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Read Ireland Book Reviews, June 2003
Number 5 by Glenn Patterson
One house, five families, four and a half
decades, from the 1950s to the present. In this compelling, engaging and
deeply moving novel, the successive occupants of a three-bedroomed terraced
house go about the complicated business of keeping themselves and a home
together in a place that the rest of the world knows as Belfast, but to
them is just ‘the town’. Things happen that might happen anywhere, and
things happen that could happen nowhere else, sometimes as noises off,
and sometimes on the front doorstep. But whatever happens, they get up
the next day, like everyone else, and carry on. There is Stella, haunted
by the thought that she will die young, like her mother, and unfulfilled;
Rodney, clinging to the dream of a cosmopolitan life; young Tan, faced
with the dilemma of where he begins and friendship ends; Catriona, watching
her husband and children undergo a strange transformation; Mel, pushing
thirty, living with Toni, wondering whether they will ever share more
than ownership of an industrial vacuum cleaner. And always, across the
street, there is Ivy. One family moves out, another moves in. Number 5
is about continuity and renewal in the face of life’s disruptions. It
is about the traces that, sometimes without our knowing, we leave behind.
[ top ]
Skin of Dreams by Evelyn
Conlon
This is fiction with a sharp documentary
edge; the story, set in Ireland and the United States, of one woman’s
encounter with murder, justice and execution. After the death of their
parents, twins Maud and Malachy clear their house; Maud finds the hidden
secret of a relation who was hanged in the 1940s. But she doesn’t tell
her brother, despite their closeness. It is obvious to her that the man
was innocent, and she becomes obsessed by the subject. She finds out what
information she can, visits the jail where he was hanged and eventually
is drawn to America because that is the only place which executes in the
same language. This moving novel confronts the experience of capital punishment
and the effect it can have. It is also about the love between twins, and
the loss of balance when a relationship is interrupted.
[ top ]
Sophisticated Boom Boom
by John Kelly
In Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern
Ireland, in the 1970s, nothing happens. Every day. Teenagers Declan Lydon
and his trusted friend Spit Maguire stand under lampposts, in their circles
of saliva, waiting to be overtake by some hormonal storm, to be enveloped
by strange women, to finally make some connection with the glorious, glamorous
world they know is out there somewhere. Their salvation - and release
from the grinding tedium and bewilderment of small-town adolescence -
comes through music. When, miraculously, Thin Lizzy come to town, Declan
goes in to the concert in his brown cardigan and emerges wearing a black
leather jacket This novel is a tender, hilarious account of the agonies
and absurdities of growing up in a backwater of pebbledash and Space Invaders
- about the loyalty of friends as they stumble together through the awkward
years of puberty into an equally confusing independence, for which they
are seriously under-prepared.
[ top ]
The White Russian by Tom
Bradby
Set in St. Petersburg in 1917. The capital
of the glittering Empire of the Tsars and a city on the brink of revolution
where the jackals of the Secret Police intrigue for their own survival
as their aristocratic masters indulge in on last, desperate round of hedonism.
For Sandro Ruzsky, Chief Investigator of the city police, even this decaying
world provides the opportunity for a new beginning. Banished to Siberia
for four years for pursuing a case his superiors would rather he’d quietly
buried, Ruzsky finds himself investigating the murders of a young couple
out on the ice of the frozen river Neva. The dead girl was a nanny at
the Imperial Palace, the man an American from Chicago and, if the brutality
of their deaths seems an allegory for the times, Ruzsky finds that, at
every turn, the investigation leads dangerously close to home. At the
heart of the case lies Maria, the beautiful ballerina Ruzsky once loved
and lost. But is she a willing participant in what appears to be a dangerous
conspiracy or likely to be its next victim? In a city at war with itself,
and pitted against a ruthless murderer who relishes taunting him, Ruzsky
finds himself at last face to face with his own past as he fights to save
everything he cares for, before the world into which he was born goes
up in flames.
