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Read Ireland Book Reviews, September 2002
Wars of the Irish Kings
by David Willis McCullough
For the first thousand years of its history,
Ireland was shaped by its wars. Beginning with the legends of ancient
battles and warriors, this book moves through a time when history and
storytelling were equally prized, into the age when history was as much
propaganda as fact. The book tells of tribal battles, foreign invasions,
Viking raids, family feuds, wars between rival Irish kingdoms, and wars
of rebellion against the English. While the battles formed the legends
of the land, it was the people fighting the battles - Cuchulain, Finn
MacCool, Brian Boru, Robert the Bruce, Elizabeth I, and Hugh O’Donnell
- who shaped the destiny and identity of the Irish nation. This is the
real story of how Ireland came to be, told through eyewitness accounts
from a thousand years of struggle, brought together for the first time
in one volume. It is also a surprisingly immediate and stunning portrait
of an all-but-forgotten time that forged the Ireland of today.
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Hopkins in Ireland
by Norman White
Gerard Manley Hopkins spent five unhappy
years in Ireland before his death in 1889, during which time he wrote
perhaps the most interesting group of all his poems. Although he is one
of the most well known and liked poets, he is still one of the least understood.
This is the first full-length study of Hopkins’s time in Ireland, when
he was Professor of Classics at University College Dublin, and it is both
a biography and a critical account of his poetry. The author uses his
unrivalled knowledge of Hopkins’s work to examine the poet’s personality
and shows him as a sick and self-lacerating human being. This is not a
conventional biography and it does not aim to be an account of Hopkins’s
doings in Ireland: the important things that happened to Hopkins in Ireland
were mental, and so the book is an exploration of the poems written in
Ireland largely as a form of psychological biography, working outwards
from Hopkins’s most intimate creations. This book greatly adds to our
! understanding of the personality and work of Hopkins.
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Dancing with the Angel
by Terri Prone
Flannery should have been called Daugher
Of. Her father was the most famous, most popular poet of his time. He
may have been a professor, but he also managed to reach millions of ‘ordinary’
readers with his poetry. He was popular on television and a Nobel Prize
winner in the talent-spotting department. And he raised a daughter who
adored him. When Flannery’s father is found dead in suspicious circumstances,
it turns her world on its end. Not lease because she suspects one of the
talents he had spotted and fostered - a young electronics genius - had
a hand in his death. Spun free of the moorings of her life by the tragedy,
she launches a non-career as a temp, living a fast (and funny) life just
this side of slapper-dom, never stops trying to unravel the mystery of
her father’s death - and falls in love with the living definition of the
wrong man.
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London Irish by Zane
Radcliffe
There are 750,000 Irish living in London.
One of them has to get out. For good. Summer 1999. Only 157 shopping days
until the new millennium and for Bic (half-Irish, half-Scots and half-cut),
who ekes out a living selling crepes to the hordes descending on Greenwich
market, the year 2000 can’t come quick enough. One severed ear, two bizarre
deaths and the arrest of his dog for civil disobedience - so far Bic’s
annus has been pretty horribiles. A glorious comic thriller bursting with
outrageous shenanigans, shot-to-pieces with black humour while retaining
a heart of gold, the book introduces a singular and entertaining new Irish
literary voice.
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Missing by Mary Stanley
John and Elizabeth Dunville believe they
have the ideal family. Their three daughters - beautiful, vivacious Baby,
clever, industrious Becky, and lively, if mischievous Brona - attend Dublin’s
most prestigious convent school, and all have bright futures. But denial
and deception go hand in hand, and one night, one of the girls slips out
into the December fog, and doesn’t come home 85 Perceptive and humorous,
yet often poignant, this is a compelling novel and engrossing read.
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Perfectly Impossible
by Joan O’Neill
Cara Thompson’s marriage has never been
perfect. When husband Andy loses his job, things quickly become a whole
lot worse. In order to give him some space to find himself, Cara throws
herself heart and soul into her own career. Yet life is plainly far from
ideal and although friends Vanessa and Suzanne try to be supportive, both
have man problems of their own. Then Guy McIntosh strolls into Cara’s
life 85 he could be the best thing that has ever happened to her, or he
would be the one complication too many. Will Cara give Andy another chance
in the hope that his soul-searching has turned up something useful? Or
should she grab the opportunity of happiness with a handsome stranger?
