Read Ireland Book Reviews, October 1998

Steps on My Pilgrim Journey: Memories and Reflections by Cardinal Cahal B. Daly
’These are not “fragments shored against my ruins”, nor indeed attempts t o influence the judgement of others about me; the only judgement that matters is God’s. These are snapshots of memory of a long and happy life. I have lived through many changes in Church and in society in Ireland and through many new departures in my own life and ministry. I have enjoyed every on e of the new challenges and I regret none of the changes; my only regret is not to have changed enough myself into the Christian I am called to be. The past of my early recollections is one which only a few today will recognise; but it has helped to shape us all. The future which I see for the Church in Ireland is one which fills me with hope and expectation. I regret that I shall not share its excitement. I hope that some of those who travelled some part of my pilgrim journey with me, and some of those who will travel on into that future, may enjoy the reading as much as I have enjoyed the telling of my story.’ This is how Cardinal Daly describes his fascinating and important autobiography. Even if you have no interest at all in religion or Catholicism, his observations and commentary on Irish society over the last 50 years are astute and very interesting.

Celtic Christianity: A Sacred Tradition, A Vision of Hope by Timothy Joyce
This book introduces a mysterious and extraordinary spiritual world, one which drew on pre-Christian beliefs and culture and took form in the church as it developed among the Celtic peoples sixteen centuries ago. It offers a rediscovering of an ancient tradition that can sustain spiritual seekers and renew the church today. As the author shows, Celtic spirituality appeals to mind, body, and spirit. Joyous and mystical, it affirms the goodness of creation and the gifts of women; it blossoms in poetry, myth and song. While recounting heroic tales of Saints Patrick and Bridget, Columcille and Columba, the author goes beyond other books, showing how and why this distinctive tradition gradually was subsumed by a more rigid and authoritarian style of Catholicism. Finally, he movingly reflects on the centuries of suffering that have left an indelible mark on Irish consciousness and spirit.

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Kerry: A Natural History by Terry Carruthers
Kerry covers an area of about 5000 square kilometres in the south-west of Ireland. It is Ireland’s premier visitor destination due principally to its dramatic scenery. Less well-known is Kerry’s attraction for naturalists, ecologists, geologists and everyone interested in its natural history. Because of its broad mix of habitats, important seabird islands and sand dunes, Ireland’s highest mountains and largest surviving native woodlands , Kerry has a wonderful diversity of flora and fauna. The author begins the book by describing the county’s geology and climate, then proceeds to discuss the plants and animals of the region, highlighting particular points of interest. It is a well-illustrated book, with maps, diagrams, and a 1 2 page colour-insert. There is also a comprehensive bibliography of nearly 1200 references.

Gardens of Remembrance by Thomas McCarthy
Drawing on the rich landscape of West Waterford, from its Anglo-Irish gardens to the hidden hinterlands of Fianna Fail activism and de Valera worship, this autobiography is a moving testimony to the power of memory, childhood and poetry by the acclaimed poet and novelist. In addition, it brilliantly captures the literary ferment of Cork City in the early 80s, as well as the rich and varied experiences of a year spent teaching Irish literature in the American hinterlands. The final part of the book gives a distinctive overview of Southern (and most especially Munster) poetry over the past two decades, including Irish writing outside Dublin often neglected or marginalised. Here McCarthy writes critically and movingly of major figures like Austin Clarke and Eavan Boland, along with fellow contemporaries such as Theo Dorgan, Greg Delanty and the late Sean Dunne.

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Celtic Quilting by Gail Lawther
This collection takes the ever-popular style of the ancient Celtic artists and offer today’s quilter a wealth of ideas and inspiration. In 25 delightful projects, the author demonstrates the versatility of this popular craft. Using traditional English quilting, a wholecloth technique, she creates a beautiful pram quilt in pastel shades. She explores trapunto, a fascinating stuffed quilting method, by making a stylish trinket box and attractive herb pillow, and her design for a stunning bed quilt is enhanced with strong but simple Japanese sashiko quilting. The author’s straight-forward instructions and clear templates make the appliquE9 and patchwork projects, which include a stained-glass wall hanging and an elegant evening bag, as easy and rewarding as her quilting ideas. The wonderful ideas to create for the home range in size from a small needlecase, ideal for a beginner to stitch, to full-size bed quilts for t he more experienced quilter. All have clear step-by-step instructions, beautifully complemented with colour photographs of the complete projects. The addition of a library of Celtic motifs will provide quilters of all levels with the incentive to explore this amazing source of design to the full.

