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Read Ireland Book Reviews, March 2004
Hard Shoulder
by Peter Woods
When McBride, a young Irishman, leaves County Monaghan for the building
sites of London, and the Germany, he is confronted by a harsh new world
and the volatile men who have mastered and mythologised it. Quickly overwhelmed
by the unrelenting quest for work and love, he soon finds himself enslaved
to the road ahead, embittered by the cold comforts of its hard shoulder.
But when he eventually returns to London, the limits of the heavy digger’s
life, its quixotic pursuit of the Big Money, its illusory horizons, are
brought shockingly and suddenly home. This novel is the story of countless
unheard voices, transfiguring the haunting experiences of Ireland’s unconsidered
exiles into a tale of intense colour and vibrancy.
[ top ]
Stay by Aislinn
Hunter
Abbey, a young Canadian woman living in a village near Galway, is on the
run: from her family, from her past, and from the man she loves. Dermot,
a middle-aged academic besotted by drink and sorrow, is powerless to hold
her. Around them, dark secrets are erupting from a past that can’t stay
buried for long: an ancient, unexplained body in the bog, a hidden pregnancy,
a death that strikes at the heart of the community. Caught between history
and obligation in a land poised uneasily between past and future, their
relationship is about to face its biggest test. This debut novel is a
compelling tale of modern love in a new Ireland.
[ top ]
The Tea House
on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens
Penny Stanley’s seventeen-year marriage to Daniel is falling apart and
so is their shabby teahouse on Mulberry Street. But its regular customers
love the cosy atmosphere and luscious desserts. Penniless artist Brenda
Brown sits in the café penning letters to Nicholas Cage. Will they
ever be answered? Sadie Smith finds refuge from her diet and her husband’s
ultra-slim mistress in a slice of the café’s cherry cheesecake.
And Clare Fitzgerald returns to the teahouse after twenty years in New
York. But the tea house needs more than a coat of paint and as Penny takes
action she discovers it is a magical place with secrets of its own.
[ top ]
Best of Friends
by Cathy Kelly
Good times or bad, friends are always there …Abby’s TV career is
taking off and now she and her husband, Tom, can have the life they’ve
dreamed of in the lovely town of Dunmore. But after seventeen years of
marriage, when you’re feeling taken for granted, an old boyfriend can
spell danger. Abby’s daughter, Jess, thinks being a teenager is the worst
thing ever. While her classmates are blossoming into confident women,
she’s too scared to smile at the boy she likes. Is she ever going to catch
up? Lizzie has time for everybody: her friends in Dunmore, her grown-up
children, even her ex-husband. Then Myles finds someone new and Lizzie
starts to wonder if there’s anyone out there for her! Erin follows her
husband home to Ireland from Chicago to help his career. But is she ready
to face her own past? Then tragedy touches the four women. As they draw
together in their sadness, they realize that life is for living, and they
have to grab it with both hands.
[ top ]
A Perfect Life
by Kate Thompson
Golden girl Calypso O’Kelly is used to getting what she wants. As a powerful
casting director, she calls the shots. Closet romantic Dannie Moore is
mistress of her own destiny. Having had her fingers burned once by her
war correspondent partner, she’s determined never to fall in love again.
Devoted single mother Rosa Elliott dreams of a brand new life of freedom
from tyrannical, sexist bosses. But she finds that throwing caution to
the wind isn’t necessarily the best way of making her dreams come true
… Three strong women, working hard to make life as perfect as possible.
Until Calypso relinquishes control to a demon lover, Dannie discovers
that destiny lies in the stars, and Rosa’s dreams of freedom end up in
the trash. Can they ever reassemble the shards of the lives they’ve so
recklessly shattered? This book is a tale of sexual obsession, of romance,
of courage in adversity and of hope in love.
[ top ]
Time And Destiny
by Patricia O’Reilly
The roaring Twenties. Paris is at the feet of one Irish woman. Decades
on, a destiny screen prompts a journey back … Jack Devine, handsome,
debonair antiques expert and New York jet-setter, is intrigued when he
discovers that Yves St. Laurent has paid a record sum at auction for a
lacquer screen. Who is the enigmatic Irish-born Eileen Gray, celebrated
designer of 1920s Paris, now all but forgotten? Jack is astounded to discover
that the creator of Le Destin is still alive, though in her nineties,
and living a reclusive life in Paris. He determines to seek her out. Eileen’s
memory is awakened by Jack’s probing, and she begins to relive her past,
in all its glorious and painful detail - her artistic life, her passion
for the modern age, her many affairs, and her heartache at the hands of
Damia, the infamous singer. Wonderfully told, evoking the sights, sounds
and characters of Paris during the 1920s, this is an enthralling story
of an extraordinary woman and time.
