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Read Ireland Book Reviews, April 2004
Snow Water by
Michael Longley
Michael Longley is one of Ireland’s preeminent poets. The poems collected
here find their gravity and centre in his adopted home in west Mayo, but
range widely in their attention - from ancient Greece to Paris and Pisa,
from Central Park to the trenches of the Somme. In these meditations on
nature and mortality, there is a depth and delicacy, a state of lucid
wonder, that allow for the easy companionship of love poem and elegy,
hymns to marriage and friendship and lyric exploration of loss.
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The Legend of
Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer
From the author of the Artemis Fowl series comes this new children’s novel
featuring Will and his brother Marty who are doomed to spend their holidays
in the library. Doesn’t their mum know that the library is not fun? Worse,
it is the home of the legendary librarian, Mrs. Murphy. If you put a foot
wrong, she will use here dreaded gas-powered ‘Spud Gun’ - and you don’t
want that. Just ask Ugly Frank how he got his nickname! But in Will and
Marty, has ‘Spud’ Murphy met her match … (First Editions available at
normal price)
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A Hymn of the
Dawn by Padraic Fallon
This book tells of the life of the Irish poet Padraic Fallon (1905-1974),
his wife Don and their six sons during an idyllic summer in the southeast
of Ireland in the 1950s. At Prospect, a Georgian house with a small farm,
the poet writes his poems, newspaper columns, radio plays, ‘ a cigarette
smoldering in the ashtray at his elbow, pounding the keys of his typewriter
as his eyes stare beyond the words.’ His sons, when not working on house
or farm, exploit the solitude and the open space: fishing, soldiering,
sailing, poaching, and finally embarking on an expedition in an old herring
cot to discover the secrets of the inland waterways. The poet has written
his own adventures. He collects ballads and sea shanties for his radio
programme, meeting sailors and fisherman, jaunting along the coast in
his old car. He takes to the open harbour in a tiny punt. His sons go
with him on a fishing boat to visit a lighthouse. Brilliantly fusing fiction
and fact, this book is an exquisitively realized evocation of childhood
in Ireland in the 1950s.
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The Celts: Origins,
Myths, Inventions by John Collis
We use the word ‘Celtic’ fast and loose - it evokes something mythical
and romantic about our past - but what exactly does it mean? Furthermore,
why do people believe that there were Celts in Britain and what relationship
do they have to the ancient Celts? This fascinating book focuses on the
legacy of mistaken interpretations still affects the way we understand
the ancient sources and archaeological evidence.
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Forgotten Protest:
Ireland and the Anglo-Boer War by Donal McCracken
This book is the extraordinary saga of how events in South Africa helped
revitalize politics in Ireland in the heady days of Parnell and especially
during the great Anglo-Boer war. During the Boer War (1899-1902), ‘Pro
Boer-fever’ swept nationalist Ireland: riots in central Dublin created
a no-go area for British troops; posters applauding Generals De Wet and
Botha were plastered on walls and lamp-posts and the flags of the Transvaal
Republic flew defiantly in many Irish villages. The great intellectuals
of the day - Yeats, O’Casey, Moore, Lady Gregory - as well as socialist
James Connolly and socialite Maud Gonne espoused the Boer cause, as did
Arthur Griffith, recently returned from working in the Transvaal gold
mines; all, however, were oblivious to the plight of the black population
of South Africa. On the battlefield, the Dublin Fusiliers found themselves
pitted against two hard-fighting Irish commandos. And behind the scenes
the Boers poured thousands of pounds into Irish republican coffers, stirring
up the most violent and most influential of the European pro-Boer movements.
Dwarfed by 1916 and the War of Independence, the Irish support for another
colonially beleaguered people was to become a forgotten protest, remembered
only in folk ballads and in fireside stories. Its thrilling tale is resurrected
here to mark the centenary of this extraordinary struggle.