Celtic Cross Stitch by Gail Lawther
This book looks for inspiration from a wide variety of Celtic Designs and explores the challenges of transferring them to patterns for counted thread embroidery. 30 fully detailed and charted projects are included ranging from simple cards and pictures, a cushion and a rug, to an embroidered border for a wedding dress or christening robe. Knotwork, key and spiral designs are featured together with animal, plant and human forms. A separate section charts a selection of classic Celtic alphabet designs. The projects range in a difficulty from the simple to the more complex to appeal to embroiderers of all levels of experience. Numerous ideas for alternative colourways and variations on the projects, as well as a unique pattern library of designs, will inspire you to make up your own Celtic motifs an d patterns. Packed with stunning colour photographs, this book will enable you to create many impressive and unusual designs that you will be proud to wear, display at home or give to your friends.

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Savouring Ireland: Cooking Through the Ages by Nuala Cullen
Written by an accomplished Irish cook, this book takes a new look at traditional Irish fare, taking as its cue the dishes prompted by the seasons. In each of the book’s four sections there are mouth-watering recipes offering good ideas for using the ingredients most readily available at particular times of the year. Fish and seafood feature largely, as do fresh vegetables and fruit, with delicious suggestions for desserts and cakes. The book is also a superb record of the landscapes of Ireland, highlighting especially the wild west coast. The book presents a taste o f Ireland’s finest food and an equally evocative selection of natural beauties. (Large format with over 100 colour photographs)

A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music by Gearoid O hAllmhurain
This book is a comprehensive but concise guide to 2000 years of Irish musical tradition which enjoys an extraordinary world-wide attention today. It traces the history and development from the hypnotic harp music of Early Ireland to The Lord of the Dance and Riverdance phenomena of the 1990s. It explores the contribution of the Normans to Irish dancing, the role of the music maker in Penal Ireland, as well as the Great Famine diaspora of the 19th century which carried Irish music, song and dance to the four corner s of the world.

Cold Steel by Paul Carson
This book is a terrifying thriller weaving a story of corruption, power and greed stretching from the heart of Dublin to the shores of America. When the body of a teenage girl is found in a Dublin park, it is every parent’s nightmare. She has been brutally stabbed to death. But for Dublin’s police and politicians, the nightmare is just beginning. The de ad girl is the daughter of a high-profile American heart surgeon, brought over with his dream team to head the Mercy Hospital’s brand new, 21st century Heart Foundation. The repercussions for the hospital, for the Heart Foundation pet project of ambitious young minister John Regan and for the country as a whole could be catastrophic. America is baying for justice. Detective Sergeant Jim Clarke heads the investigation. When his team pick up the trail of a suspect, they have the might of the establishment behind them as they prepare to close in. But do they have the right man? Meanwhile, Frank Clancy, consultant haematologist to the Mercy Hospital, is concerned about the deaths of two patients. He decides to take a closer look. Little does he realise that by doing so, he places his own life in terrible danger Paul Carson, a doctor based in south Dublin, has written another unputdownable thriller. His first novel, Scalpel, was published in 1997 and spent 17 weeks at number one on the Irish Times hardback best-sellers list and is now also available in paperback.

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Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996 by Seamus Heaney
This volume comes as close to being a ‘Collected Poems’ as its author cares to make. It replaces his New Selected Poems 1966-1987, giving a fuller selection from each of the volumes represented there and adding large parts of those that have appeared since, together with examples of his work as a translator. The book concludes with ‘Crediting Poetry’, the speech with which Seamus Heaney accepted the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature, awarded to him, in the words of the Swedish Academy of Letters, for his ‘works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth.’

Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge
The poetry of Francis Ledwidge evokes an Ireland of traditional nostalgia. But Seamus Heaney has said of Ledwidge that his fate was more complex and more modern; his moral courage alone gave him ‘membership in the company of the walking wounded, wherever they are to be found at any given time.’ Born the son of a migrant farm labourer in 1887, Ledwidge claimed the noble heritage of the dispossessed Irish peasantry. While he wrote ardently of nature and the pastoral grandeur of his native County Meath, his short life as a local political representative, an activist of the Irish Volunteers was a testimony to passionate convictions on human rights. And though he is best know for his moving tribute to Thomas MacDonagh, Ledwidge himself was fighting in France during the 1916 Uprising. He was killed in action in 1917, an Irish poet who richly deserves a place in the ranks of his WWI counterparts Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon.

