Read Ireland Book Reviews, October 1999

The Courtship Gift by Julie Parsons
This novel is a journey into the dark heart of contemporary Dublin. On a cold April night, Anna Neale arrives home late and discovers her husband dead in his study, his face in a rictus of agony. The simple security of her life vanishes forever. Crippled by the sudden, unbearable discover of huge undisclosed debts, fraud and infidelities stretching back through the entire course of their marriage, Anna is forced to seek refuge to begin her life again penniless, vulnerable, alone. Then a man called Matthew calls to bring her his ‘courtship gift’ a stunningly powerful thriller which explores the true nature of evil.

The Faloorie Man by Eugene McEldowney
In one of the most captivating stories of childhood yet to emerge from Northern Ireland, this book traces the early years of Martin McBride, a young Catholic boy growing up on the streets of post-war Belfast. This stark, funny and at time heart-wrenching tale is set against a background of sectarian division and fervent devotion. As Martin emerges from the cocoon of his parents’ love, he faces a world of unpredictability and surprise: the shocking discovery of the crucial difference between girls and boys, the scrapes of street and schoolyard, the rigours of education. Teddy-boy mania, and the dubious pleasures of illicit sex. But the accidental discovery of a hidden truth suddenly turns Martin’s world upside down.

Northern Ireland’s Troubles: The Human Cost by Marie-Therese Fay, Mike Morrissey and Marie Smyth
Northern Ireland’s armed conflict has left a deep and lasting scar on its people. The results of an extensive survey undertaken by the Belfast-based The Cost of the Troubles Study, this book provides the first in-depth analysis of the impact of armed conflict on the people of Northern Ireland. Summarising the geographical, religious, gender and age distribution of deaths, the authors provide a thorough understanding of political violence in Northern Ireland and an examination of the economic and social issues. Included is an outline of the main protagonists, a chronology of key events, and a profile of the victims and perpetrators of violence, including an assessment of the impact of the Troubles on children.

Fishers of Men by Rob Lewis
This book is a true account of the secret operations carried out by the British Army’s most clandestine unit the Force Research Unit, an outfit so secret that the rest of the Army was unaware of its existence. It tells the unique story, through Rob Lewis’s own extraordinary experiences, of an essential instrument in the fight against terrorism. It fills the gap that has so far remained unpublished about the secret war against terrorism in Northern Ireland in the most informative, explosive and entertaining way possible.

Ireland in Proximity: History, Gender, Space edited by Scott Brewster
This book surveys and develops the expanding fields of Irish Studies, reviewing existing debates within the discipline and providing new avenues for exploration. Drawing on a variety of disciplines and theoretical approaches, this impressive collection of essays makes an innovative contribution to three areas of current, and often contentious, debate within Irish studies. This accessible volume illustrates the diversity of thinking on Irish history, culture and identity. By invoking theoretical perspectives including psychoanalysis, cultural theories of space, postcoloniality and theories of gender and sexual difference, the collection offers fresh perspectives on established subjects and brings new and under-represented areas of critical concern to the fore.

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A Raid into Dark Corners and Other Essays by Benedict Kiely
In these selected essays, published to mark his eightieth birthday, the author writes principally about the writers of his native Ireland. Written across half a century they affirm the breadth of his reading and interests. These include novelists of the nineteenth century such as Gerald Griffin, William Carleton, Canon Sheehan and George Moore; prose writers of the twentieth century, such as Kate O’Brien, Sean O’Faolain and Mary Lavin; the early works of John Montague and Seamus Heaney; as well as thematic essays on such subjects as literary censorship and dialect and literature.

Irelantis by Sean Hillen
Irelantis, Sean Hillen’s invented world is revealed in these twenty eight paper collages, with an introduction by Fintan O’Toole and informal commentary from the artist. Hillen’s post-pop collages, made between 1994 and 1997, are part Magritte, part Warhol with roots in Dada, Surrealism and Pop. The collisions of place and time, nature and magic create landscapes which suggest dizzying layers of meaning and possibility. Using a microscope, scalpel and glue, Hillen weaves fragments of old postcards and other found materials, into elaborate compositions to create a fantastic, seemingly possible Other place, where pyramids nestle in Carlingford Lough, freckled-faced children collect meteorites outside the Observatory at Knowth, and Newry Gagarin, celebrated cosmonaut, hovers over the Dublin streets.