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Docwra’s Derry:
A Narrative of Events in North-west Ulster, 1600-1604 by William Kelly
It is widely accepted that no understanding of modern Irish history is
complete without an awareness of the significance of events in the seventeenth
century. This is true in particular of the Ulster Plantation. Sir Henry
Docwra’s military expedition, which arrived in Lough Foyle in May 1600,
at the height of the Nine Years War, was instrumental in paving the way
for James I’s Plantation of Ulster that began only a few years later.
The decisive intervention of Docwra’s small army brought to an end a conflict
whose outcome was crucial in shaping the path of Irish history after 1600.
It led also to Docwra bequeathing to us one of the most illuminating journals
in what was to become, even by Irish standards, a war-torn country. His
‘Narration of the Services done by the Army Ymployed to Lough Foyle vnder
the leadings of mee’ is not only a fascinating description of Docwra’s
campaign in the north-west, it can also be claimed to be the best eyewitness
account of a military campaign of the period. Docwra’s ‘Narration’ was
first edited and transcribed by the great Irish scholar John O’Donovan
in 1849. This edition not only includes O’Donovan’s comprehensive notes,
including translations and descriptions of all the Irish place-names mentioned
by Docwra, it also includes insights from more recent scholarship on the
Nine Years War. It also includes an introduction, new maps, glossaries
of terms, a bibliography, chronology and full index.
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Shipwrecks of
Ireland by Edward Burke
The Irish coast has seen shipwrecks from Celtic times through to the present
day. The Romans may have had a small bridgehead at Loughshinny and continental
wars were fought offshore. The 1588 Spanish Armada came by and left its
tribute of twenty-six ships on the remote west coast. Before 1800 ports
like Dublin, Stangford, Waterford, Wexford and Kinsale were very significant.
After the Industrial Revolution Liverpool, Glasgow and Cardiff came into
prominence. Hazards around Ireland range from the rocky cliffs of the
west coast coupled with a transatlantic landfall in fog or snow to the
treacherous sandbanks of the east coast. The photographs in this book
come from a variety of sources and are representative of all modern stages
of shipping from sail, to steam and motor vessels.
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Directory of Irish
Archives 4th edition edited by Seamus Helferty and Raymond Refausse
This new updated edition has entries for over 250 repositories and organizations
- educational, religious, cultural and governmental - which hold records
of historical significance. Full addresses, phone and fax numbers, website
and email addresses are also included.
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Truth, Power and
Lies: Irish Society and the Case of the Kerry Babies by Tom Inglis
Two dead babies were found in County Kerry with the space of two weeks
in 1984. What followed is an extraordinary story that rocked Catholic
Ireland. The Kerry babies case remains unresolved, with many unanswered
questions. The author, in this detailed analysis of the case, shows how
necessary it is to retell the story, because justice may not have been
done. But he goes further, explaining how important the case is to understanding
Ireland’s transition in the second half of the twentieth-century from
a traditional, rural, conservative and Catholic society to the modern,
urban, liberal and secular one that is emerging today. In particular,
the case represents a watershed for the position of women in Irish society;
many were motivated to protest for the first time. This thought-provoking
and lively book will be invaluable reading for anyone interested in the
development of modern Irish society.
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The Spire and
other Essays in Modern Irish Culture by Bruce Arnold
Bruce Arnold has become one of the leading journalists and critics in
Ireland over the last forty years. In that time, he has witnessed, written
about and, at times, participated in, most of the major developments in
Irish politics, society and culture. This book collects the best of his
recent essays and articles on Irish culture. The book is divided into
three sections, with the first section covering broad cultural issues
along with essays on leading Irish personalities and some personal reflections
on living in and writing about Ireland. The second section focuses on
literature, and the third section covers art. Taken together, this collection
of writings provides a fascinating look at Ireland’s rich cultural heritage.
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Maud Gonne’s
Irish Nationalist Writings 1895-1946 edited by Karen Steele
Maud Gonne is too often seen as a beautiful adjunct to famous men: as
the muse and unrequited love of W.B. Yeats, the estranged wife of nationalist
hero John MacBride, and the mother of human rights activist Sean MacBride.