The Lost Land by Eavan Boland
This new book, the first since the poet’s Collected Poems, is in two part s. The opening sequence entitled ‘Colony’ explores the theme of Irish language and culture. This is followed by a collection of individual poems which open out from autobiography into a sense of larger belonging. ‘The Lost Land’ of the title, the poet says, is ‘not exactly a country and not entirely a state of mind the lost land is not a place that can be subdivided into history, or love, or memory. It is the poet’s own, single, and private account of the ghostly territory where so much human experience comes to be stored.’

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The Alexandrine Plan by Ciaran Carson
In 34 sonnets, the poet animates the romantic agony of three of Europe’s greatest 19th century poets with characteristic humour, argot and brilliant rhymes. Their formal patterns harness the forward rush of his thought and language. His ‘correspondences’ in this book show these poets’ relevance to late 20th century Ireland.

Taking My Letters Back: New and Selected Poems by Dermot Bolger
Although one of Ireland’s best-known novelists and playwrights, Dermot Bolger has always been first and foremost a poet. This long overdue collection combines the best of his early work along with new poems written over the past decade and never before collected in book form. With this collection, the reader can see the span of the poet’s lyric sensibility o ver nearly twenty years.

Shelmailer by Medbh McGuckian
In this ambitious collection, elegies and laments for present-day disturbances fit a previous whirlwind moment, the insurgence of United Irishmen in 1798. Five sections accommodate insistent voices of ghosts from the past, the Rising itself, the quelling of that rebellion through executions and incarcerations, and violent losses. A number of shorter poems add energy and urgency to the book’s growing awareness of the fact of a buried tragedy. Ultimately, this is a book of consoling art and lasting meaning, at once a memorial and an example of our time. Hay by Paul Muldoon. Paul Muldoon’s new collection refines, and redefines, a lyrical strain in which an ostensible lightness of touch still has the strength to bear the weightiest subject matter. At once conventional and cutting-edge, beautiful and bleak, this is a book sure to win even more admirers for this much-laurelled Irish wonder-poet. His previous collection, The Annals o f Chile, won the T. S. Eliot prize for the best book of poems of 1994 and t his new book is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

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The Irish War: The Military History of a Domestic Conflict by Tony Geraghty
This book is the inside story of the bitter inheritance of a 300-year-old war. As the Irish Republican Army turned agitation and street violence into practised urban warfare, the British government responded with increasingly sophisticated counter-measures, including military force. Both sides played down their intentions: the IRA took cover in democratic protests and the British claimed to be successfully containing civil unrest, Yet behind t he scenes both were developing the strategy and technology of full-fledged war. With access to top-level experts, military veteran and historian Tony Geraghty reveals the sinister patterns of action and reaction in this domestic conflict. Drawing on public and covert sources, as well as interviews with members of the SAS and MI5, elite Special Branch officers and many in the security forces and the IRA, he brings to light the disturbing inner workings of an organised terrorist group and its military opposition. Tracing the roots of the Troubles from the greatly mythologized Battle of the Boyne, this book shows how the current battle has expanded to embrace ‘forms of surveillance and counter-surveillance, interrogation, chemical analysis and electronic eavesdropping,’ that have dangerous implications for the population at large. Whether or not the politics of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement finally break the grip of ‘the physical force tradition’ in Ireland, the legacy of covert warfare engendered by this long and bloody struggle will affect British and Irish liberty for years to come.

The Making of Ireland: From Ancient Times to the Present by James Lydon
This book provides an accessible history of Ireland from the earliest times. The author recounts, in colourful detail, the waves of settlers, missionaries and invaders who have come to Ireland since pre-history and offers a long perspective on Irish history right up to the present. This full survey includes discussion of the arrival of St. Patrick in the 5th century and Henry II in the 12th, as well as that of numerous soldiers, traders and craftsmen through the ages. The author explores how these settlers have shaped the political and cultural climate of Ireland today and charts the changing racial mix which fashioned the Irish nation. Lydon also follows Ireland’s long and grievous entanglement with England from its beginning through to the troubles. This book offers a complete history o f Ireland in one volume. Its nuanced narrative provides a coherent and readable introduction to this vital and complex history.