[ top ]
The One Year by
Brian Gorman
Sean McNulty takes a year to study abroad at Trinity College Dublin, wanting
to escape the ennui of his trust fund life. Sean’s father, an Irish-born
success story and the CEO of a Long Island defense contractor, has the
world in the palm of his hand. Neither knows that world events will soon
change their lives, as iron curtains and big-money defense contracts become
a thing of the past. Sean learns that there is more to European student
radicalism than angst. Before long, Sean falls prey to a terrorist plot
to get military secrets from his father’s company, while his father battles
to keep his not-so-squeaky-clean empire intact. This debut thriller combines
Grisham’s sense of suspense, McCourt’s gift for cultural insights and
Clancy’s technical brilliance with his own unique and gripping style to
produce a thoroughly enjoyable novel of political intrigue.
[ top ]
The Judge and
the Barfly by Mary McCarte Johnson
This novel is based in Ireland in the 1920s. It is a poignant story about
a young woman, Elizabeth, whose illegitimate pregnancy results in her
disinheritance from her family, and her resulting commitment to the local
convent and orphanage. Elizabeth’s experiences as a nun, and later, her
struggles romantically, detail her dilemma between her Catholic vows and
her love for a man. Her life is further complicated by the relationship
and maternal love she develops for a troubled young orphan, Patrick, who
later immigrates to the United States. Several years later, Elizabeth
and Patrick meet again in America.
[ top ]
The Stones and
other stories by Daniel Corkery
Daniel Corkery’s short stories rank amongst the finest in the history
of Irish literature. His stories have been acclaimed and anthologized
and have exerted a profound influence on subsequent generations of Irish
writers, including Frank O’Connor, Sean O’Faolain and Michael McLaverty.
This volume provides a comprehensive selection of these stories, and restores
to print the work of one of Ireland’s greatest storytellers. This book
draws on each of Corkery’s four collections, originally published from
1916 to 1939. It also includes an extensive introduction and a full critical
bibliography. All the stories are grounded in the Munster landscape, and
touch on issues which preoccupied Corkery throughout his career, including
the relationship between people and place, the importance of traditional
customs and practices in a modernizing society and the significance of
the Irish language in twentieth-century Ireland.
[ top ]
Call My Brother
Back by Michael McLaverty
Originally published in 1939, this novel is a classic of Irish literature.
Set in 1918, thirteen-year-old Colm MacNeill is living happily on Rathlin
island when his security is suddenly shattered by the death of his father.
The loss of the family breadwinner forces the MacNeills to leave their
island home to make a life for themselves in the city. On the streets
of Belfast, Colm and his brothers enjoy a different kind of freedom -
childhood adventures that run late into the evening, games that last for
days and friendly tussles make life in the city a new kind of liberation.
This sense of freedom is, however, short-lived as sectarian violence erupts
in Belfast.
[ top ]
The Pleasure
of Eliza Lynch by Anne Enright
Beautiful Irishwoman Eliza Lynch became briefly, in the 1860s, the richest
woman in the world. This wonderfully written novel opens in Paris with
Eliza in bed with Francisco Solano Lopez - heir to the untold wealth of
Paraguay. The fruit of their congress will be extraordinary, and will
send Eliza across the Atlantic on a regal voyage to claim her glorious
future in Asuncion. With the lavish imaginative richness of Gabriel Garcia
Marquez and the crazed panoramic sweep of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo,
this novel is a bold and brilliantly achieved story about sex, beauty
and corruption and the end of the old world by one of Ireland’s finest
contemporary novelists.
[ top ]
A Hidden Ulster:
People, Songs and Traditions of Oriel by Padraigin Ni Uallachain
This book is a comprehensive account of the traditions of Oriel, a region
that takes in parts of Armagh, Monaghan and Louth. The book contains a
wealth of information about the people who made and maintained those traditions
- poets and harpers, storytellers and singers, and not least the men and
women (from various backgrounds) who wrote down and recorded this material.