Theology and Modern Irish Art by Gesa Thiessen
This book is an exploration of modern visual art as a ‘locus theologicus.’ The author’s guiding interest is to demonstrate that the work of art, the visual image, like the written word, is and can be used as a challenging and relevant source in theology. It is an extensive, pioneering study of the work and lives of ten leading modern Irish painters from a theological perspective: Mainie Jellett, Jack B. Yeats, Louis le Brocquy, Gerard Dillon, Colin Middleton, Patrick Collins, Tony O’Malley, Patrick Scott, Patrick Graham and Patrick Hall. Extensive research and numerous interviews, contribute a unique insight into the faith, spirituality and theological aspects of the artists and their work.

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Glorious Gardens of Ireland by Melanie Eclare
This book is not only a celebration of the beauty and character of Irish gardens, but also a paeon to the people who create and maintain them. The book is the consummation of a love affair with all things Irish and a two-year photographic project. The author’s reputation for stunningly descriptive plant portraits and evocative landscapes goes before her and has helped to open many gardens to her camera (some of which have not previously been exposed to public view). Her privileged access leads the reader right to the heart of the gardens because her extensive knowledge of plants and planting schemes encouraged the gardeners to reveal their own stories, recorded here with lively candour. The result is confirmation that ‘a garden should be an aesthetic, even sensual experience.’

Daniel O’Donnell: My Story the Official Book by Daniel O’Donnell
This is the Irish singer’s own story written with a close friend, in which he describes his ascent to stardom from humble origins in the small Irish fishing village of Kincasslagh in County Donegal. He recalls his simple childhood, tells of the effects of the death of his father at the age of six, and the people and events that shaped him as he grew up. He describes vividly the point when he set his heart on becoming a musician and performer, leaving college in Galway to join his sister’s group. With a series of entertaining anecdotes, he tells of his spreading popularity and his performances all over the world. The pressures of major league stardom led to mental exhaustion and physical breakdown in 1992, forcing Daniel to quit the business for 4 months. There’s a wealth of material on Daniel’s home and private life as well as his views on love and marriage. His encounters with famous figures such as Cliff Richard and the Irish President Mary McAleese are included and a moving account of his work for Romanian orphanages and how this experience has changed his life.

No News at Throat Lake by Lawrence Donegan
The author, a former pop star and journalist, is part of the urban exodus. He dreams of a simpler life in rural Ireland and departs for Cresslough in County Donegal. He has a brief but bloody encounter with the farming world, then begs a job on the village newspaper. The Tirconaill Tribune is run by two men and a dog. It combines misprints with mischief, a circulation of 2,745 within the solemn belief that it can change the world and Donegan is hooked. This book is the story of a love affair between the big-city hack and the small-time newspaper, featuring America’s third most powerful politician, a legendary Hollywood actress, a rotting whale called Stinky, a sport so violent that even the umpires join in the fighting, sinister men in suits, the holiest shrine in Ireland, the Celtic Tiger, a gypsy called John and a pony-tailed butler called Butler who left Cresslough for Hollywood. It is a contemporary, funny and affectionate account of rural life in today’s Ireland.

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The Garda Siochana: Policing Independent Ireland, 1922-1982 by Gregory Allen
This is the most detailed and comprehensive history of the Garda Siochana to date. It provides a general survey of the first sixty years of the Gardai which is solidly grounded in official sources but written with the general reader in mind. The author has the great advantage of having been a serving member of the Gardai. The insights that such service can alone provide complement the original and impressive research that underpins this book. The definitive history deals with recruitment, living and working conditions, the growth and increasing sophistication of crime and the vital role that the Gardai have played as an unarmed, disciplined and completely legitimate defender of public order.

