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Read Ireland Book Reviews, December 2002
Houses of Cork: Volume 1 North by
Anna-Maria Hajba
Cork is blessed with a great number of significant houses.
This book is an attempt to record useful basic information on some of
them. The author provides a comprehensive view of the work and of the
present situation as regards the condition and prospects of the places
she has recorded. The name of each house is listed followed by a translation,
where possible or necessary, and appropriate comments. Surnames of owners,
lessees, or others associated with each property are listed and town-lands
and parishes indicated. Locations, with Ordnance Survey map references,
are given. The present condition of both houses and demenses is also listed.
Technical terminology has been avoided as far as possible. ‘Features’
are usually only exterior and the ‘history’ of a genealogical, historical
and architectural nature.
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Hidden Ireland, Public Sphere by Joep
Leerssen
How did the political climate of ‘ancien regime’ Ireland,
with its colonial-style landlord system, its Penal Laws, and its total
cultural segregation, give way to the mounting nationalist groundswell
of the nineteenth century? This pilot study attempts to sidestep ingrained
and outworn debates, and argues that Irish development around 1800 can
be fruitfully studied in the light of historical models elaborated for
Continental Europe. The book offers an explanation for the process of
cultural transfer in Ireland from the late 18th to the mid 19th century.
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Ireland and Europe: In Times of World
Change by John Cooney and Tony McGarry
This book is a chronicle, a directory and a miscellany
of the annual debates of the Humbert International Summer School in County
Mayo in the West of Ireland from 1987 to 2002. It is also a unique record
- culturally, social, politically, and intellectually - of how Ireland
in this period of profound world change grappled with the challenges posed
not only by its own economic development but also by its adaptation of
its wider role in European and global affairs.
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Roger Casement: The Black Diaries
by Jeffrey Dudgeon
For the first time, all Roger Casement’s ‘Black Diaries’
are here publisher together, including the erotically-charged 1911 Diary
over which London threatened an obscenity prosecution, thus preventing
earlier publication. This volume provides both a comprehensive view of
the texts, with explanations for many of the cast of characters, famous,
infamous, and fleeting, and a context for the author whose significant
and seminal role in the political development of independent Ireland has
been masked by the debates over these diaries and their ‘authenticity’.
It is a uniquely fresh and original look at the Irish patriot and humanitarian,
hanged in 1916. The book also deals with the neglected sides of Casement’s
life: his involvement in Ulster politics; his family background in Co.
Antrim; his Belfast boyfriend Millar Gordon; and the sociopathic Norwegian
sailor, Adler Christensen, as well as providing a full account of the
authenticity controversy. Roger Casement had iconic status in life, and,
after death, was sanctified and vilified in equal measure. His real self
was consequently obscured. This book combines a rigorous academic study
of Casement, the public and political figure alongside an account of his
personal life, sexuality, and consular career, and an informed view of
how these aspects originated and interlocked. It also gives a fresh assessment
of the events of the Easter Rising, and an up-to-date account of the controversies
that have swirled around Casement to this day, including the attempts
made in Dublin, from the 1930s, to threaten the truth about the Black
Diaries.
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Dublina: The Story of Medieval Dublin
by Howard Clarke, Sarah Dent and Ruth Johnson
The mysteries of life in medieval Dublin are revealed
in this lively and richly-illustrated book. From the birth of the walled
medieval city in the twelfth century to the reign of Henry VIII and the
Reformation in 1540, surviving documents and key archaeological finds
tell the story of both Dublin’s elite and ordinary citizens. Maps, plans
and a fascinating scale-model reveal the spread and nature of the small
walled city. Few buildings survive today since much of the city was constructed
of wood. Those that do survive, such as Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral
and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, have been much altered down through the ages.
Remnants of the old city wall remain, but only one of the minor gateways,
St. Audeon’s Arch, is still standing. The ships docked where land was
reclaimed, and the shape of the rivers and harbour was vastly different
from today. Faced with the spectres of the Black Death, invasion or massacre,
religious faith held sway over the city. Dubliners sought to govern themselves,
punishing crimes and misdemeanors with fines, the lock-up and the stocks.