In addition to including over 50 songs, with translations, it publishes
transcriptions of local dance music made by collectors in different periods.
All this is set against a backdrop of markets, music festivals, calendar
customs, keening and wakes, marriages and abductions, mermaids and the
fairy world.
[ top ]
Dublin’s Suburban
Towns 1834-1930 by Seamas O Maitiu
In the nineteenth century the expanding Dublin middle class deserted the
city for the suburbs, creating nine independent townships. The book examines
the impact that these suburban towns had on the greater Dublin area. While
Rathmines and Rathgar is taken as the major case-study, the history of
other townships - Pembroke, Blackrock, Kingstown, Dalkey, Killiney, Kilmainham,
Drumcondra, Clontarf - is also recounted. The author records the civic
achievements of the townships in the areas of water supply, main drainage,
public lighting, road-building, refuse-disposal, electricity supply, and
the provision of town halls, public libraries, technical schools and public
baths. The reaction at township level to the huge political changes in
the 1914-1922 period is also explored, as are the attempts by Dublin Corporation,
finally successful in 1930, to extend its boundaries to include the townships.
[ top ]
The Stones the
Ground the Corn: The Story of an Irish Country Grain Mill 1850-2000 by
Tony Deeson et. al and edited by Richard Scott
This book is the story of an Irish country grain mill from its establishment
in the traumatic days of the Great Famine to its recent assimilation with
one of Northern Ireland’s most successful business enterprises. Now in
its sixth ‘Scott’ generation, the family business of W&C Scott is
a remarkable record of continuity, progress and diversification in the
face of a series of challenges both on a world scale and at the local
level over 150 years. But this is not simply another book about a family
business. The role the business has played in the development of the local
community is featured as the story unfolds. There is a chapter on the
history of the town of Omagh and a description of the town as it was in
William Scott’s day. Another provides a brief history of the ancient practice
of milling, the ‘world’s second oldest profession’. And the contribution
of the loyal workforce is closely woven into the fabric of a fascinating
tale that entertains and informs. Also includes a nostalgic view of the
Tyrone countryside in the early years of the 20th century by the poet
W.F. Marshall. Foreword by Benedict Kiely.
[ top ]
A History of
County Kildare by Padraic O’Farrell
Kildare is very flat; it is the flatness of this great limestone plain
with its rich pastures and its proximity to Dublin that has made Kildare
a place of importance since the dawn of history. Early Christian settlements
prospered here, of which the Convent of St. Brigid was the most famous.
The Normans quickly identified the value of the land and built a series
of great tower-houses and castled designed to defend the Pale from the
Gaels of Wicklow and the south midlands. Kildare was home to the Geraldines,
the Leinster branch of the FitzGerald family that completely dominated
political life in late medieval Ireland. The county played a significant
role in the 1798 rebellion, and the Curragh Camp has been prominent in
a variety of episodes in military history.
[ top ]
A History of
County Wexford by Nicholas Furlong
County Wexford lies in the southeastern corner of Ireland. It is bounded
to the west by Waterford, the River Barrow and the Blackstairs Mountains,
to the north by the Wicklow Mountains, and by the sea on the other two
sides. The River Slaney flows diagonally through the centre, dividing
the county. First settled seven thousand years ago, the county has boasted
a variety of cultures from Celts to Vikings, Flemish and Normans to English.
Historically, it maintained a social, confessional and ethnic mix of populations
that was more varied than most other parts of the island. Because of its
key strategic position, it has always been militarily important and was
the focus of the great rebellion of 1798, the most bloody conflict in
modern Irish history. In this book the author traces the story of the
county from its earliest settlements through its Gaelic, Christian, Norse
and Norman phases to the turbulence of the Elizabethan and Cromwellian
regimes. He brings the reader through the great upheaval of 1798 and the
institutional revival of Catholicism in the nineteenth century, which
was particularly focused on County Wexford. He details the continued prosperity
of the county throughout modern times.