[ top ]
Betrayed by Brendan DuBois
When Jason Harper’s doorbell rings late
at night, he can scarcely believe who is standing on this porch: Roy,
his elder brother, who three decades earlier went to Vietnam as a pilot
and never returned, presumed ‘missing in action’. Where has he been? Why
hasn’t he contacted them? When Roy is insistent that no one should know
he is there, Jason suspects that so mething strange is going on. And then
two further visitors arrive - the sort who don’t bother to knock - and
his worst possible fears are realized. Jason may be a successful local
newspaper editor, but nothing can prepare him for the astonishing story
his brother reveals. It is a scandal as explosive as Watergate, and one
that powerful and sinister forces will stop at nothing to keep secret.
Jason soon realizes that by helping Roy he is putting his own life in
terrible danger, but after all these years he cannot let his brother down.
[ top ]
Bottling It Up by John P.
Rooney
Paul is forty-five and still fancies himself
a bit of a lad. But just as he’s convincing himself that he deserves another
bite at the cherry he finds that his body has other ideas. High blood
pressure, the doctor says, probably caused by stress. ‘Nothing wrong with
stress. It’s how you handle it. Don’t bottle things up’ Paul resolves
to take the doctor’s advice: no more harbouring resentments, no more biting
the lip, and definitely no more Mr. Nice Guy. It’s all a bit of a shock
for his wife, his bosses and his colleagues. It’s even more or a shock
for the workers on the Belfast building sites he has to inspect in his
work as an architect. In that shady world of scams, protection rackets
and dodgy brickies with even dodgier friends, sensible people just avert
their eyes. That’s what Paul used to do - but now he’s got his blood pressure
to consider.
[ top ]
Home Turf by M.J. Quinn
An eerie phone call from his father puzzles
Tom McDermott, a New York magazine editor. Shortly after, he learns that
his father’s body has been found on a beach near his home on the north
Atlantic coast of Ireland. Forced to visit Ireland to sort out the funeral
arrangements, Tom discovers the land of his forebears for the first time
- the wild beauty of land and sea, the warmth of the people and the undercurrents
of age-old divisions. He begins to receive regular visitations from his
father’s ghost and gradually becomes aware of supernatural influences
in his own ancestry. Above all, he finds that he must face up to elements
of his psyche that until now he has been able to ignore. A return to his
frenetic but at he art solitary New York existence begins to seem impossible.
[ top ]
There is a House by Kieron
Connolly
This is a simple story about love, nothing
too complicated. Paul Conroy is a writer. The only thing is, he can’t
write, nor do anything else for that matter. He’s not too happy. Caroline
Doran is the object of Paul’s affection. Only he can’t get her attention.
But then that’s what Valen tine’s cards are for. She might be happy at
the moment, or she might not, but Paul thinks he’d be able to make her
even happier, if she’d just give him a chance. Paul likes drinks that
are soft. He also likes bars, and spending time in the company of people
like Joe the communist, Frank the barber and Jesus Christ. They eat soup
and do other ordinary and extraordinary things. In this tale of love and
ambition, the author brings the reader on a journey that encompasses the
past, the present and the future.
[ top ]
No Vague Utopia by Emily
Cullen
From the Introduction by Dr. Sean Ryder
of the National University of Ireland in Galway: ‘Emily Cullen, to borrow
a phrase from Thomas Hardy, is someone who notices things. The things
she notices came from all sorts of encounters and events - a nightclub
gig, a shopping trip, a tornado warning, a glance at a thumbnail, a smell
of tea brewing, a painful and anxious meeting with a loved one. The things
she notices are often simple and quotidian, but like all good poets, she
makes them greatly significant. Emily’s poems are more than just a matter
of well-crafted images and scenarios though. What is remarkable about
these poems is the way in which the sensuous seamlessly links with the
reflective; feeling linked to thought. The tone of Emily’s work is often
wistful, matching the reflective tendencies of the poems. There is wit
and humour here too, though. These are not poems full of verbal fireworks,
but they are poems of great verbal skill. This is a volume that reminds
you what poetry can do that other kinds of writing can’t.’
[ top ]
Winter in the Eye: New
and Selected Poems by Joan McBreen
This book brings together Joan McBreen’s
recent work with poems selected from her two previous collections. This
volume captures her elegant and finely tuned lyric voice. A subtle simplicity
of language makes her pomes of places and home all the more powerful;
highlighting moments of universal awareness and reaching beyond the poet’s
life into the reader’s. McBreen’s recent poems about illness and loss
are written with a spare, unflinching beauty. Her moving, elegiac tone
is ultimately a celebration, as darkness gives way to light. This is a
poetry that seeks and reaches toward harmony, and truth.