She was, however, an important revolutionary figure in her own right.
This collection of the political writings of Maud Gonne sets out to broaden
our understanding of female activism during the foundation of the Irish
state and to appreciate the intellectual work of someone whose political
engagement has been neglected. The book examines the major campaigns of
Gonne’s political career: amnesty, children and the poor, the cause of
Ireland, transnational solidarity, the literary revival and the failure
of the Irish state. In addition to providing a chronology of her life
and an introductory essay on her evolving career as an activist journalist,
the editor explains the major political issues and provides background
on the newspapers that published Gonne’s work. The humanity of Maud Gonne’s
insights will surprise many. This book is a passionate account of Irish
wrongs and a fitting testament to a life dedicated to political freedom
and social justice.
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Changing Landscapes
of Dublin by Pat Liddy
This book, based on the author/artist’s exhibition held in Dublin’s magnificently
restored City Hall in September 2003, charts the various eras of Dublin’s
evolution. A series of pictomaps, paintings and drawings lead the reader
through the centuries in transition, through times of expansion and booms
as well as periods of stagnation and depression. This beautifully produced
books is signed by Pat Liddy, is limited to 2000 copies, and is certain
to become a collectors’ item!
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Black Operations:
The Secret War Against the Real IRA by John Mooney and Michael O’Toole
This book is the definitive account of the Real IRA. The authors have
written a chronicle of the secret army using the experiences of the bombers,
their families, the victims, the security services and others who worked
to stop the violence. The book reads with an urgency and a moral commitment
that belongs to the finest fiction. It tells the story from three different
perspectives: that of the Read IRA Army Council, that of the security
services, and that of the republican victims. Few people will put this
book down without understanding the new underground army, its bloody campaign
and those who control it.
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Racism in the
Irish Experience by Steve Garner
Ireland’s unique position as the only state in the European Union to have
been colonised, coupled with the ambivalent experiences of Irish people
within the British Empire, means that issues of ‘race’ in Ireland are
overlaid by complex social and historical forces. This book is a unique
analysis of the racialisation of Irish identities. The author examines
key phases in the historical development of an Irish ‘racial’ consciousness,
including 16th century colonisation and 19th century immigration to America
and Great Britain. He then examines the legacy of this relationship, both
in terms of the new migration into Ireland and relations with indigenous
minorities - travellers and Irish Jews. The author explores the problematic
links between nationalist ideologies and racism. He assesses the economic,
social, and political factors framing the experience of minorities in
contemporary Ireland and places these in a broader European context.
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Time to Listen:
Confronting Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy in Ireland by Helen
Goode, Hannah McGee and Ciaran O’Boyle
The Catholic Church in recent years has been rocked by a series of scandals
involving child sexual abuse by members of the clergy. For many, the Church’s
response to this abuse has been seriously inadequate and there is some
question whether the Church can ever regain the trust and affection it
enjoyed in years past. This book is the result of the first major assessment
internationally by an independent research agency of clerical sexual abuse
in the Catholic Church. Carried out by highly respected researchers at
the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the study provides a multifaceted
picture of the impact of clerical abuse on the extended Church community.
It looks at the historical views of the Church and others on sexual abuse
and the challenges of combining Canon Law with the responsibility of the
State in dealing with abuse. The researchers interviewed adults who were
abused by clergy as children, clergy members who were convicted of abuse
(some of whom are still in prison), family members of those abused and
abusers, colleagues of abusers, and bishops and delegates with a special
responsibility for management of complaints of abuse in dioceses. In addition,
a major telephone survey was carried out with members of the general public
to ascertain their views on Church management of clerical abuse.
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The Meaning Is
In The Shadows by Peter McVerry
This book is a collection of writings spanning the career of the well-known
Irish social campaigner. In 1974, as a newly ordained Jesuit priest, Fr.