[ top ]
A History of
County Wicklow by Arthur Flynn
Wicklow, the Garden of Ireland, lies immediately to the south of the city
of Dublin and has three distinct landscapes. A narrow coastal littoral
gives way to upland farms that gradually rise towards the magnificent
wilderness of the Wicklow Mountains. West Wicklow falls away from these
heights through sheep-farming uplands towards the plains of Kildare. Wicklow
was one of the last areas of Ireland to be shired. Its existence in its
modern form dates only from the early 17th century. Traditionally, its
society and economy have been dominated by the two coastal towns of Wicklow
and Arklow. From the late 19th century, Bray in the north of the county
became a watering place for Dubliners in the classic way of Victorian
seaside resorts, and was quickly dubbed the Blackpool of Ireland. The
20th century has seen the country’s traditional agrarian economy supplemented
by tourism and leisure activities, as Dublin’s residents explore in ever
greater numbers the cultural variety and spectacular scenery of their
near neighbour.
[ top ]
A History of
County Clare by Sean Spellissy
Although County Clare is one of the six counties of Munster, many consider
Clare to have a landscape and atmosphere more typical of the counties
west of the River Shannon. In its northern parts, especially the Burren,
it shares much the same topography as south Galway and the Aran Islands,
while in its southern parts the familiar landscapes of its Munster neighbours,
Limerick and, just across the Shannon estuary, north Kerry are instantly
recognisable. The Clare we know today once formed part of the mighty kingdom
of Thomond, whose renowned leader, Brian Boru, sent on to become the only
uncontested high king of Ireland. Caught between the Norman strongholds
of Galway and Limerick, Clare remained disputed territory for many centuries,
ensuring a rich and eventful history.
[ top ]
Galway in Old
Photographs by Peadar O’Dowd, Limerick in Old Photographs by Sean Spellissy,
Cork in Old Photographs by Tim Cadogan, Derry in Old Photographs by Art
Byrne and Sean McMahon
These wonderful collections of photographs are a chronicle of social life
in three towns in Ireland from the 1850s to the present day. The main
emphasis is on the period from the 1920s through to the 1980s. The book
recalls the city’s commercial, sporting and artistic life with nostalgia
and affection. The authors have assembled a remarkably wide selection
on images, all of them drawn from private sources and most of them never
seen before in print.
[ top ]
Irish Pages:
Empire (A Journal of Contemporary Writing) edited at the Linen Hall Library
in Belfast Volume 2, Number 1
Irish Pages is a Belfast journal combining Irish, European and international
perspectives. It seeks to create a novel literary space in the North adequate
to the unfolding cultural potential of the new political dispensation.
The magazine is cognizant of the need to reflect in its pages the various
meshed levels of human relations: the regional (Ulster), the national
(Britain and Ireland), the continental (Europe) and the global.
[ top ]
Armed Struggle:
A History of the IRA by Richard English
The Provisional IRA has been one of the world’s most important revolutionary
movements. It has embodied some of the most powerful forces in modern
world history: nationalism, violence, socialism and religion. The Provisionals
have been pivotal in the interwoven histories of Ireland and Britain,
but their full significance reaches far beyond the politics of those islands
into the world of non-state political violence so prominent today. The
IRA has been a much richer, more complex and layered organization than
is frequently recognized. It is also open to more balanced and thorough
examination now - at the end of its long war in the north of Ireland -
than was possible even a few years ago. This book purports to be the first
full, systematic study of the through and action of the IRA, the first
book which asks not only what the IRA have done, but also why they have
done it and what the consequences have been. Based on the most extensive
research ever conducted for such a study, this book offers a detailed
history and analysis of the IRA, building historical foundations on which
to base on understanding of the modern-day Provisionals. The book examines
the dramatic events of the Easter Rising in 1916 and the bitter guerrilla
war of 1919-1922; the partitioning of Ireland in the 1920s and the Irish
Civil War of 1922-3. Here, too, are the clandestine IRA campaigns in Northern
Ireland and Britain during the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The author
explains how the Provisionals were born out of the turbulence generated
by the 1960s civil rights movement. And he examines the escalating violence;
the sending of British troops to the streets of Northern Ireland; the
split in the IRA that produced the Provisionals; the introduction of internment
in 1971 and the tragedy of Bloody Sunday in 1972. He then details the
prison war over political status culminating in the Hunger Strikes of
the early 1980s and moves on to describe the Provisionals’ emergence as
a more committedly political force throughout that decade, a politicalization
that made possible the peace process that has developed over the last
decade. This book offers a fair-minded, explanatory and historically rich
account of one of the world’s most significant paramilitary organizations.