[ top ]
The Street: Poems and Ballads
by John B. Keane
Listowel man John B. Keane, who died in
May 2002, was an Irish literary legend. This book is an expanded version
of a previously published collection of poetry, and also includes his
songs and ballads. John B. Keane wrote poems at different times in his
life. As a young man, he wrote quite a lot, but as he turned his attention
more and more to his plays, his poetic output understandably diminished.
This new collection has all the imaginative vitality and variety, the
linguistic energy, the blend of humour and compassion, the sharp powers
of observation, the love of nature, the understanding of people, the love
of music, the lifelong appreciation of drink and drinking companions,
and that tolerant open-mindedness towards different kinds of experience
that characterises all his work.
[ top ]
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.
[ top ]
Almost There: The Onward
Journey of a Dublin Woman - a Memoir by Nuala O’Faolain
In 1996, a small Irish press approached
Nuala O’Faolain, then a writer for the Irish Times newspaper, to publish
a collection of her opinion columns. She offered to write an introduction
to give the opinions a context - to explain the life experience that had
shaped this Irish woman’s views - and, convinced that none but a few diehard
fans of the columns would ever see the book, she took the opportunity
to interrogate herself, as fully and candidly as she could, as to what
she had made of her life. But the introduction, the ‘accidental memoir
of a Dublin woman’, was discovered, and ‘Are You Somebody?’ became an
international bestseller. It launched a new life for its author at a time
when she had long let go of expectations that anything could dislodge
patterns of regret and solitude well fixed and too familiar. Suddenly
in mid-life there was the possibility of radical change. Whereas the memoir
ended with its author reconciled to a peaceful if lonely future, now opportunities
opened up, and there were thrilling choices to make - choices that forced
her to address the question of how to live a better life herself and,
therefore, of what makes any life better. This memoir begins at the moment
when O’Faolain’s life began to change, and its both tells the story of
life in the subtle, radical, and, above all, unforeseen renewal, and meditates
on that story. It is on one level a tale of good fortune chasing out bad
- of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative
examination of one woman’s experience of ‘the crucible of middle age’
- a time of life that faces in two directions, forging the shape of the
years to come, and clarifying and solidifying one’s relationships to friends
and lovers (past and present), family and self. Fiercely intelligent,
hilarious, moving, generous, and full of surprises, this book is a crystalline
reflections of a singular character, utterly engaged in life.
[ top ]
A Day Called Hope: A Journey
Beyond Depression by Gareth O’Callaghan
For several years, Gareth O’Callaghan,
one of Ireland’s most popular broadcasters, suffered from severe depression.
No one guessed that the minute he was off the air, he would retreat to
his bed, sometimes with thoughts of suicide, barely able to function as
a husband and father of three small children. In this candid and courageous
account, he describes the nightmare he and his family lived through for
so long. He looks back to the childhood, where he believes his low self-esteem
took root, and traces a pattern common to many depression sufferers. As
soon as he was diagnosed, Gareth began a determined fight back to health.
Now fully recovered, free of anti-depressants, more optimistic and fitter
than ever, he has emerged with a deep understanding of how the condition
takes hold - as well as how to loosed its grasp. It has been an extraordinary
journey - one that has given him immense insight, practical knowledge,
a deep mistrust of conventional wisdom, and a mission to spread hope to
all those affected by it.
[ top ]
Francis Bacon: The Logic
of Sensation by Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze was one of the most influential
and revolutionary philosophers of the 20th century. This is his long-awaited
work on the Ireland-born artist Francis Bacon, widely regarded as one
of the most radical painters of the previous century. The book presents
a deep engagement with Bacon’s work and the nature of art. Deleuze analyzes
the distinctive innovations that came to mark Bacon’s style: the isolation
of the figure, the violent deformations of the flesh, the complex use
of colour, the method of change, and the use of the triptych form. Along
the way, Deleuze introduces a number of his own famous concepts, such
as the ‘body without organs’ and the ‘diagram’, and contrasts his own
approach to painting with that of both the phenomenological and the art
historical traditions. Deleuze links Bacon’s work to Cezanne’s nation
on a ‘logic’ of sensation, which reaches its summit in colour and the
‘colouring sensation’. Investigating this logic, Deleuze explores Bacon’s
crucial relation to past painters such as Valasquez, Cezanne and Soutine,
as well as Bacon’s rejection of expressionism and abstract painting. Long
awaited in translation, this book is destined to become a classic philosophical
reflection on the nature of painting.