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An Unsung Hero: Tom
Crean: Antarctic Survivor by Michael Smith
Tom Crean ran away from home as a youth
and become one of the most indestructible heroes in Antarctic exploration.
He played a central role in the dramatic events on three out of four British
expeditions in the Heroic Age of Polar exploration. He served Scott and
Shackleton - both bitter rivals - and outlived them both. This book reveals
how he volunteered for Polar exploration, was one of the last to see Scott
alive before his ill-fated expedition reached the South Pole, and how
he returned to bury him in the snow a month later. Tom Crean played a
leading role in Shackleton’s legendary ‘Endurance’ expedition, sailing
the small open James Caird across the violent Southern Ocean, and in the
historic crossing of South George’s glaciers. Tom Crean is the unsung
and inspirational hero of Antarctic exploration. His astonishing life
of adventure, heroism and survival against all the odds is told for the
first time in this remarkable book. It is an extraordinary and unforgettable
story. The book is illustrated with photographs.
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Hurling’s Top 20 by
Colm Keane
This book contains profiles of 20 of
the greatest hurling legends to grace the game: from Christy Ring, Mick
Mackey, Jack Lynch and Tony Reddin to more recent heroes such as Nicky
English, Joe Cooney, Brian Whelahan and DJ Carey. Tipperary’s John Doyle
and Jimmy Doyle, Kilkenny’s Eddie Keher and Noel Skehan, along with Cork’s
Ray Cummins and Jimmy Barry-Murphy recall their glory years. Offaly’s
Joe Dooley, together with Wexford’s Billy Rackard and Tony Doran, describe
how their counties beat the odds, turning the tables on the traditional
hurling powers, while Waterford’s glory years in the 1940s and 50s are
recalled through career profiles of John Keane and Tom Cheasty. Jimmy
Smyth describes Clare’s fallow years. This book chronicles over half a
century of hurling history, as seen through the eyes of those who have
played at the highest level of the game.
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The Grand Tour of Galway
by Cornelius Kelly
County Galway, Ireland, as seen through
the eyes of over sixty visitors, the book brings together eight centuries
of travel writing about the county, its dramatic landscapes and rich history.
Brendan Behan, James Joyce, William Makepeace Thackery, W.B. Yeats and
many others share their adventures and impressions. You will hear from
the filmmaker documenting live on Aran, the German prince looking for
a rich bride, and the American missionary distributing Bibles on the eve
of the Famine. These accounts, brought to life with antique maps, historical
photographs and rare illustrations, take the reader on a journey through
all parts of the county - from Galway City to the Aran Islands, from Connemara
to East Galway.
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The Victorian Visitor
in Ireland: Irish Tourism 1840-1910 by Donal Horgan
This book is an exploration of Irish tourism
in the Victorian Age. It draws on the experiences and accounts of Victorians
visiting such locations as Dublin, Killarney, the Giant’s Causeway and
sea-side resorts such as Bray, Portrush and Kilkee - not to mention Lisdoonvaran,
spar resort and perennial favourite of all health conscious Victorians.
The book also captures the Victorians on holiday through the camera lens,
principally through a selection of photographs from the Lawrence Photographic
Company. It is not, however, just the landmarks that will be familiar:
today’s tourist will also recognise a kindred spirit in his Victorian
counterpart. While changing boxes have long since disappeared, the Victorian
portmanteau was crammed with every bit as much tourist paraphernalia as
would befit today’s credit card wielding traveller. Likewise, thoughts
of food, hotel accommodation and transport occupied the mind of the Victorian
visitor every bit as much as the splendors of the Irish landscape.
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Defending Peace: Ireland’s
Role in a Changing Europe by John Maguire
This book traces how the European Union,
under the influence of NATO, has evolved a disturbingly militaristic ‘common
defense policy’, and how successive Irish governments have misled the
Irish people into involvement in it. It shows that this policy is hugely
at odds with the values allegedly underlying Irish foreign policy, particularly
peace building under UN authority, and with those of the Peace Process.