It is meticulously researched and provides original analysis of the motives,
actions and consequences of the IRA that offers a full, balanced and most
authoritative treatment of the Irish Republican Army.
[ top ]
Divine Beauty:
The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue
In this eagerly awaited follow-up to his international bestsellers Anam
Cara and Enchanted Echoes, the author turns his attention to the subject
of beauty - the divine beauty that calls the imagination and awakens all
this is noble in the human heart. In these uncertain times of global conflict
and crisis, we are riven with anxiety; our trust in the future has lost
its innocence, for we know now that anything can happen from one second
to the next. In such an unsheltered world, it may sound naïve to
suggest that this might be the moment to invoke and awaken beauty, yet
this is exactly the claim that this book seeks to explore. The book is
a gentle but urgent call to awaken. The author opens our eyes, hearts
and minds to the wonder of our own relationship with beauty. Rather than
‘covering’ this theme, he uncovers it, exposing the infinity and mystery
of its breadth. His words return us home to the dignity of silence, the
profundity of stillness, the power of thought and perception, and the
eternal grace and generosity of beauty’s presence. In this masterful and
revelatory work, the author encourages our greater intimacy with beauty,
and celebrates it for what it really is: a homecoming of the human spirit.
[ top ]
The Secret Life
of Oscar Wilde by Neil McKenna
‘I have put my genius into my life but only my talent into my work.’ So
said Oscar Wilde of his remarkable life - a life more complex, more troubled,
and more triumphant than any of his contemporaries ever knew or suspected.
This book charts full Wilde’s astonishing erotic odyssey through Victorian
London’s sexual underworld. The author argues compellingly and convincingly
that Wilde was driven personally and creatively by his powerful desires
for sex with young men and that his life and work can only be fully understood
in terms of his sexuality. The book draws on a wide range of sources,
many of which are previously unpublished, and includes startling new material
like the statements made by the male prostitutes and blackmailers who
were ranged against Wilde at his trial and which have been lost for over
100 years. Written in the tradition of the great Irish biographies, this
book meticulously and brilliantly reconstructs Wilde’s emotional and sexual
life, painting an astonishingly frank and vivid psychological portrait
of a troubled genius who chose to martyr himself for the cause of love
between men.
[ top ]
The Ballad of
Reading Gaol and The Soul of Man Under Socialism by Oscar Wilde
Audio CD with readings of two great works of Oscar Wilde by Gearoid Mac
Lachlain.
[ top ]
Michael Collins
Himself by Chrissy Osborne
This book focuses on the man behind the mask. Not the soldier, statesman
or guerilla, but the real, human, Michael Collins. This approach offers
insight into Collins’ personal life and the crucial role women had to
play in it; his likes, dislikes, his interests and personality; and includes
the memories and anecdotes of members of his family and descendants of
those who knew him. The book is accompanied by photographs illustrating
places associated with him as they are today, together with some rare
and previously unseen archive photos. With a foreword by Tim Pat Coogan.
[ top ]
John McCormack:
The Great Irish Tenor by Gordon Ledbetter
John McCormack was born in Athlone, County Westmeath, in 1884. At the
age of nineteen, he won the Gold Medal in the Feis Ceoil of 1903 and,
by his mid-twenties, was a world-famous opera singer and friend of Caruso.
Later, as a concert recitalist, he filled auditoriums across the world.
At the height of his career, he was as famous, flamboyant and as well
paid as the most successful rock stars of today. From performing on stage
with Dame Nellie Melba in his early years to broadcasting on radio with
Bing Crosby towards the end of his life, McCormack’s long career spanned
the era of the greatest change in the history of singing. The development
of sound recording in the early 20th century helped bring McCormack’s
voice and range of singing styles to those who could not see him in concert
and so helped strengthen his popularity. His records sold in the millions,
making him one of the bestselling artists Ireland has ever produced. In
this book the author brings together a wealth of biographical detail and
visual material, some of it hitherto unpublished. He expertly weaves together
words and images, including photographs, letters, playbills and newsclippings
into a fascinating portrait of McCormack’s home life and professional
career. This is a memorable biography of a great Irish singer.