The craft guilds grew in size, number and power. Plying their wares amidst
the bustle of the streets were the scribe, the barber-surgeon, the brewer,
the spicer, the armourer and many more. With the clink of pennies, the
merchants traded at the quayside and at Dublin’s international fair. This
vividly illustrated book presents all the sights, sounds and smells of
a bustling medieval city.
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An Irish Roadside Camera: The Years
of Growth 1907-1918 by Bob Montgomery
This book is the second volume of an illustrated history
of motoring in Ireland. The pioneering years of motoring quickly passed
and the motor car moved into its adolescence as the first decade of the
twentieth century progressed. From being a sporting curiosity of the privileged
few to a veritable maid-of-all-work took but a few short years and by
the start of the Great War in 1914 the automobile had found a role in
all aspects of Irish life, and become relatively commonplace, even in
the remoter parts of Ireland.
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Shackleton: An Irishman in Antarctica
by Jonathan Shackleton and John MacKenna
Eight years after his death, the legend of Ernest Shackleton
and the extraordinary story of the ‘Endurance’ South Pole expedition still
hold a compelling grip on the public imagination. Trapped in drifting
polar ice pack, Ernest Shackleton and his crew fought for survival against
the odds. When the Endurance was finally crushed, they were stranded on
ice-floes for more than a year before reaching Elephant Island in April
1916. From there Shackleton and his five men embarked on the most remarkable
rescue mission in maritime history, sailing to South Georgia across eight
hundred miles of the world’s roughest seas in a small open boat. Despite
failing to realize his dream of reaching the South Pole, Shackleton’s
story lives on because of his unique qualities of leadership and the fact
that all his men survived. This compelling narrative reveals the profound
influence of Shackleton’s Irish and Quaker roots, offering a vivid portrait
of a man whose ambition was tempered by his flawed humanity and egalitarianism.
Here too are the untold stories of Shackleton’s upbringing in Kildare;
his time in the Merchant Navy; his 1901 voyage on the Discovery with Scott;
his 1907 Nimrod expedition; his marriage and love affairs; his life as
a public figure and politician; and the haunting story of his final, fatal
expedition on the Quest. Drawing on family records, diaries and letters
- and hitherto unpublished photographs and archive material - this mesmerizing
book takes the reader beyond the myth of Shackleton the man, for whom
‘Optimism is true moral courage,’ and whose greatest triumph was that
of life over death. The book is lavishly illustrated with over 100 photographs,
maps and engravings, many of them appearing in print for the first time.
[ top ]
The Irish: A Photohistory by Sean
Sexton and Christine Kinealy
The first Irish photographs date from 1840, a year after
Louis Daguerre announced to the world his discovery of the photographic
process. In the century that followed, Ireland was to know tragedy and
triumph, bitter struggle and agonized compromise. In 1840 no one could
possibly have forseen the catastrophe that was about to unfold in Ireland.
The Great Famine was to kill over a million Irish poor people between
1846 and 1851, and force an even greater number to flee the horrors of
their homeland. In the following decades, Irish political life was dominated
by the struggle for land rights, for Home Rule, and ultimately for independence.
As that story unfolds throughout this book, the reader encounters inspirational
leaders and impatient rebels, and their campaigns of persuasion and violence.
We glimpse too the injustices that inspired them, above all the mass eviction
of destitute peasants from their homes and lands by the heavy hand of
the law. Yet these images do much more than tell a gripping political
and historical story. They give an insight into a people, a landscape,
and a lost way of life. They evoke the grandeur of life in the Big House,
home and symbol of the Anglo-Irish elite. They reveal the hard labour
of rural survival: cutting peat for fuel, fishing, gathering seaweed and
tilling the soil, against the magnificence of the often harsh Irish landscape.
And they show the transforming impact of modernity, as industry, railways
and urban expansion slowly brought Ireland into a new era. Covering the
first century of Ireland in the era of photography, this enthralling visual
history brings the past vividly to life.
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An Leabhar Mor: The Great Book of
Gaelic edited by Malcolm Maclean and Theo Dorgan
This book brings together the work of more than 200 poets,
visual artists and calligraphers from Ireland and Scotland to create a
major contemporary artwork in the form of a visual anthology. The 100
Gaelic poems have been nominated by leading poets and writers such as
Seamus Heaney, Hamish Henderson and Alistair Macleod, as well as the contributing
poets themselves. The selection features work from almost every century
from the 6th to the 21st and includes the earliest Gaelic poetry in existence.