McVerry chose to live and work in the inner city with a small group from
his order. He began working with young people from severely disadvantaged
families and communities. Many had dropped out of school, were involved
in crime and on a straight road to prison. To a young priest from a middle-class
background, the experience was a complete culture shock. It challenged
his attitudes, revealed his own prejudices, opened his eyes to what is
happening in Ireland’s very divided society and called into question his
understanding of God. A ministry intended to last a few years became a
life-long commitment. This book contains his reflections of these experiences.
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RTE and the Globalisation
of Irish Television by Farrel Corcoran
As the national publicly owned and funded broadcaster, RTE can lay claim
to being the biggest cinema, school, sports stadium, market square, performance
stage, town crier and concert hall in Ireland. It sets the agenda for
the national conversation that drives modern Ireland. For about 40 years,
RTE’s radio and television channels have played an enormous role in shaping
Irish social and cultural life. This book is a study of the structural
transformations now taking place in Irish broadcasting. The book focuses
on the television sector generally, but primarily on RTE, as it adjusts
to a number of radical changes in the global field of forces whose impact
began to accelerate in the mid-1990s.
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Maeve de Markievicz:
Daughter of Constance by Clive Scoular
Maeve was the only child of Constancs and Casimir Markievicz. Her childhood
was largely spent, not with her parents, but with her maternal grandmother
at the Gore-Booth family home at Lissadell, County Sligo. Maeve’s relationship
with Constance was an erratic one and, although not actually abandoned
by her mother, she soon learned that she would have to fend for herself.
She trained as a landscape gardener in England, where she spent most of
her adult life. In her last years, she reverted to family type and became
an artist. She returned to Ireland and painted scenes of the county Sligo
she remembered as a child. This is the first biography of the only child
of one of Ireland’s foremost women.
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Wait Till I Tell
You: An Ulster Boyhood by Harry Crone
This book is an evocative and captivating account of a boyhood in Ulster
from 1904 to 1914. The author captures in words and pictures a world gone
by. It is a must for all interested in social history and Irish memoirs.
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De Valera’s Ireland
by Gabriel Doherty and Dermot Keogh
The years of influence of de Valera are central to this interpretation
of post-independent Ireland. De Valera has been made to should personal
responsibility for many of the defects in Irish society in that period.
The essays in this book seek to re-examine and re-evaluate that change.
Contributors: Owen Dudley Edwards, Sean Farragher, Dermot Keogh, Tom Garvin,
Ged Martin, Caitriona Clear, Brian P. Kennedy, John McGahern, Brian Walker,
Gearoid O Crualaoich, Gearoid O Tuathaigh and Garret FitzGerald.
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Why Not?: Building
a Better Ireland edited by Joe Mulholland
What has happened to Irish society? Sexual abuse and physical abuse has
been laid bare. In spite of unprecedented prosperity and affluence, violence
stalks the streets. In every part of the country drugs and alcohol are
a threat to the social fabric. Politicians and clergy are held in lost
esteem. Does it have to be that way? What can be done to build a better
Ireland? Some of the country’s leading figures give their views on and
analysis of contemporary Ireland and what is needed to create a more civilized
society. Contributors: Brian Cowen, Mary Harney, Jim Power, David Begg,
Sister Margo Delaney, Phil Hogan, Maureen Gaffney, John Monaghan, Vincent
Sharkey, Michele Clarke, Dr. Joe Barry, Tony Geoghegan, Kay O’Hanlon,
Most Rev. Willie Walsh, Martin McGuinness, Olwyn Enright, Derek West,
Mark Hennessy, John Deasy, John Gormley, Niamh Brennan, Pat Harvey, Mary
Coughlan, Sean Gallagher, Deirdre Carroll, John Dolan, Nuala O’Loan, Joe
Costello and Michael McDowell.
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Blasket Island
Reflections
The Great Blasket Island was the unexpected source of a unique literary
flowering in the late 1920s and 1930s when a number of islanders produced
autobiographies describing their precarious existence. The immediate success
of these books in the Irish language was followed by international acclaim
when translated into English and other languages. Even as their books
were bring written, the difficult and dangerous life they described was
heading towards the final evacuation of the dwindling island community
in 1953. RTE Radio’s Blasket Island Reflections documentary series brings
a modern perspective to the writings of the most celebrated island authors,
their books and the history of the island and its evacuation.