[ top ]
The Magic and Mystery of
Ireland in Photographs by Bill Doyle
This book is a celebration of Ireland,
one of the most beautiful parts of the world, capturing the spirit of
the Irish and the impressive country. With 150 lavish photographs of the
most fascinating places in Ireland - taken by one of the country’s foremost
photographers - each picture is accompanied by detailed information about
the history and geography that surrounds it. Including wild natural landscapes
and man-made parks and gardens, impressive architecture and ancient monuments,
this is a magnificent photographic guide to the haunting beauty of Ireland.
[ top ]
Pagan Celtic Britain by
Anne Ross
In this book the author employs archaeological
and anthropological evidence, as well as folklore, to provide a broad
insight into the early Celtic world. She begins by examining Celtic places
of worship - the shrines and sanctuaries in which sacred objects were
housed and from where they would be ritually displayed when various rites
and sacrifices were conducted before the people. She describes the divine
warriors with their aquatic, therapeutic and fertility connections. The
importance of animals is also analyzed, especially birds, the gods’ favourite
form of creature for metamorphosis. The reader learns how Celtic places
of worship changed with the arrival of the Romans when Romano-Celtic temples
were erected and new deities and cults evolved. This book is gripping
as the author leads the reader through the evidence from ritual pits and
cult sites, votive wells, sacred precincts and mountains.
[ top ]
The Poetry and Song of
Black and Amber Glory by James Murphy
This book is the story, in poetry and
song, of the G.A.A. in Kilkenny, collected and compiled by Tullogher native-born
Jamesie Murphy. The joys of victory, the thrills of winning, and even,
sometimes, the hard defeats are captured in vivid detail. From almost
the birth of the Association, the author, who since childhood, was immersed
in its affairs, has gathered together the poetic stories of Irish sporting
games. From the brown and dust covered manuals, to this computer age,
he has trawled through many records, and once again brought back to life
the heroes who made history on many a Gaelic field for their beloved county
of Kilkenny. These were the sporting people who make the country proud
of ‘Black and Amber Glory’.
[ top ]
Donegal Poitin: A History
by Aidan Manning
In early eighteenth-century Ireland, there
were few restrictions on commercial distilling and this encouraged the
growth of a patchwork of small rural and urban distillers in County Donegal.
A 1731 law that forbade distilling except within the environs of a market
town ended this loose arrangement. Legal distilling in rural areas stopped
and, as there were few market towns in the country, opportunities arose
for those individuals willing to operate outside the law to cater to a
thirty population. Illicit distilling quickly flourished and, in many
parts of the country, the price of barley and tenants’ ability to pay
the rent came to rely entirely on the continuation of the practice. For
the next century and a quarter, large groups of poitin makers used the
mountains, the many islands, the plentiful streams and abundant peat to
supply most of the whiskey consumed in County Donegal and such neighbouring
towns as Strabane and Derry. The revenue department exacerbated the problem
by further restrictive legislation and by requiring that the few remaining
legal distillers manufacturer a hurried, ill-tasting, raw-corn-based spirit
that contrasted starkly with the mellow, barley-malt-based poitin. Over
the years, the government used revenue officers, soldiers, local thugs,
militia, yeomanry, coastguard, and finally the revenue police in futile
attempts to put down Donegal poitin making. Scores of people were killed
and hundreds injured in clashes that few more violent as the decades passed
and illicit spirits flowed as freely as ever. This book details that brutal
period in Donegal history.
[ top ]
Irish Songs selected by
Siobhan O’Brien
This book is a collection of over 40 of
Ireland’s finest traditional folk songs, arranged for voice and piano.
The songs and ballads in this book, by turns humorous and touching, tragic
and poignant, reflect the essence of a country famous for its romantics
and storytellers.
