the County
Arts Office, the Arts Council and Waterford County Council.
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Young Farmer Seeks
Wife by Nicholas Furlong
In the townland of Mulgannon, County Wexford,
a young dairy farmer broods over his bad luck in the pursuit of love.
Thwarted at every turn by his mother, the Widow Furlong, or his fearsome
Uncle Richard, or mere circumstances, Nicholas’s attempts to find a wife
seem doomed to failure. In this hilarious and touching novel, our hero
tells of the bizarre reversals he suffers and the wayward women who cross
his path. But romance is in the air for some. When the local guard begins
to court the mother - and her farm - Nocholas’s whole future is threatened.
Something must be done, but is Nicholas to one to do it?
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Serpent and the Goddess
by Mary Condren
When first published in 1989, Mary Condren’s
brilliantly researched account of the decline of female power in Western
civilisation provoked considerable controversy and debate. Exploring uncharted
territory, it precipitated and unprecendented amount of research and publication
on Celtic religious origins and societal structures. Over a decade later,
the book is widely regarded as the pre-eminent book in its field, a classic
study of gender, power, and spirituality. Working her way through the
corresponding ages of Eve, Brigit, and Mary, the author traces both the
rise of patriarchal consciousness and its disturbing implications for
society. By reclaiming a matri-centered culture that has been written
out of history, the author offers the reader a view of a more optimistic
future, reawakening us to the possibilities of an enriched female consciousness.
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The Politics and Relationships
of Kathleen Lynn by Marie Mulholland
Kathleen Lynn is best known for her pioneering
medical practices and her transformation of healthcare services to children
and the poor. However, it is the woman, the social activist, the suffragist
and the militant Republican who takes centre stage in this book. She emerged
from the unlikely origins of a comfortable Unionist family in Co. Mayo
to storm Dublin City Hall in 1916 as a lieutenant in Connolly’s Irish
Citizen Army. Neither male nor mad, but something much more challenging
- a woman who lived what she believed, Lynn intrigues and resonates half
a century after her death, supplying inspiration and frustration in equal
measures to those of us in Ireland still hungry for change.
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No. 1 Kildare by J.H.
Andrews (1986).
An Early-Christian foundation retaining
traces of its ecclesiastical origins. Coloured map 410 mm x 305 mm; 8
pages of black-and-white maps and plates and 12 pages of text 410 mm x
305mm; in a folder 410 x 305 mm.
No. 2 Carrickfergus
by Philip Robinson (1986).
An Anglo-Norman town, with strategic importance
in Ulster until early modern times. Coloured map 410 mm x 610 mm; 7 pages
of black-and-white maps and plates and 16 pages of text 410 mm x 305 mm;
in a folder 410 mm x 305 mm.
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No. 3 Bandon by Patrick
O’Flanagan (1988).
A plantation town laid out and settled
by the English in the early 17th century. Coloured map 410 mm x 610 mm;
7 pages of black-and-white maps and plates and 16 pages of text 410 mm
x 305 mm; in a folder 410 mm x 305 mm.
No. 4 Kells by Anngret
Simms with Katharine Simms (1990).
A second major Early-Christian foundation,
with a street layout reflecting its origins. Coloured map 410 mm x 305
mm; 8 pages of black-and-white maps and plates and 12 pages of text 410
mm x 305 mm; in a folder 410 mm x 305 mm.
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No. 5 Mullingar by
J.H. Andrews with K.M. Davies (1992).
An Anglo-Norman settlement chosen in the
16th century as county town of Westmeath. Coloured map 410 mm x 610 mm;
8 pages of black-and-white maps and plates and 16 pages of text 410 mm
x 305 mm; in a folder 410 mm x 305 mm.
No. 6 Athlone by Harman
Murtagh (1994).
A strategically-important settlement on
a major bridging point of the River Shannon. Coloured map 410 mm x 610
mm; 8 pages of black-and-white maps and plates and 16 pages of text 410
mm x 305 mm; in a folder 410 mm x 305 mm.
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No. 7 Maynooth by
Arnold Horner (1995).
An 18th century estate town, once the
medieval seat of the great earls of Kildare. 5 pages of coloured maps
410 mm x 305 mm; 3 pages of black-and-white maps and plates and 12 pages
of text 410 mm x 305 mm; in a folder 410 mm x 305 mm.
No. 8 Downpatrick
by R.H. Buchanan and Anthony Wilson (1997).
Another significant Early-Christian foundation
that derived its importance from its association with St Patrick. 4 pages
of coloured maps 410 mm x 305 mm; 4 pages of black-and-white maps and
plates and 16 pages of text 410 mm x 305 mm; in a folder 410 mm x 305
mm.
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No. 9 Bray by K.M.
Davies (1998).
A Victorian seaside town with origins
as an Anglo-Norman manor. 2 pages of coloured maps 410 mm x 610 mm; 4
pages of coloured maps and plates 410 mm x 305 mm; 3 pages of black-and-white
maps and plates and 16 pages of text 410 mm x 305 mm; in a folder 410
mm x 305 mm.
No. 10 Kilkenny by
John Bradley (2000).
An Anglo-Norman settlement with Early-Christian
associations to St Canice and St Patrick. Coloured map 610 mm x 820 mm;
4 pages of coloured maps and plates 410 mm x 305 mm; 6 pages of black-and-white
maps and plates and 28 pages of text 410 mm x 305 mm; in a folder 410
mm x 305 mm.
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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, nor
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. This
novel was our selection for Book of the Month in Fiction for September
2001.