[ top ]
Destination 5:
Memories of an Irish Veterinarian by Robert P. Lee
Robert Lee was Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Dublin’s
Trinity College for seven years, inaugural Dean of the School of Veterinary
Medicine, University of Zambia, and has held positions in Nigeria and
Tanzania. It was in Tanzania (then Tanganyika) the Professor Lee’s long
involvement with Africa began. This book chronicles his experiences there,
from the time as a young newly qualified vet and then, revisiting the
new Africa in later years as a consultant to development projects.
[ top ]
The Stealing
of the Irish Crown Jewels by Myles Dungan
Dublin 1907, a city divided economically and politically. In this outpost
of the British Empire, the administration in Dublin Castle, the centre
of British power in Dublin, was getting ready for the imminent visit of
King Edward VII. Days before the crucial visit, the Irish Crown Jewels
mysteriously went missing. In the ensuing chaos, suspicions were rife
and theories proliferated. The police believed it to be an inside job
and their investigation led them to discover a web of political and sexual
intrigue that came dangerously close to the crown itself. But the investigation
stalled, the suspect was released and the jewels were never recovered.
This book is a compelling account of one of Ireland’s most fascinating
unsolved crimes.
[ top ]
The Trigger Men
by Martin Dillon
In this book the author delves into the dark and sinister world of Irish
terrorism and counter-terrorism. Over three decades he has interviewed
and investigated some of the most professional, dangerous and ruthless
killers in Ireland. Here he explores their personalities, motivations
and bizarre crimes. Many of Ireland’s assassins learned their trade in
fields and on hillsides in remote parts of Ireland, while others were
trained in the Middle East or with the Basque separatist terrorists in
Spain. Some were one-target-one-shot killers, like the sniper who terrorised
inhabitants of Washington D.C. in the autumn of 2002, while others were
bombers skilled in designing the most sophisticated explosive devices
and booby traps. Another more powerful group of ‘trigger men’ was the
influential figures in the shadows, who were experts in motivating the
killers under their control. All of these men, whether they squeezed the
trigger on a high-powered rifle, set the timer on a bomb or used their
authority to send others out to commit horrific and unspeakable acts of
cruelty, are featured in this book.
[ top ]
Germany Calling:
A Personal Biography of William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) by Mary Kenny
William Joyce gained notoriety as the propaganda voice of the Third Reich.
Known as ‘Lord Haw-haw’, he was the last man to be hanged by the British
Crown for treason, executed as a British subject who gave aid and comfort
to the King’s enemies in time of war. But William Joyce was not a British
subject; he was American by birth and Irish by upbringing. His hanging
was seen by many as an action enacted to express post-war anger towards
Hitler, Nazism and the defeated Fascist regime. This fresh look at the
life and times of William Joyce discovers an eccentric Irishman whose
values were warped by the troubled times in which he grew up. The author
explored Joyce’s obsessive anti-semitism, laying bare the startling realities
behind one of the twentieth-century’s most notorious voices. The book
draws on new historical material released through the British Public Record
Office, as well as specially commissioned interviews with those who knew
the man personally.
[ top ]
Looking Under
Stones: Roots, Family and a Dingle Childhood by Joe O’Toole
A doctor whose hands had been blessed by the Pope himself delivered Joseph
John O’Toole into the world. An auspicious beginning, but that’s not where
this story starts. Having brought bad luck to the Dingle team from day
one, he went on to become the worst footballer ever to come out of West
Kerry. But that’s not how this story plays. His grandfather, Sean the
Grove advised him, to become a parish priest. It was a well-paid, respected
position, you got a good house, and nobody could order you about. But
that’s not how this story ends. The book has its roots generations earlier
in a ruined house by the sixth green of a Connemara golf course, and a
rake’s progress on a Kerry hilltop. It is peopled with earthy, larger-than-life
characters from Joe’s childhood and personal histories that are sometimes
tragic, sometimes comic, but always interesting.