Comedy, tragedy, love, death, the spiritual and the bawdy are all represented
in poems by Sorley MacLean, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Iain Crichton Smith,
Michael Davitt, Kevin MacNeill and Cathal O Searcaigh. The 100 visual
artists - 50 from each country - were commissioned to respond to the poetry
in a variety of media. The artists include Alan Davie, Rita Duffy, Will
Maclean, Brian Maguire, Frances Walker, Anna Macleod, John Byrne, Shane
Cullen, Alasdair Gray, Noel Sheridan, Calum Colvin, and Alastair MacLennan.
A small team of calligraphers and typographer Don Addison worked in collaboration
with the artists to integrate the key lines of poetry and the artist’s
images. The resulting work is an extraordinary celebration in words and
pictures of Gaelic culture from the earliest times to the present day.
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Field Day Anthology of Irish Literature
Volume IV and V: Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions
The publication of this long-awaited book raises the
issues of the function of feminist recovery and re-interpretation of texts.
The first three volumes of the Field Day Anthology were not simply a reaction
to the traditional canon: they questioned the whole notion of literary
canons and a universal standard of literary greatness. Literary canons
and historical traditions have lost the power of consensus in the last
two decades and have become areas of cultural conflict and transformation.
The fact that the issue of gender was not acknowledged in the first three
volumes eludes to the difficulty involved in such a post-modern version
of cultural history. The particular challenge to the editors of Volumes
IV and V was to radically exceed the agenda set by the earlier volumes.
Eleven years in the making, harnessing the skills and expertise of dozens
of scholars, this book is without doubt one of the most important publishing
events in Ireland for many years. The two volumes cover a period from
600AD to the end of the twentieth century and provide a unique resource
for the study of Irish society from the perspective of Irish women’s writing.
Offering a truly interdisciplinary approach, this anthology exposes preconceptions
about Ireland, women, writing and history. Texts covering the fields of
literature, journalism, history and criticism, as well as legal, medical,
theological and scientific writing in the English and Irish languages
provide an unrivalled range of sources for scholars and students. Oral
traditions are also examined and transcribed, and many translations of
Irish language texts in particular are published for the first time. These
volumes, while they do not complete a map of Irish history, seek to put
existing maps into questions. As with the first three volumes, bio-bibliographies
of writers cited are a significant feature of these volumes. Both are
also fully cross-referenced with the earlier volumes.
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People and Places: Ireland Yearbook
2003 from Appletree Press
This attractive yearbook - which makes a distinguished
desk or engagement diary - contains 28 beautifully reproduced Irish paintings
from the Fine Art Collections of the Museums and Galleries of Northern
Ireland. Carefully selected works on the these of the people and places
of Ireland demonstrate the variety of approaches artists have taken to
capturing the Irish people and the landscape in which they live. Both
well and lesser known artists’ works have been included, dating the from
the 19th century through to the late 20th. Each plate is accompanied by
an informative and extended caption with full details of the work and
the artists. Stylish, practical and enlightening, this diary-yearbook
is a window on Ireland through exceptional eyes and would make a wonderful
gift
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An End to Flight by Vincent Banville
Michael Painter, an Irishman teaching in a Catholic Mission
School in Nigeria, is, by temperament and choosing, an observer. Boredom
and the fear of emotional involvement seem always to prevent him from
taking a decisive leap. And so, as the relief planes lift the European
doctors, teachers and priests out of a country convulsed by a violent
Civil War they cannot comprehend, Painter remains behind. Still in search
of something to give meaning to his life, Painter is submerged in the
conflict as rival armies shuttle back and forth across the enormous battlefield,
wreaking identical cruelties, slaughtering and being slaughtered. For
Painter, as for the starving Biafrans, there is no real end to flight.
In a spare, muted style, Vincent Banville communicates the horror of Africa
at war in a work of extraordinary power and depth. This is a timely reissue
of a celebrated and prize-winning novel that paints a picture of the beginnings
of a struggle that endures to this day.