[ top ]
Martin McGuinness: From
Guns to Government by Liam Clark and Kathryn Johnston
This newly revised and update edition
tells the story of Martin McGuinness’s personal journey from undistinguished
IRA volunteer to the man labelled ‘Britain’s No. 1 Terrorist’ by the ‘Cook
Report’. By the end of the 1990s, Esquire magazine rated him the second
most powerful man in the United Kingdom, after Rupert Murdoch. And, although
he denies ever having been IRA Chief of Staff, he says that he regards
the charge as a compliment. McGuinness, now First Minister for Education
in the (suspended) Northern Ireland Assembly, has been described as ‘excellent
officer material’, ‘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. Completely revised and updated to include
new evidence relating to the Saville Inquiry, fresh information on McGuinness’s
role in Bloody Sunday and revelations of IRA spying at Stormont and Castlereigh
police station, this book purports to uncover the truth behind the enigmatic
and intensely private individual who holds the peace process in the palm
of his hand. It also includes new appendices detailing McGuinness’s full
criminal record, his various positions in the IRA and contact between
McGuinness, Downing Street and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
[ top ]
A History of the Irish
Church 400-700 AD by John Walsh and Thomas Bradley
The Golden Age of Irish art, and time
when Ireland earned a reputation as an island of saints and scholars,
is the subject of this splendid short history. The records of the time
and the best of modern historical scholarship are combined in a clearly
written overview of the period. Starting with the origins of Christianity
in Ireland, before the arrival of the national apostle, it moves on to
cover in detail the life, work and character of Patrick. It outlines the
origins and development of Irish monasticism and introduces some of the
major monastic founders. A separate chapter each is given over to the
work of Colum Cille in Britain and to Columban’s labours in continental
Europe. The book concludes with individual chapters on three important
topics of the period: the penitentials, the Easter controversy and early
Irish Christian art. It is illustrated with maps, and includes a very
substantial bibliography of the period.
[ top ]
Drifting with the River
Gods by Martin Quigley
This memoir is as rich in mood and depth
as the River Suir from which it takes its inspiration. From the first
to the last page, the reader accompanies ‘The Boy’, set on adventure,
on his personal journey, sharing his experiences and speculations. The
reader sees the world through his eyes during one idyllic 1960s Irish
summer when he finds happiness but also meets despair. The cast of characters
- rogues and poachers, mavericks and bailiffs - the Dalt, the Three Wise
Men, Aggie and Fibber, and Wiggles the dog - come alive in these pages.
Packed with adventure, mischief and humour, yet tinged with sadness, this
is a soulful and reflective insight into nature and people.
[ top ]
Liam Clancy: Memoirs of
an Irish Troubadour by Liam Clancy
In this acclaimed-memoir, Liam Clancy
describes his eventful journey from being raised as the eleventh child
in a provincial Irish family in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, in
the 1930s, to living an uproarious life in the heart of the New York City
music scene of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, at a time when Greenwich
Village was the undoubted Mecca for aspiring artists of every ilk. This
autobiography is wistful, charming and irreverent. His life was a party
filled with music, sex and more than a few pints of Guinness. His nightly
encounters with other soon to be famous writers, actors and musicians
on the Greenwich Village scene - among them Bob Dylan, Robert Redford,
Walter Matthau, Lenny Bruce, Maya Angelou, Pete Seeger and Barbara Streisand
- are remembered here with unabashed honesty. Clancy was at the center
of a seminal time in popular music. This book is a boisterously frank
look at a world that was fresh, new and exciting. His writing is imbued
with a typically Irish charm.
[ top ]
Take 6 Ingredients by Conrad
Gallagher
How often have you looked longingly at
a recipe only to be daunted by the number of ingredients? This book is
the cookbook that will end all that. Here are over 100 ingenious recipes,
created by Ireland’s world-renowned and Michelin-starred chef that contain
only 6 ingredients or less. Gone are the days of endless shopping lists
and trawling supermarket aisles. At an end are the hours spent peeling,
scraping and chopping countless ingredients, slaving over several pots,
pans and trays. In this book, the author has combined imagination and
flair to bring out rich flavours and subtle tastes, using a minimum amount
of ingredients. Assuming only a stock cupboard of olive oil, salt and
pepper, he has created superb, restaurant-quality dishes that won’t leave
you gasping at the amount of time and preparation required. There are
recipes for hearty lunches, sophisticated dinners and light meals. Chapters
are devoted to Starters, Soups, Salads, Pastas and Rosottos, Fish and
Shellfish, Meat, Poultry and Game, Vegetables and Desserts, so you can
create whole menus with ease.