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Snakes and Ladders by Fergus Finlay
This political memoir is packed with insights, incidents and anecdotes about the most turbulent and eventful years in recent Irish politics. From the heyday to Charles Haughey to the historic Northern Ireland peace agreement, this is an insider’s story. It tells of the fierce struggles within the Labour party, the hopes and achievements of governments with Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Democratic Left, and the deals, disputes and decisions that shaped Ireland over the past decade.

Divided Society: Ethnic Minorities and Racism in Northern Ireland edited by Paul Hainsworth
Within Northern Ireland, the Troubles have largely overshadowed the presence of over 40 ethnic minority and religious groups. The territory’s 20,000 ethnic minority residents have had to contend with a lack of protective legislation and an ignorance of their respective needs by the state. Economic, social and linguistic requirements have been denied and racism and discriminations have been commonplace. This book focuses on the key issues racism, anti-racism, sectarianism, politics, health provision, the media and the law and features case studies of five of the main minority groups: the Chinese, the Travellers, the Pakistanis, Indians and the Jewish community. With contributions from ethnic minority spokespersons, academics, the caring professions and the voluntary sector, this timely book provides a detailed overview of a subject now recognised as an integral component of the agenda for change in Northern Ireland.

Studies in Irish Cistercian History by Colmcille O Conbhuidhe edited by Finbarr Donovan
Father Colmcille O Conbhuidhe of Mellifont Abbey, Collon, County Louth, and a native of Clonmel, wrote extensively on medieval Irish Cistercians. Th is book traces the history of the Irish Cistercians from their decline and attempted reform on the eve of the Reformation (1445-1532) up to the death of the last Irish Cistercian monk of Holy Cross Abbey, Fr. Edmund Cormick, sometime between 1731 and 1752. The opening chapters deal with efforts made in Ireland to reform the order, which had been in a state of decline throughout Europe, following the great Western Schism. The story continues with the dissolution of the monasteries in the Elizabethan era and the martyrdom of the abbot of Boyle, Glaisne O Cuilleanain, and other Irish Cistercians under the Stuarts the exile of some of the monks to continental Europe, the efforts of other monks to survive in such monasteries as Holy Cross Abbey, and the part played by the Irish Cistercians during the Confederation at Kilkenny in 1643. Later chapters deal with the controversies such as parochial jurisdiction and Episcopal visitation. The book concludes with the final phase, 1650-1752, ending 6 00 hundred years of Cistercian monastic life in Ireland.

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Battleground: The Making of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ in Ireland by Tom Mooney & Stephen Eustace
This book is the exciting story of the making on one of the most controversial war films of all time and how Ireland and a stretch of beach in County Wexford attracted the most successful film director in the world, Stephen Spielberg, to recreate the horror of the Omaha Beach slaughter in 1944. Battleground features behind the scenes interviews with Spielberg and many of the film stars, including Tom Hanks and Edward Burns.

Iscariot by Tom Phelan
A novel about religion, families, sex, guilt and joy universal in its dark, intense exploration of the underside of a parish and the life of its priest.

A Meteor Shining Brightly: Essays on Major General Patrick R. Cleburne edited by Mauriel Phillips Joslyn
The life of Patrick Cleburne was the stuff of epics and novels. From a teenage runaway to a lowly private in Wellington’s Army, he was thrown on his own resources at an early age, while the Ireland of his youth mounted a call for independence. He went to America as impoverished gentry, to see k a new start from the ravages of the Great Famine, and on his own merit he carved a life in the young frontier town of Helena, Arkansas. Shaped by the harshness of the British Army, and his Irish heritage, his concept of freedom was more political than inalienable. When his adopted country was ripped apart by war, Cleburne followed his conscience, coming from nowhere to gain fame and immortality as the highest ranking Irishman of either army, and the most capable division commander of the Confederate Army. From Shiloh to Jonesboro, Cleburne won glory for the Army of Tennessee. His spirit was a meteor shining brightly, whose trailed blazed out abruptly a t Franklin, Tennessee on November 30, 1864. The nine writers and historian s in this book provide insight into the life and character of this Irishman. Eleven essays explore diverse topics, including the influence of his Iris h background on his decision to fight for the South; his proposal to enlist slaves, relations with staff officers, provocative examinations of his strategy and command skills, and the poignant but tragic romance cut short by his untimely death in the Battle of Franklin. From public like of a military commander to the very private, often shy man, Cleburne is revealed as a complex individual.