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Trains and Boats and
Planes by Killen McNeill
Love for Harry Moore will be forever links
with Marie, the beautiful girl from Alsace. Ever since his magical teenage
encounter with her in a tiny holiday resort in Donegal, it has never lived
up to his expectations. Thirty years later, Harry, middle-aged, but not
quite disillusioned, travels to Strausbourg to take up the search for
Marie and the innocence and longings of his youth. This is a haunting
and evocative debut grappling with memory, conflict and tragedy and coming
of age issues that may, in Harry’s case, never be resolved.
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Call the Swallow by
Fergus O’Connell
David Steinbaum, a Polish Jew, witnessed
the horrifying effects of Hitler’s campaign against the Jews in eastern
Europe - and yet, 60 years later, he has still not discovered the fate
of his sister Ariela, a young jazz singer in pre-war Warsaw. About the
Holocaust, this story unravels the fateful events in the lives of David
and Ariela. But there are other forces at work as well. Rudolf Fest is
a family man, with a future in the Gestapo’s Department of Statistics.
To Rudolf and his colleagues, the lives of the Jews are nothing more than
numbers on a chart. This novel is a searing recreation of an almost unimaginable
time in history.
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Blue Pool by Tom Nestor
As Hugh Dawley looks down from his farm
on Mount Fierna, he covets the richer pastures of Barton Hall Estate -
land that belonged to his ancestors. Obsessed with the idea of wrestling
it back, he plans to enlist the aid of his sons. But his wife Elizabeth
has other plans. Motivated by a different ‘vision’, the dreams and aspirations
she has for her children go far beyond the mountain. Slowly the family
cohesion begins to disintegrate. This novel is a compelling and emotional
charged epic of family tensions, jealousy, suicide and love.
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Peter and Mary Have
a Row by Damien Owens
Peter and Mary have been together since
their teens. Happily so, for the most part. But now, suddenly, something
seems to have gone wrong. Is it serious? Is it nothing? Do they need help?
Maybe - maybe not. Either way, they are going to get it. Because in a
small town where everybody knows everybody else, personal problems don’t
remain personal for long. The troubled couple is soon receiving plenty
of attention - and not all of it is welcome.
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He’s Got To Go by
Sheila O’Flanagan
What do you do when the man in your life
lets you down? Show him to door? Chuck his clothes out of the window?
Cut the crotch from his trousers? If only it was that easy - especially
when you’ve got an eight-year old daughter to think about and a part-time
job that barely pays the milk bill. Nessa Riley, who believes that with
her husband, her little girl, and the home she loves, has it all, is suddenly
faced with the hardest decision of her life. Can she ignore what Adam
seems to be up to and hang on to the happiness they’ve enjoyed for the
past ten years? Can they wipe the slate clean and start again? Or, as
her sisters appear to think, has he really go to go?
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Isobel’s Wedding by
Sheila O’Flanagan
The wedding dress is a dream: there are
four hundred and twenty pearls hand-sewn on the bodice. Her beloved Tim
is a dream too - the mere sight of him sets her heart pounding. Everything
is perfect. Except the bridegroom has cold feet Her dream shattered, Isobel
turns to Spain, a demanding job, and a series of handsome strangers to
invent a new and stronger self. Her growing relationship with the disturbingly
attractive Nico is the icing on the cake. Surely nothing could ever make
her feel that her true self is the one that she left behind.
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Francesca’s Party
by Patricia Scanlan
After years of being the perfect wife
and mother, Francesca Kirwan’s life is changed irrevocably one dismal
autumn morning when her husband Mark forgets his mobile phone. In the
space of ten minutes her comfortable, safe, uneventful existence is completely
shattered. With her life turned upside down and an extremely uncertain
future ahead of her, she has two choices - sink or swim! She decides to
get a life! But that is easier said than done.
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Disco Daddy by Morag
Prunty
Ex-model Valerie never imagined that her
short marriage to 80s pop idol Jack Valentine would herald the end of
her love life. Now she’s fed up with being propositioned by playboys and
longs for a safe, suburban husband who will look after her. Rock star
manager Sinead has an appetite for ‘scruffy pop totty.’ She knows that
they are never, on paper, ideal, but will she be able to relinquish her
desires and settle for a middle-aged-man-in-a-suit? Magazine editor Karin
is the author of ‘Ireland Most Eligible Bachelor’ list so, in theory,
she should get first dibs at the pickings. Trouble is, she knows they
are lean and include a flicky-haired Australian TV presenter and a businessman
with a penchant for golf-wear and creative combovers. When all three women
are challenged to find a man to marry before they all turn forty in the
summer, they realize the time has come to hang up their handbags and cut
to the chase
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The Rainbow Singer
by Simon Kerr
It is July 1985. Twenty teenagers are
sent to the home of ‘Happy Days’ Milwaukee, USA, as part of the month-long
peace initiative Project Ulster. The Project goes wrong from the start
because one of the kids is not simply the 14-year-old Heavy Metal fan
he appears to be. Wil Carson lives a secret life as a Loyalist terrorist,
and peace is the last thing on his mind that is until he meet Teresa,
a bewitching Catholic girl who makes him believe that the American Dream,
where everyone can life together, might be possible. But when Teresa breaks
his heart, everything turns into a nightmare.
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The Fall of Light
by Niall Williams
This story begins in the famine-stricken
Ireland of the early nineteenth century. The Foley family have lost their
home. And they have also lost Emer, wife of Francis and mother to the
four boys - Tomas, Finbar, Finan and Teige, a solemn twelve-year-old with
the gifts of a horse whisperer. And so they set off across Ireland in
search of a new start. Then disaster strikes, and they are scattered across
the country and overseas, through Europe, Africa and America. A romantic
epic bursting with life, this novel movingly describes one family’s struggle
to be reunited, and to survive in a century of hardship and change.
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