[ top ]
A Case of Bad Blood by
Rosemary Daly
This book tells the story of one woman’s
extraordinary fight for justice for the already marginalized haemophilia
community, wronged by the Irish State. Rosemary Daly recounts the human
tale of how she helped ensure that a Tribunal of Inquiry was established
and how a financial settlement estimated at more than 100 million Euro
was secured. At times frighteningly funny but ultimately uplifting, her
story tells of the cherished intimate relationships she developed with
the people affected. Her story is more than one of pain and grief. It
is about overcoming the odds and reclaiming basic human dignity for a
community stripped bare by those who should have been taking care of it.
[ top ]
The Ansbacher Conspiracy
by Colm Keena
The key to some of Ireland’s darkest political
and business secrets was kept in the archives of Guinness & Mahon
bank in Dublin. Under the stewardship of Des Traynor, money belonging
to some of Ireland’s leading business people was quietly moved offshore
to the Cayman Islands. The money was then repatriated in the name of a
Cayman bank and made available to the original depositors in a way that
let them evade tax. All of this occurred with a stone’s throw of the Central
Bank. This book is the story of a network of the powerful and the well
connected. The 1960s boom created a lot of new money and a lot of influence
to go with it. There were builders, property speculators, and hotel owners,
suddenly sitting on loads of money. They needed connections, they craved
access to power and they wished to keep very distant from the Revenue
Commissioners. They had earned their money hard, and they weren’t going
to throw it away on tax. At the centre of the web stood the biggest boss
of all, Charles Haughey. It was he who had first apprenticed Des Traynor
as an accountant. Now Haughey ran all his personal finances through him.
The network needed financial protection, so Traynor provided it and Haughey
got the kickbacks to keep him in style in Kinsealy. This book tells how
the scam worked, who was involved and how it unravelled.
[ top ]
Missing (Without a Trace
in Ireland) by Barry Cummins
In this book, the author examines the
cases of Ireland’s women and children who have vanished in sinister and
mysterious circumstances. It looks at who may be responsible for these
disturbing disappearances. The book recounts, in clear and disturbing
detail, the fact that some of Ireland’s most cold and calculating killers
have not been caught. With the assistance of the Gardai and the families
concerned, the book tells the stories of seven missing people - five women
and two children - who had much to live for but were never given the chance.
It is a disturbing book. But it is also a tribute to the remarkable bravery
of ordinary Irish families who have lost a loved one in the most cruel
and unexplained of circumstances.
[ top ]
A Secret History of the
IRA by Ed Moloney
For decades, the IRA has been one of the
world’s most feared, ruthless and impenetrable terrorist organizations.
But during this time, the author of this book, former Irish journalist
of the year, has been gaining unprecedented access to its most closely
guarded secrets. This book is the sensational inside story of the IRA
and it has never been told before: its inner workings and top-secret meetings;
its most dangerous informers, bombers and gunmen; the deadly rivalries
and betrayals that tore it apart; and, most astonishing of all, the years
of behind-the-scenes negotiations with the British and Irish governments
that until now have never been revealed. And at the heart of the story
lies one man: Gerry Adams. The author disc loses shocking new material
on the career of Gerry Adams as an early IRA leader in Belfast and his
unrelenting rise to power, asking the question: how could a man who condoned
terrible atrocities also be the guiding force behind the ceasefire and
the peace process? This revelatory book will change forever the way the
reader sees the IRA and its bloody thirty-year conflict with Britain.
[ top ]
Bold Robert Emmet 1778-1803
by Sean O Bradaigh
This book is a short, but detailed account
of the life of Robert Emmet..
[ top ]
Haunted Ground by Erin
Hart
A red-haired girl’s severed head is found
in an ancient bog in south-east Galway, Ireland. A gruesome historical
relic? Or something altogether disturbing? As archaeologist Cormac Maguire
and pathologist Nora Gavin investigate, they uncover more than the secrets
of Drumcleggan Bog. Two years ago, beautiful Mina Osborne disappeared,
along with her young son - and now the case is opened again. Somewhere
there is a killer, who wants the dead to stay buried and the missing to
remain undiscovered. And as Cormac and Nora get closer to the truth, answers
from the past are leading to a murder in the future.