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The Abbey Theatre:
Ireland’s National Theatre the First 100 Years by Christopher Fitz-Simon
Dublin’s Abbey Theatre opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904.
Over the course of the ensuing century, it survived fire, riot and perpetual
artistic disagreement to become one of the greatest theatres in the Western
world, presenting over 740 new plays by some of the greatest Irish writers
of the modern age, including W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge, Sean O’Casey and
Brian Friel. In this book, the author celebrates the Abbey Theatre’s centenary
by offering a witty chronological survey of the company’s distinguished
and colourful history. Beautifully illustrated with cartoons, sketches
and production photographs from the Abbey archives and elsewhere, the
book provides an unparalleled overview of the great actors, directors
and playwrights of 20th century Irish theatre, as well as detailing the
company’s long and illustrious relationship with other European and American
theatres and playwrights. It also contains a complete list of plays produced
at the Abbey Theatre since 1904 and features a preface by the Abbey Theatre’s
current artistic director, Ben Barnes. With 179 illustrations, 19 in colour.
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Dublin Foundation
by Edward Rutherford
This great Irish epic reveals the story of the people of Ireland through
the focal point of the island’s capital city. The epic begins in pre-Christian
Ireland during the reign of the fierce and powerful High Kings of Tara,
with the tale of two lovers, the princely Conall and the ravishing Deirdre,
whose travails echo the ancient Celtic legends of Cuchulainn. From the
stirring beginnings, the author takes the reader on a graphically realised
journey through the centuries. Through the interlocking stories of a powerfully
imagined cast of characters - druids and chieftains, monks and smugglers,
merchants and mercenaries, noblewomen, rebels and cowards - the reader
sees Ireland through the lens of its greatest city. The author vividly
and movingly portrays the passions and struggles that shaped the major
events in Irish history. The mission of St. Patrick; the coming of the
Vikings, who founded the port of Dublin; the glories of the great nearby
monastery of Glendalough, and the making of treasures like the Book of
Kells; the extraordinary career of Brian Boru; the trickery of King Henry
II which gave England its first foothold in medieval Ireland: all these
set the stage for the great conflict between the English kings and the
princes of Ireland and the disastrous Irish invasion of England which
incurrred the wrath of King Henry VIII. The book, the first in a two-part
Dublin epic, draws to a close in the Reformation, at a major turning point
in Irish history, with the ceremonial burning of Ireland’s most holy relics.
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The Swing of
Things by Sean O’Reilly
Noel Boyle needs a new life and he has come to Dublin to find it. He dreams
of transformation and renewal. But as he struggles to overcome his loneliness
and to keep despair at bay his attempts at change seem futile and almost
comic. One thing offers the possibility of salvation: a woman. Boyle starts
a relationship with Eleanor, who is beguiling yet remote, playful yet
serious in her suggestion that he return to England with her. Can he take
the chance or will it be the excessive street-poet Fada who, by tempting
hum back into the violence of his past, will determine his future? All
the while the face of a young woman pulled from the Liffey haunts his
mind and awakens an ancient rage in his gut … Ablaze with stories of lives
lived and lost, this novel is a darkly beautiful meditation on the idea
of escape and what it is that keeps us tethered to the world. (First Edition
Available)
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The Taoiseach
by Peter Cunningham
In Ireland, in the second half of the twentieth century, a corrupt circle
of politicians and shadowy business figures control the levers of power.
Lucrative property deals involving the sale of government assets are secretly
financed by Middle Eastern oil dollars in exchange for Irish passports.