Far from failing, the UN has been prevented from fulfilling its mandate
by the large industrial and military states, and a UN reclaimed by global
civil society is the most practical alternative to NATO’s lawless aggression.
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Identity Parades:
Northern Irish Culture and Dissident Subjects by Richard Kirkland
This book is an investigation of the role
and importance of identity politics in modern Northern Irish society.
Through a discussion of the kinds of texts that are often overlooked in
analyses of culture in the North - such as film, biography, popular fiction
and travel writing - the book charts the rise of identity as an increasingly
popular way of defining individual and communal affiliation and considers
its importance within Northern Irish political discourse as a whole. In
this, the book identifies not only the possibilities but also the limits
of ‘identitarian’ thinking and describes the ways in which identity positions
in the North can become troubled, fossilised and, ultimately, self-parodic.
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Bright Waters: A Celebration
of Irish Game, Coarse and Sea Angling edited by Niall Fallon and Tom Fort
This delightful collection of Irish fishing
tales includes, for the first time in one volume, a heady mix of the best
game, coarse and sea fishing writers. Ireland’s superb fishing and scenery
have inspired many fine writers. Among them are the Judge T.C. Kingsmill
Moore, philosopher A.A. Luce, American journalist Negley Farson, poet
Seamus Heaney - some are well known names, others will be new discoveries.
The editors of this collection have interspersed lyrical descriptions
of Ireland with dramatic accounts of big fish and stories of some great
angling characters and comic situations. This book confirms that the literary
tradition behind Irish angling is alive and well.
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The Grand Tour of
Kerry by Cornelius Kelly
County Galway, Ireland, as seen through
the eyes of over sixty visitors, the book brings together eight centuries
of travel writing about the county, its dramatic landscapes and rich history.
Brendan Behan, James Joyce, William Makepeace Thackery, W.B. Yeats and
many others share their adventures and impressions. You will hear from
the filmmaker documenting live on Aran, the German prince looking for
a rich bride, and the American missionary distributing Bibles on the eve
of the Famine. These accounts, brought to life with antique maps, historical
photographs and rare illustrations, take the reader on a journey through
all parts of the county - from Galway City to the Aran Islands, from Connemara
to East Galway.--
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Charles ‘Nomad’ McGuinness:
Being a True Account of the Amazing Adventures of a Derryman by John McGuffin
and Joseph Mulheron
In this book the authors incorporated
first-hand accounts, archival material, memoirs (some irrefutably authentic
and others of questionable credibility) as well as interviews with long
lost relatives, those who knew him and even those who just have a good
yarn to tell. Having waded through reams of newsprint and poured for hours
over yellowing photographs, not to mention the arguments over content,
the unexpurgated truth can finally be told (or at least as near as it
was possible to verify). The problem of piecing together the extraordinary
life of Charles McGuinness was compounded for the authors by the shortage
of independent accounts of his exploits. McGuinness was not one to hide
his light under a bushel and his own accounts sometimes vary wildly from
what was strictly accurate. However, this hugely enjoyable account separates
the fact from the fantasy without losing the larger than life character
of the man himself.
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A Place for Unicorns
by Nicola Lindsay
Eight-year-old Anna arrives in Pisa with
her mother, the beautiful but selfish Rosalind, for an Italian holiday.
While Rosalind seems happy and carefree, Anna is homesick for her father
David who has been left behind in disgrace. He drinks too much and Rosalind
knows he is unfaithful. Their Italian idyll is shattered by a fatal car
crash that leaves Rosalind in a wheelchair and forces their return where
David must take care of his embittered and angry wife and unhappy daughter.
Further devastating events bring Anna to the wild but beautiful Ballynacarraig
in the west of Ireland to live with her eccentric Aunt Pog. As she grows
into a young woman, Anna continues her search for the love and affection
she was so starved of in her youth. This is a wonderful novel, by turns
poignant and passionate, from a new Irish talent.