[ top ]
1949: A Novel of the Irish
Free State by Morgan Llywelyn
The masterly epic ‘The Irish Century’
continues in this wonderful novel, a sequel to ‘1916’ and ‘1921’. The
struggle of the Irish people for independence is one of the compelling
historical dramas of the twentieth century. Morgan Llywelyn has chosen
it as a subject of her major work, a meticulously researched, multi-novel
chronicle that began with ‘1916’, continued with ‘1921’, and is brought
up to the mid-century in this novel. Her new novel tells the story of
Ursula Halloran, a fiercely independent young woman who comes of age in
the 1920s. She experiences the tumult of the times in a way that brings
those days vividly alive. The tragedy of the Irish civil war gives way
in the 1920s to a repressive Catholic state led by Eamon de Valera. Married
women cannot hold jobs, divorce is illegal, and the IRA has become a band
of outlaws still devoted to and fighting for a Republic that never lived.
The Great Depression stalks the world, and war is always on the horizon,
whether in Northern Ireland, Spain, or elsewhere on the European continent.
Ursula, the adopted daughter of a revolutionary, Ned Halloran, remains
an idealist believing in Ireland. She works for the fledgling Irish radio
service and then for the League of Nations, while her personal life is
torn between two men: an Irish civil servant and an English pilot. One
is too much a gentleman, and the other too much a scoundrel. Defying Church
and State, Ursula bears a child out of wedlock, though she must leave
the country to do so, and nearly loses her life in the opening days of
World War II. Eventually she returns to an Ireland that is steadfastly
determined to remain neutral during the war, an Ireland shaken by the
great deal between de Valera and Winston Churchill. As always with Ireland,
politics and passion go hand in hand. This novel is a story of one strong
woman who lives through the progress of Ireland from a broken land to
the beginnings of a modern independent state.
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1921 by Morgan Llywelyn
The Irish fight for independence is one
of the most captivating tales of the twentieth century. Morgan Llywelyn,
the acclaimed historical writer of books like ‘Lion of Ireland’ and ‘The
Horse Goddesses’, is the writer born to bring this epic battle to life.
Having created an entire body of work chronicling the Celts and Ireland,
she now turns to recent Irish history to create a multivolume saga: ‘The
Irish Century’. This novel tells the story of the Irish War of Independence
and the heart breaking civil war that followed. Henry Mooney, a reporter
for the ‘Clare Champion’ and the ‘Irish Bulletin’, is a self-described
“moderate nationalist” who struggles to see the truth in the news of the
day, and to report it fairly. Lacking the more radical Republican beliefs
of his dear friends Ned Halloran and Sile Duffy, Henry reports the political
- and, later, bloody - actions of his fellow Irishmen from the ashes of
the failed 1916 Rising to the creation of the Irish Free State to the
tragic and wide-ranging battles of the Irish Civil War. Meanwhile, Henry
feels the impact of these history-changing events in his own personal
life. His friendship with Ned falters when their political beliefs diverge,
and an unexpected tragedy leaves them further apart than ever. Henry struggles
with his passion for a well-bred Protestant Anglo-Irish woman, Ella Rutledge,
and as he dutifully reports the events in the political battle for independence,
he comes to realize that the Irish struggle for freedom will leave no
life untouched - and no Irish citizen with a dry eye or an untroubled
heart.
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1916: A Novel of the Irish
Rebellion by Morgan Llywelyn
The Easter Rising of 1916 was a major
turning point in Irish history. Inspired by poets and schoolteachers,
fueled by a desperate desire for freedom, and played out in the historic
streets of Dublin against a background of World War I, the novel is a
story of tremendous power and unique poignancy. Ned Halloran has lost
both his parents, and almost his own life, to the sinking of the Titanic,
and has lost his sister to America. Determined to keep what little he
has, he returns to Ireland and enrolls at Saint Endas school in Dublin.
Saint Endas headmaster is the renowned scholar and poet, Patrick Pearse
- who is soon to gain greater and undying fame as a rebel and patriot.