Planning corruption is practiced as a matter of course. Political donations
are rewarded with access to offshore bank accounts as the ordinary people
of Ireland are forced to tighten their belts. As the heart of this web
of deceit and intrigue is the Taoiseach, the Irish prime minister, Harry
Messenger. A survivor of the political turmoil of the late 1960s, Messenger
has now seized control and nothing is allowed stand in the way of his
hold on power or his voracious lifestyle. This novel is a powerful story
and a topnotch political thriller that shows modern Ireland as never before.
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A Moth at the
Glass by Mogue Doyle
In Springmount, County Wexford, Will is watching Kate Kelly while she
finishes her chores. As darkness gathers, and Kate moves from the milking
shed of her smallholding into her house, the ghosts of Will’s past do
likewise. A moth at the glass, he watches them through the window and,
as the strains of St. Anne’s Reel fill the kitchen, Kate and her brother
Philly begin to dance on the newly laid floor, while old Mrs. Kelly watches
from beside the fire. Desperate to understand how the terrible tragedy
in his past can haunt his present, Will looks back to the 1920s: a halcyon
time in which romance and mad expectation beckoned. It was also a period
of great change and tension, wherein the traditional order was giving
way to a new political awareness and the ties of family and friends no
longer held so much sway. As much a meditation on time past as it is a
love story of two young people who are meant to be together, this is a
lyrical and emotive novel that recreates a time just after the Irish Civil
War, when mountain lads roamed country lanes, loaded pistols in their
pockets, and when innocence and romance were corrupted by a physical passion
that ran all too deep. (First Edition Available)
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Elvis, Jesus
and Me by Emer McCourt
Ger wants to be a boy but Jesus isn’t having any of it, which begs the
question: if God can send a man to the moon why can’t He turn her into
a boy? And if He can’t, does He even exist and who cares anyway when Elvis
can sing ‘Jail House Rock’ as sweetly as any virgin and help Ger to forget
her worries about whether she’ll burn in hell for kidnapping an alter
boy or for showing her knickers to the world … Ger and her younger brother
Seany - two different peas in one freshly plucked pod - ask and answer,
watch and wait, move and shake their way through tool sheds, wakes, dangerous
weapons, chippolatas, the Holy Trinity and the O’Rowe sisters’ guide to
life and love, in a world where conversations with Neil Armstrong colour
their young lives with wisdom that can only come from the stars … Endearing
and bitingly bittersweet, this novel marks the wonderful debut by an extraordinary
new young Irish writer. (First edition available)
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The Captain with
the Whiskers by Benedict Kiely
In Bingen House, guarded by shale-white Ulster mountains, and on the edge
of the Atlantic, lived Captain Conway Chesney: a small, neat, efficient
and diabolical domestic tyrant. Owen Rodgers, son of the local doctor,
a kind father and a man of music, came one day to look at the sheepdog
trials on the wide green before Bingen House. There in the early morning
he peered down from a stable loft into the farmyard and discovered the
evil secret of Bingen. Thereafter the house and its owner possessed him
like a perverted love, and his story became the story of the Conway Chesneys.
This novel is an extraordinary study of a psychopath and of the terrible
consequences of his life and death. Originally published in 1960, it is
one of the most compelling novels the Irish writer has ever written. This
new edition includes and Afterword by the novelist and playwright Thomas
Kilroy.
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The Master by
Colm Toibin
In this brilliant and profoundly moving novel, the author tells the story
of Henry James, an American-born genius of the modern novel who became
a connoisseur of exile, living among artists and aristocrats in Paris,
Rome, Venice and London. In January 1895 James anticipates the opening
of his first play in London. He has never been so vulnerable, nor felt
so deeply unsuited to the public gaze. When the production fails, he returns,
chastened, to his writing desk. The result is a string of masterpieces,
but they are produced at a high personal cost. The author captures the
exquisite anguish of a man whose artistic gifts made his career a triumph
but whose private life was haunted by loneliness and longing, and whose
sexual identity remained unresolved. Henry James circulated in the grand
parlours and palazzos of Europe, he was lauded and admired, yet his attempts
at intimacy inevitably failed him and those he tried to love. The Master
is Colm Toibin’s most accomplished and powerful novel to date. It is a
portrait of a man who was elusive to both friends and family even as he
remained astonishingly vibrant and alive in his art - a searching exploration
of the hazards of putting the life of the mind before affairs of the heart.