Irish Agriculture in Transition: A Census Atlas of Agriculture in the Republic of Ireland by Seamus Lafferty, Patrick Commins and James Walsh
land has been a dominant influence in the evolution of Irish rural society. The transfer of ownership from landlords to tenants a century ago has had enormous economic, social and landscape implications. While many farms have experienced deprivation and emigration, there has also been considerable technological and economic progress by a core group of farmers who are internationally competitive in their chosen farming systems. In common with trends in other western countries, agriculture in the Republic of Ireland is undergoing major restructuring in preparation for a more challenging market and policy environment. The transition encompasses elements of both economic modernisation and marginalisation which are reinforcing existing geographical division in rural landscape. This atlas is the most detailed every produces of Ireland’s agriculture. Over 100 maps, with commentaries.

Ishbel: Lady Aberdeen in Ireland by Maureen Keane
Wife of the Viceroy of Ireland in the years leading up to the Easter Rising, Lady Aberdeen was one of the most energetic women every to put her mind to the health and happiness of the people of the country. Her position made it impossible for her to involve herself in the extremes of politics, but she threw herself without reservation into campaigning for greater recognition for Irish industry, especially arts and crafts. She was also a major inspiration behind the multi-faceted attack on the White Plague, tuberculosis, which ravaged town and country alike. In their lifetimes, the Aberdeens were accused of many things, including the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels, yet despite both personal tragedy and personal vilification, Ishbel become one of the most socially influential people in Ireland during the Home Rule years. In this sympathetic yet not uncritical biography, the author paints a picture of a women both liked and loathed, who cut her way through bureaucracy with a furious energy.

Sources: Letters from Irish People on Sustenance for the Soul edited by Marie Heaney
This book is a memorable collection of letters on the nature of spirituality and its relevance for the individual, and will be an invaluable resource. Dipping into its pages you will find persuasive evidence of the human need for something beyond the routine and materialism of everyday life, a need for some sort of spiritual sustenance, especially at times of crisis. Unifying the diversity of response in Sources is the authenticity of each of the contributions. Whether about an unshaken belief in orthodox religion, new perspectives on traditional beliefs or hard-won individual credos, honest, commitment and passion shine through.

The Belfast Anthology edited by Patricia Craig
When it comes to Belfast, no one visitor or native can remain neutral. It has been seen as perverse, awkward, dynamic, resilient, grim, boastful, thrusting and eccentric, but seldom as boring unless it generates, in novelist Caroline Blackwood’s words, ‘a boredom so powerful that it finally acts as an explosive’. This major anthology presents reactions to the city from the early 1600s to modern times in short, lively extracts from memoirs, poetry, fiction, history, travel writing and letters. The selection has been unflinching, including savagely critical comment on the city as well as affectionate praise. The result is a finely detailed portrait of Belfast in all its light and shade a place, in spite of everything, of the ‘utmost interest, singularity, contrariness, spirit and abrasive charm.’

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Beloved Stranger by Clare Boylan
Part love story, part thriller, this novel is also an analysis of marriage as the 20th century draws to a close a changeless institution in a vastly altered world. Dick and Lily have been married for fifty years. He’s turned into a sweet old man, and Lily finally believes that her marriage is like an old tune you take for granted but find yourself whistling when you’re happy. Until the night she wakes to find her husband’s pyjama’d bottom poking out from under the bed. He claims there’s an intruder and he’s got him in his sights. When she turns on the light he backs out, holding a shotgun and claiming the ‘bugger got away when you created a diversion.’ This comic incident marks the start of Dick’s terrifying plunge into real insanity. For an old-fashioned wife who accepted her partner for better or worse, there is no where left to turn except to her only daughter, Ruth, who has turned her back on emotional commitment in favour of good sex with good friends. She is now forced to penetrate the conspiratorial and chaotic web of her parents’ marriage.

The International by Glenn Patterson
January 1967. In Belfast, an accidental fire in a shopping arcade is big news. There, the last Saturday of the month is much like any other Saturday in the Blue bar of the city’s International Hotel. The bar is near empty as the day gets underway, becoming more crammed as people come in from the winter cold. From where he stands, arguing and joking with his fellow barmen, Danny sees a lot: a businessman sweetalking a famous footballer; a councillor being primed to accept a bribe; the lone vigil of Stanley, an aspiring children’s entertainer; and Ingrid, mysteriously lingering on the fringes of a wedding party. Although no one realises it, the ordinary days in Belfast are almost over. The next day the International Hotel will host the inaugural meeting of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. Refreshing non-partisan, funny and humane, this timely and important novel takes the reader back to the essential character of Belfast and its people, and reimagines it as the place it once was and still might be.