Ned becomes totally involved with the growing revolution and the sacrifices
it will demand. Meanwhile, in America, his sister feels her own urge toward
freedom, both for her native Ireland and herself. Kathleen too becomes
involved in the larger struggle, as Americas role in the Irish fight for
freedom escalates. Politics, conspiracy, and betrayal become part of a
New World she never expected. The novel examines the Irish fight for freedom,
which parallels in so many ways Americas own bid for independence. For
the first time, it gives us a look at the heroic women who were willing
to fight and die beside their men for the sake of the future. Above all,
this novel is the story of the valiant patriots who, for a few unforgettable
days, held out against the might of empire to realize an impossible dream.
It is a vivid and compelling portrait of the birth of modern Ireland.
Morgan Llywelyn is the author of a succession of books that chronicle
the legendary and historical figures of Irelands past, from the pre-Christian
era to this most recent novel. Great imagination and copious research
and historical detail in her books bring alive to the modern reader the
legends of Cuchulain and Finn Mac Cool, and the days of Brian Boru, Grace
OMalley, High ONeill, and many others.
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Artemis Fowl: The Eternity
Code by Eoin Colfer
This is the third book in the series.
Artemis Fowl has constructed a super-computer from stolen fairy technology.
In the wrong hands it could be fatal for humans and fairies alike. But
no need to worry, Artemis has a brilliant plan. He’s not going to use
it; he’s just going to show it to a ruthless American businessman with
Mafia connections. His bodyguard, Butler, will be with him. What could
possibly go wrong?
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Artemis Fowl: The Arctic
Incident by Eoin Colfer
The second book in the popular series;
Ireland’s answer to Harry Potter Someone had been supplying Class A illegal
human power sources to the goblins. Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon
Unit is sure that her arch-enemy, thirteen-year-old Artemis Fowl, is responsible.
But is he? Artemis has his own problems to deal with: his father is being
held to ransom and only a miracle will save him. Maybe this time a brilliant
plan just won’t be enough. Maybe this time Artemis needs help 85 This
is a fast-moving, clever, imaginative and hugely-enjoyable read for adults
young and old
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Artemis Fowl (the first
book) 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. 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.
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Benny and Omar by Eoin
Colfer
Benny moves to Africa, and nobody there
can play his favourite sport, hurling. School is weird, with lovey-dovey
ageing hippies for teachers And the village doesn’t even deserve the name
village; more of a camp, really. Enter Omar - wild boy living on his talent
for buying, selling, fixing and making-do. A madcap friendship develops.
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Benny and Babe by Eoin
Colfer
When Benny meets Babe he has met his match
He may be a wise guy, but she is at least three steps ahead of him. And
he’s on her territory.
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The Wish List by Eoin Colfer
Meg Finn dies after a botched attempt
to rob a pensioner, Lowry. Now her soul is up for grabs at the divine
and demonic try every underhanded ploy to bag her for themselves.
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Dancer by Colum McCann
From the documented facts of a real life,
the acclaimed Irish writer Colum McCann has created an extraordinary work
of fiction. This history of life gets under the skin of its hero, and
into his head, under the skin of the people around him, into the heart
of the era he came to represent, into the truth of what it means to dance.
It is ambitious. It is also incredibly controlled, passionate and extravagant
- perfectly matched in style to the personality of its central character,
the dancer Rudolf Nureyev.
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This is Not A Novel by
Jennifer Johnston
Johnny, an outstanding young swimmer,
went missing nearly thirty years ago: drowned, or so everyone except his
sister Imogen, the narrator of Jennifer Johnston’s beguiling new novel,
believes. The event literally leave Imogen speachless, for how could this
happen? Johnny, encourage, pushed even, from a child by his father, could
have made the Olympic team, couldn’t he? In the company of his friend
Bruno, the handsome young German tutor, Imogen has seen him slicing through
the water, staying out for two hours before racing back gleaming. She
has sailed with the two young men out across the bay that lies beneath
the old stone house Great Grandfather bought at the beginning of the century.
In this wonderfully written novel, the author tells of the year that changed
their lives forever. The sheer brilliance of her storytelling and the
beauty of her prose show her to be the mistress of her craft: able to
cross generations with consummate skill - for tragic echoes connect the
narrator with the Great War and Dublin in the 1920s. Letters, memoirs,
fragments, poetry and music imbue the novel with a richness that all but
overwhelms the reader.
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