(First Edition Available)
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Another Kind
of Life by Catherine Dunne
Hannah, May and Eleanor are sisters. Their early life in Dublin, with
the middle-class parents, has prepared them for a comfortable future of
marriage, children and servants. Further north, Mary and Cecilia are also
sisters. They are struggling to make a living in the linen mills of Belfast,
amid rising political tensions. The lives of all the sisters are destined
to unfold in ways that none of them could ever have imagined. This novel
is the intricately crafted tale of how their lives entwine, against the
backdrop of the rapidly changing Ireland of the late nineteenth century.
In the novel the author returns to the themes of family ties, love and
loyalty, which she has delineated so finely in her earlier work. But this
time, she opens out her canvas to tell a much wider story. Perceptive,
absorbing and beautifully told, the novel is an unforgettable portrait
of a family, and of Ireland, which stays with the reader long after the
last page.
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Among Druids
and High Kings
This book tells the fascinating story of the coming of Christianity to
the Irish and many other compelling tales of the daily lives of the men
and women of Ireland from Celtic to Christian times. From contemporary
accounts by travellers, church officials, and jurists as well as from
the legends and histories for which the Irish are so justly famous come
the stories of kings and thieves, farmers and monks, scholars and saints.
Among them are the mighty Brian Boru, who defeated Irishmen and Vikings
alike to become King of All Ireland; Saint Brigit, the daughter of a druid,
who put her eyes out rather than marry; and Dermot Mac Murrough, who,
by asking for the assistance of Henry II in regaining his kingdom, opened
the door to England’s future involvement in Ireland’s affairs. The accompanying
photographs of breathtaking landscapes, beautifully carved stone monuments,
colourful illuminated manuscripts, and the meticulously crafted metalwork
said to be ‘the work of angels’ bring the Irish people and their land
vividly to life.
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The Irish Hedge
School and Its Books, 1695-1831 by Antonia McManus
For over 136 years, the hedge schoolmasters were the dominant educators
in Ireland. For most of that time, they worked underground, due to the
strictures of the Penal Laws. Impoverished parents valued this education
so highly that they bartered flitches of bacon and miscawns of butter
for it. Being independent of church and state, the schools incurred the
wrath of both on occasions. The state regarded their reading books as
objectionable. In fact, they were an eclectic mix of romantic chapbooks
and the best literature of the 18th century, purchased by parents as cheap
piracies of expensive English originals. The beginning of the end for
the masters came when their erstwhile allies, the Catholic hierarchy,
concerned with the official view of them as incompetent, at a time when
the church was seeking state aid for Catholic education. But the masters
remained deep in the affections of the Irish people as they fulfilled
a multiplicity of roles such as local scribe, historian, poet, defender
of religion, Bible Society teacher, land surveyor, lawyer, parish clerk,
revolutionary and political activist.
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Becoming George:
The Life of Mrs. W.B. Yeats by Ann Saddlemyer
An extraordinarily talented woman, George Yeats was more than wife and
manager of the famous poet. A champion of occult intelligence, she was
friend and critic to writers such as Ezra Pound, Frank O’Connor, and Richard
Ellmann. For the first time, this intelligent and creative woman takes
centre stage in this lovingly detailed biography. Drawing on memoirs and
a wealth of previously unknown and unpublished sources, the author reveals
the story of a fascinating and remarkable Irish woman.