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A Short History of Tipperary Military Barracks (Infantry) 1874-1922 compiled by Walter O’Shea
The military barracks in Tipperary town was an integral part of the town’ s economy and history for almost half a century. While the history and heritage of the town and it’s surrounding areas is well documents, no specific records of the barracks has been compiled and this book is intended to contribute to filling this void. Included is a record of British Military graves located in the cemeteries of the town. This was surveyed in 1992, as part of the author’s initial project on Tipperary Military Barracks. The book also contains verbatim transcripts from the British Military Records for the period of the War of Independence; they give the reader an insight into the activities of these regiments in their own words during that turbulent period of Irish history.

A Short History of the Third Tipperary Brigade by John R. Shelley
This book had its origins in the author’s youth. As a young boy, he remembered his father telling him about a place called Soloheadbeg where the ‘’first shots in the War of Independence were fired”. He remembered being told the stories of Sean Treacy and Dan Breen, and all the members of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade. Their deeds make fascinating reading.

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Irish Pubs by Barrie Pepper
This book is a guide to the author’s personal list of the top 100 Irish pubs and inns in Ireland. He has spent six years collecting material on some of the best known pubs, and some which are way off the beaten track but well worth finding. For each pub he tells the reader how to find it, its facilities and what you can eat and drink, its history, its owners and maybe an anecdote or two. The reader will also learn what else he can enjoy in the neighbourhood,whether great landscapes, castles or another pub out t o prove to him that Irish pubs are definitely something special.

Where the River Flows: Annamoe Rectory by Vera Pettigrew
Annamoe is a tiny village in County Wicklow, ‘a humpback bridge with the river flowing beneath, a post-office, one shop, a few whitewashed cottages. Half a mile away is the large old Georgian rectory, set among brooding hills, beautiful in summer, harsh and lonely in winter. To Annamoe rectory in 1957 came Vera Pettigrew, her husband Stanley and baby daughter. This book is Vera’s entertaining and nostalgic account of the five and a half years they spent there, recording with a keen sense of humour and a sharp ear for dialogue the day-to-day activities of parish and family life, from fetes to festivals, from schools to scout camps. But her story also stretches out to wider shores: growing up in Northern Ireland; the first curacy in Newcastle, County Down; the start of married life in Clontarf i n Dublin; summers in Sligo and Connemara; Stanley’s painting; her own love of animals and the joy and heartbreak they brought her; echoes of the past recalled by the names Barton, Childers and Synge. This book is a fascinating and affectionate picture of people and places in those remote parishes of Derralossary, Laragh and Calary.

The Secret Army: The IRA 3rd edition by J. Bowyer Bell
This book is the definitive work on the Irish Republican Army. It is an absorbing account of a movement that has had a profound effect on the shaping of the modern Irish state. The secret army is the service of the invisible Republic has had a powerful effect on Irish events over the pas t 25 years. These hidden corridors of power interest the author and inspired him to spend more time with the IRA than many of its volunteers spend with it. This book is the culmination of 25 years work and tens of thousands of hours of interviews. The author’s unique access to the leadership of the republican movement and his contacts with all involved British politicians, Irish politicians, policeman, arms smugglers, and others committed or opposed to the IRA explain why this book is the most important book on its subject. This new edition represents a complete revision and includes vast quantities of new information. It gives the reader a vital insight into Ireland, Irish history, the Troubles and the Irish Republican Army. It is essential and compulsive reading. Correction - We have been made aware that there was an error in our Issue Number 60. The correct full subtitle of Magennis VC should have read: the Story of ‘Northern’ Ireland’s only winner of the Victoria Cross by George Fleming. It has been pointed out that a Maurice James Dease of Turbotstown House, Coole, Co. Westmeath who as a Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion, Roy al Fusiliers was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery on 23 August 1914 at Mons, Belgium. He died in this action. His was the first VC awarded in WWI. We are happy to acknowledge his heroic actions and apologize for our error.

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