[ top ]
A Timeline of
Irish History by Richard Killeen
This book provides a quick, authoritative and user-friendly guide to the
principal events of the Irish past from earliest times to the present
day. Each of the forty-four periods, ranging from the construction of
Newgrange to the Northern Ireland peace process, is presented. Lists of
dates and events covering the most important developments in Irish history,
as well as maps and illustrations used to bring to life the events in
the timeline. In addition, there are short introductory essays to the
major developments, including the coming of Christianity, the Vikings,
the Normans, the Reformation, the Georgian era, the Famine, and the Irish
revolution.
[ top ]
Shalom Ireland:
A Social History of Jews in Modern Ireland by Ray Rivlin
This book is an account of the social life of Irish Jews from the late
nineteenth century to the present day. Most of the story is concentrated
in Dublin where almost 90 per cent of the entire Irish Jewish community
settled. Until the late nineteenth century, there were only a small number
of Jews in Ireland, but then came a great influx from Tsarist Russia.
The author follows the fortunes of Irish Jews from their arrival as immigrants
in the 1880s with no English, no money and no means of livelihood, through
their establishment as a thriving community, to their present decline.
The book focuses on the colourful panorama of Clanbrassil Street, Dublin’s
kosher shopping area. The author draws on intensive archival research
and library material, unpublished family histories, personal memories
and oral testimony to create this informative and entertaining account
of a talented, hard-working and profoundly civic-minded people.
[ top ]
Legenday Ireland:
A Journey Through the Celtic Places and Myths by Eithne Massey
This book is a vivid and original journey through the Celtic places and
myths of ancient Ireland. Woven into the Irish landscape are tales of
love and betrayal, greed and courage, passion and revenge, featuring the
famous personalities of Celtic lore, such as CuChulainn and Queen Maeve,
Diarmuid and Grainne, the Children of Lir, Oisin and Fionn. The book also
reveals some of the less well-known but equally captivating stories, including
‘The Hag of Beara’, and ‘Li Ban, the Mermaid of Lough Neagh’. The author
has re-visited all twenty-eight sites and explores their history, archaeology
and folklore. All of these magical and mythical places open windows to
a heroic yet very human world. Illustrated with atmospheric photographs
and elegant engravings, full colour throughout.
[ top ]
The Same Age
as the State by Maire Cruise O’Brien
Through a life the encompasses Irish tradition, culture, language, scholarship
and poetry, as well as national and international politics, Maire Cruise
O’Brien is uniquely placed to tell the complex story of the emergence
and growth of Ireland as an independent country. Her life not only parallels
that development; her family played an active part in it. Born in 1922,
she intimately remembers the generation of the 19th century - her grandparents
- and their way of life and values. Her own parents’ dangerous involvement
in the struggle for freedom, in the company of Eamon deValera and Michael
Collins, was a hugely important element in her young life, as was her
father’s subsequent work as a senior government minister. Part of the
new Irish elite, she went on to become an Irish scholar, to study Celtic
languages in Paris immediately after the Second World War, and was called
to the Bar but chose instead to join the Department of External (now Foreign)
Affairs. She was the ‘token woman’ on the first Irish UN delegation in
New York; and she was charge d’affaires in Franco’s Spain in the 1940s,
with experiences both ‘baroque and absurd’. There she met and married
Conor Cruise O’Brien, a rising star in the UN. Thereafter, her life took
her to the Congo, Ghana, Europe and America, where Conor worked both academically
and politically in highly dramatic situations. From her unique vantage
point she vividly recalls the workings of the international community.
Their return to Ireland and Conor’s position as a government minister
took her full circle. Maire offers a fascinating insight into her eighty-plus
years, drawing together threads from Celtic roots to far-flung political
and diplomatic activities. Her interests are wide-ranging and her observation
acute. Both homely and worldly, this book presents a rare personal perspective
on the complete span of the twentieth century both in Ireland and around
the world.
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Religion and
Politics in Ireland at the Turn of the Millennium edited by James Mackey
and Enda McDonagh
Controversy has attended the relationship between religion and politics
in Ireland almost since the beginning of time! This book seeks to examine
that relationship with special emphasis on the relationship between the
Roman Catholic Church and the government of the Republic. Part one of
this book consists of four chapters, each a general overview of the internal
politics of the Roman Catholic Church; of relationships between the state
and the Roman Catholic Church in the Republic of Ireland during the last
century; of relationships between other Christian churches and the same
state; and of relationships between the Christian Churches and Northern
Ireland. In part two, the analysis of the relationship between religion
and politics is broken down in order to take closer account of the finer
details that emerges in the more specific areas of interest to both, namely:
family law and morality; education; the health services; bio-medical practice
or bio-technology; the search for a just society; economic policy and
practice; concern for the foreigners both in Ireland’s midst and in need
in their own countries; the media and the three-way interaction with politics
and religion. The collection concludes with Garret FitzGerald’s critical
overview and assessment.