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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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The Dublin Review Number 9 Winter
2002-3 Edited by Brendan Barrington
This issue of the Dublin Review contains the following: ‘Penitents’: Tom Dunne on ‘The Magdalene Sisters’; Hubert Butler: A newly
discovered essay; Keano agonistes: Conor O’Callaghan; Selina Guinness
on Georgie Hyde Lees, quintessential modernist; Our first jukebox: George
O’Brien; Clair Willis consults ‘The Invasion Handbook’; ‘Davitt at Moore’s
Door’: Adrian Frazier; Michael Cronin remembers rotary dial; ‘Girl in
a Yellow T-shirt’: A story by David Woelfel. [ top ]
Nealon’s Guide to the 29th Dail and
Seanad edited by Geraldine Kennedy
This is the latest edition of Ireland’s outstanding political
work of reference. For the last quarter of a century, Nealon’s Guide has
appeared after every general election. It has provided a comprehensive
profile of each Dail and Seanad, laid out in a style that is at once visually
attractive and easy to follow. Ted Nealon has now retired from public
life, but his Guide goes on. This new edition draws on the unrivalled
editorial resources of The Irish Times, which has taken over the compilation
of the Guide from him. This edition of the Guide is the first to appear
in full colour. At the heart of the book are the election results. The
complete count from every constituency is given, showing not only the
first preferences but also the subsequent distribution of surplusses and
the votes of eliminated candidates right down to the filling of the last
seat. There are profiles of every TD and Senator, a full listing of all
cabinet and ministerial appointments, and statistical and political analysis.
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The Tallyman’s Guide to Politics
in Ireland 2003 by John Mullan and Noel Whelan
This book is a Politics Yearbook for 2003 and a Parliamentary
Directory to the 29th Dail and the Seanad. It includes a detailed profile
of Ireland’s 166 Dail Deputies and 60 Senators. It also details the Ministers
and Ministers of State of Bertie Ahern’s second government and explores
the challenges they face in 2003. It examines the task facing the new
leaders of Fine Gael and Labour and assesses what impact, if any, the
Independents and smaller parties can have in the new Dail. The Guide tells
the story of the 2002 Election and includes detailed analysis and results
of each of the 42 constituencies. It explores the re-election of the Fianna
Fail led government, the dramatic losses suffered by Fine Gael, the success
of the Progressive Democrats and the stagnation of the Labour Party. The
book also charts the dramatic rise of the Green Party and Sinn Fein and
seeks to explain the unprecedented election of so many Independent Dail
Deputies. For the political year ahead and for the life of the 29th Dail,
the book is the essential reference book.
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Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor
In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by
injustice and natural disaster, the ‘Star of the Sea’ sets sail for New
York. On board are hundreds of fleeing refugees, some brimming with optimism,
many more desperate. Among them is a maidservant with a devastating secret,
bankrupt Lord Merridith and his wife and children, an aspiring novelist,
a maker of revolutionary ballads, all braving the Atlantic in search of
a new home. Each is connected more deeply than they can possibly know.
But a camoflauged killer is stalking the decks; hungry for the vengeance
that will bring absolution. The twenty-six-day journey will see many lives
end, other begin afresh. Passionate loves are tenderly recalled, ducked
responsibilities regretted too late; profound relationships shockingly
unearthed where once it seemed there were none. In a spellbinding story
of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the further the ship sails towards
the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past which
will never let them go. A novel as urgently contemporary in its preoccupations
as it is historically revealing, this gripping and compassionate tale
builds with the pace of a thriller to an unforgettable conclusion.
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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, and
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,
and 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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Great Irish Drinking Stories edited
and introduced by Peter Haining
Ireland’s drinking culture has been exported around the
world and given the Irish a reputation as an entertaining and talkative
nation. It has been an inspiration for Ireland’s other great export, her
writers. From James Joyce, Flann O’Brien and Brendan Behan to Roddy Doyle
and Patrick McCabe, all have written about drinking and its effects, the
stuff of life and sometimes the troubling consequences. The writers in
this anthology are: Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Roddy Doyle, Patrick
McCabe, Frank O’Connor, Shane MacGowan, William Trevor, Malachy McCourt,
Bernard Shaw, Peter Tremayne, Robert J. Martin, James Joyce, Patrick Kavanagh,
Flann O’Brien, Marian Keyes, Sean O’Faolain, Edna O’Brien, Bernard MacLaverty,
Brian Friel, Sean O’Casey, J.M. Synge, Glenn Patterson, William Carleton,
Lynn Doyle and Eamonn Sweeney
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