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The Story of Lucy
Gault by William Trevor
Captain Gault had seen off the three
intruders easily enough. They had come in the night with the intention
of firing the house, but a single shot had sent them scuttling back into
the darkness. One, though, had been wounded and for that the Gaults were
not forgiven: sooner or later there would be trouble again. Other big-house
families had been driven out - the Morells from Clashmore, the Gouvernets,
the Priors, the Swifts. It was time to go. But Lucy, soon to be nine,
the only child of the household, could not bear the thought of leaving
Lahardane. Her world was the old house itself, the woods of the glen,
the farm animals, the walk along the seashore to school. All of that she
loved and as the day of departure grew closer she determined that this
exile should not take place. But chance changed everything, bringing about
a calamity so terrible that it might have been a punishment, so vicious
that it blighted the lives of all the Gaults for many years to come. This
novel by one of Ireland’s finest writers begins in rural Cork in 1921,
in a country still in turmoil. The old order has fragmented; a way of
life is already over. Trevor brilliantly conveys the disquiet and confusion
that colour the story of Lucy Gault as it’s told while happens, in towns
and countryside, and told again when passing time has made it different.
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Fire in the Morning:
The Story of the Irish and the Twin Towers on September 11 by Niall O’Dowd
The Irish built New York and they built
it well. The World Trade Center, its majestic towers set like a jewel
against the skyline, was in many ways the ultimate example of their industry.
When it came crashing down on September 11, 2001, it took over a thousand
Irish with it. Their stories ranged from undocumented workers holding
illegal work papers who laboured away in the shadows, to second generation
titans of Wall Street. There were the firemen and police officers, the
backbone of Irish America for generations. They rushed towards the flames
when all else were running away from them. This book is the story of the
Irish in New York on that dreadful day when a community faced the greatest
test in its history and emerged changed forever.
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Royal Roots Republican
Inheritance: The Survival of the Office of Arms by Susan Hood
This book is the absorbing story of the
Office of Arms - Ireland’s heraldic authority - and the oldest Office
of the State. Founded in 1552, and derived from an earlier medieval heraldry
based on the traditions of sovereigns and members of the nobility, today
the Office has a much wider relevance, providing heraldic services for
Irish people and institutions throughout the world. This book is the history
of its remarkable survival during the last 150 years, when it bridged
the transition from Crown Government to Republican State. The transfer
of the Office to the Irish Government was delayed for over 20 years after
Independence was securred in 1922. It became, in fact, the last office
to pass from British to Irish control, as late as 1943. This is just one
of the fascinating episodes of the story. Others include fresh insight
on the infamous theft of the ‘Irish Crown Jewels’, in 1907; the Office’s
politically anomalous position in the Free State, when, in 1924, it designed
and registered the arms of Northern Ireland; as well as its more recent
international significance, including the design of the European flag,
in 1954; arms for President John F. Kennedy, in 1961; and heraldic research
for thousands of the Irish diaspora.
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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.
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Banks of Green Willow
by Kevin Myers
When Gina left Stefan in Dublin airport,
1972, she knew she was making a mistake. But at nineteen, the draw of
home and what she knew was stronger than that of love. Twenty years later,
stuck in a passionless marriage in small-town Louisiana, Gina cannot resist
returning to Ireland to find out what might have been. But the world has
changed, and people with it: Stefan’s Bosnian heritage has swept him down
dark, unforseen paths, to a place that causes him to question his very
identity. Moving between Ireland, Louisiana and the stark horrors of war
in Bosnia - between love and hate - this novel is a funny, sensuous and
deeply moving portrait of the inescapable consequences of 20th century
history on commonplace lives.
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The Dublin Review
Number 8 Autumn 2002 Edited by Brendan Barrington
This issue of the Dublin Review contains
the following: ‘Barrier Methods’: Harry Browne on Irish immigrations controls;
Derek Mahon: ‘Yeats and the Lights of Dublin’; Translating Joseph Roth:
Michael Hofmann; Seamus Heaney on the making of a poem; ‘On Getting Paid
to Read the TLS’ by Molly McCloskey; Petrie and the Irish Musical Tradition:
Ciaran Carson; Caitriona O’Reilly reads Eoin McNamee; ‘What the British
Knew’ by Eunan O’Halpin; Fiction by Keith Ridgway and Jennifer Varney;
Poems by Christopher Matthews
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