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After the Ball
by Fintan O’Toole
What is the legacy of the Celtic Tiger? Is it the death of communal values?
Or the triumph of profit? In a series of sharply observed essays, the
award-winning author and commentator looks at Ireland’s growing notoriety
as one of the most globalised yet unequal economies on earth. Why were
the boom years haunted by the spectre of a failing health service? Why
do a substantial proportion of Ireland’s children continue to be marginalised
through lack of funding in education? What is the place of people with
disabilities, travellers, women, immigrants and asylum-seekers in this
new Ireland? Passionate and provocative, this book is a wake-up call for
a nation in transition.
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The Bankrupt,
the Conman, the Mafia and the Irish Connection by Chris Moore
Colin Lees was everybody’s friend. A successful businessman in the little
town of Magherafelt, Co. Down, he had charms and good connections. He
was a winner. That is, until it all went wrong in 1992. That’s when his
business empire collapsed under a mountain of debt. Over ambitious expansion
in previous years left Lees in the hole for 3.5 million pounds sterling.
On top of that, there was a further fraud involving a missing 23 million.
Then it emerged Lees had a second business in Scotland which was an MI6
shadow company. That also collapsed owing almost 20 million. The Fraud
Squad moved in and Lees had to surrender his passport. His UK passport,
that is. He did not tell them about his Irish passport, with which he
flew the coop to the United States. There he soon relieved a Texas businessman
of 1 million dollars in a scam and ruined a business of one of his late
father’s oldest friends. He returned to Ireland in 1996, bringing with
him a Mafia-connected money launderer. Soon his criminal empire expanded
into laundering his own cash and that of the Mafia, as well as running
drug shipments into Britain and Ireland. This is the amazing and true
story.
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The Legacy of
History by Martin Mansergh
Ireland’s history had had a profound influence on the Irish as a people
and its has certainly shaped the character of the Irish State. This book
helps to flesh out and put into perspective the background to the problems
with which we have had to deal, as well as highlighting what remains to
be done. Subjects dealt with include the Battle of Kinsale, the resonances
in the current Northern peace process from the Treaty of Limerick to the
commemoration of the rebellion of 1798 and 1848, the legacy of Wolfe Tone,
historical revisionism and the patriotism of Padraic Pearse and Roger
Casement. There are also essays on Unionism, the Orange Order and the
Anglo-Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen. By putting the struggle for nationhood
of earlier centuries and particularly of the early decades of the twentieth-century
into historical perspective, with essays on Eamon de Valera, Michael Collins,
Liam Lynch, Liam Mellows, and Erskine Childers, Martin Mansergh throws
valuable light on the Republican ideal and the aspirations of the Irish
people of today, north and south.
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The Great Dying:
The Black Death in Dublin by Maria Kelly
Between August and Christmas 1348, 14,000 people are said to have died
in Dublin from the plague, a rate of 100 per day. This horrendous disease
spread rapidly and, once infected, its victims could die within 3 days.
Medieval Dubliners were no strangers to sudden illness, diseases and early
death. As the Black Death spread, however, and the symptoms developed
into skin eruptions, hallucinations and haemorrhaging, and above all as
the death toll mounted, the unprecedented nature of this disease was quickly
recognised. The author examines the fear, panic and superstition surrounding
the outbreak that many believed was a punishment from God for their sins.
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Dublin Review:
Issue 14 Spring 2004 edited by Brendan Barrington
Contents: Crossing the Delaware by Christina Hunt Mahony; Philanthropy
by Philip O Ceallaigh; Writing against the writing against the wall by
Glenn Patterson; Ogygia Lost by Tim Robinsin; Francis Stuart to America,
9 June 1940 by Damien Keane; As good as the moon every time by Molly McCloskey;
Two stories by Anthony Caleshu; The black North by George O’Brien; and
Interlude by Amit Chaudhuri.
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