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The Oxford Companion
to Irish History edited by S.J. Connolly
In a field bedevilled by controversy, this book offers a comprehensive
and balanced point of reference to all aspects of this fascinating and
complex island. Written by a team of 96 renowned experts in the field
of Irish studies, the Companion’s 1800 A-Z entries explore Irish history
from earliest times to the dawn of the new millennium. Breaking away from
the purely chronological approach, entries focus on the enduring themes
of Irish history, such as nationalism, unionism, and Catholicism, as well
as on the changing fabric of everyday life, in areas such as dress, music,
sport, and diet. Traditional topics such as the rebellion of 1798 and
the Irish Civil War sit alongside up-to-date discussion on the latest
research in areas such as women’s history, popular culture, literary history,
prehistoric Ireland, and early historic Ireland. Designed to meet the
needs of all readers, from scholars and students to anyone with an interest
in Ireland, using both concise definitions and in-depth analytical essays,
the book offer interpretations of issues and events that continue to affect
the Irish identity today.
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A New History
of Ireland by Christine Kinealy
Irish history has been dominated by a succession of settlers, traders,
invaders, soldiers and colonisers. From the arrival of Patrick in the
fifth century - arguably the most important settler ever - to Ireland
as it is today, the author incorporates some of the most recent scholarship
to explore the key developments and personalities that have helped to
shape this country over 1500 years. From the arrival of the Anglo-Normans
in the twelfth century - which began Ireland’s complex and tortuous relationship
with England - to Cromwell’s invasion, the Plantation of Ulster, the Great
Famine and Nationalism, the author challenges the dominant interpretation
of events. She focuses on diversity: the lack of unity among the settlers;
the varying response of the native peoples; the important contribution
of women in shaping the development of Ireland; and, more recently, the
divisions between and within nationalist and unionist groups. Ireland’s
external relationships with America and other countries are also examined
as is it position at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Economically,
politically and culturally, Ireland is again playing a leading role in
Europe. This book provides a concise, lucid and nuanced approach to Ireland’s
complex and fascinating history.
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Ireland’s Forgotten
10th by Jeremy Stanley
This book is the story of the Irishmen, all volunteers, who formed a unit
in the British Army in the Great War of 1914-1918, in response to an appeal
from Lord Kitchener. 12,000 recruits came from all four provinces of Ireland
and from both sides of the political and religious divide. There have
been Irish regiments in the British Army since the 17th Century, but these
men formed the first essentially Irish division ever to take the field.
From their formation and training in 1914, this account follows the fortunes
of the 10th (Irish) Division through service overseas in Gallipoli, Macedonia,
and Palestine, and ends with the effective disbandment of the division
in Palestine in 1918. Each phase of the campaign is preceded by a brief
appraisal of the tactical situation at the time. These men fought with
the utmost heroism and dedication, but for a cause that, after the Partition
of Ireland, became politically incorrect. Since that time, their achievements
have been ignored and their history neglected, and this book sets out
to right that wrong.
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Celtic Rituals:
A Guide to Ancient Celtic Spirituality by Alexei Kondratiev
In the rat race of our lives and loss of connection with the world of
nature, certain aspects of Celtic tradition can help renew links with
the living reality of the Earth. This beautifully written book is devoted
to suggesting guidelines for the establishment and running of Celtic ritual
circles. It outlines possible rules for membership and suggests formulas
of words for rituals and visualization sequences. Many are closely connected
with the passage of time, especially the seasons with their solstices
and equinoxes, as well as other feast days. The author emphasizes the
need to become conversant with Celtic culture and mythology and at leas
one surviving Celtic language, avoiding the undemanding vagueness of much
contemporary ‘druidism’. This book unveils the Celtic rituals as something
fresh and powerful, relating human existence to the eternal cycle of nature,
and offers hope that humanity will recognise the divine beauty of the
planet.
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Motherhood in
Ireland edited by Patricia Kennedy
The body of work collected here presents the essence of motherhood in
Ireland in all its various forms, in relation to both the experiences
and the institution of motherhood. The first two sections of the book
concentrate on creation, in the physiological sense (childbirth, infant
feeding, infertility, and maternal mortality) and in the literary sense
(treatment/symbolism of motherhood in Irish literature, both in English
and in Gaelic, and in the visual arts). The third section presents the
‘context’ in which motherhood unfolds.
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