It’s What He Would Have Wanted by Sean Hughes
Shea and Orwell wish they were born to different parents. For a start they name their sons after radical icons of their youth: Shea after Che Guevara and Orwell as is George. But when Shea, now a disaffected, footloose, 30 year-old, discovered his father handing from a light-fitting in the study of their prim New Forest home one Boxing Day, he is determined to find out what caused him to quit. His family is quintessentially comfortable, Blairite and middle-class; his father was a BBC weatherman, who defied his working class routes to achieve celebrity. Who or what could possibly have cast so dark a cloud over their lives? Brutally funny, highly charged and compulsively readable, this novel follows one man’s attempt to piece together a world fractured by alienation, paranoia, and conflict. Often moving, elegiac and deeply felt, this is the Irish comic at the height of his considerable humorous story-telling best.

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Kneeling at the Alter by Jim Lusby
This is the third novel in a crime series featuring Detective Inspector McCadden set in Dublin and the Southeast of Ireland. It commences on a Thursday night in October: DI McCadden is hanging around in casualty, waiting for his partner to be fixed up after she drove them into a lamp post to avoid a child. His attention is caught by the little man with the fruit and roses, who doesn’t seem to be visiting or waiting for treatment, and is more interested in who comes is than in who leaves. What’s he up to? Whatever is it, it is enough to get him beaten up in the hospital car park by a bunch of amateur vigilantes. And enough to involve McCadden in a case which leads ultimately to his discovery that the term ‘kneeling at the altar’ has more than one meaning.

More Mischief by Kate Thompson
Life is sweet for rising stage and TV soap star, Deirdre O’Dare. But jealous fears, spawned by arch-rival Sophie, that roguish boyfriend Rory is having a Hollywood fling threaten to ruin her happiness. Retreating from Dublin to the hauntingly beautiful west of Ireland to work on a screenplay and lick her wounds, she meets gorgeous Gabriel straight out of the Diet Coke advert and squire of the local manor. How could a girl possibly refuse? In this moving and wickedly funny tale by the author of It Means Mischief, Deirdre O’Dare learns some painful, enlightening and hilarious lessons about the art of life and love as she comes face to face with the most difficult decision she’s ever had to make.

Have Ye No Homes to Go To? By Neville Thompson
What is going on in the minds of the regulars who line the bar in Paddy Mac’s? Tonight all is not as it seems John Michael is starting out on the road to fame. And he’s in love with another man’s wife. Joe Dolan must choose between the two women in his life his mother or his girlfriend. As for Davey Brady if he’s the stud he reckons he is, why isn’t his wife pregnant? But Paul Simmo Simpson is a happy man. The local factory is closing down music in the ears of a moneylender. Meanwhile, Debbie Collins is lying in the bath How could she have been so stupid? Judging by what’s going down, the sooner Paddy Mac calls ‘Have ye no homes to go to?’ the better.

Racing the Moon by Terry Prone
Darcy and Sophia are twins, non97identical but equal, until their fourth birthday silences one and makes a leader of the other. From then on Darcy is conscious of the disadvantages of being a twin, as well as the benefits: it is easy to let Sophia speak she is the small, pretty, polite one. But Darcy, bigger, lumpier, is locked in silence, defined by her relationship with her twin, taking refuge in rebellion. As the twins grow up in an Ireland that has changed utterly in one generation, they move from a cautious Dublin convent background to international careers, work on different continents, and grow closer through business triumph and family tragedy. Admiring and hating each other to the same degree, their differences always remain more obvious than their similarities. Until both fall for the same man

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Phoenix Irish Short Stories 1999 edited by David Marcus
This fourth annual anthology of Irish short stories continues to reflect the wide landscape of contemporary Irish fiction. It showcases the best new stories coming out of Ireland including stories by talented non-Irish writers resident in Ireland and acclaimed Irish writers living abroad. This excellent collection is proof of the healthy state of Irish writing. The complete list of contributors is: Marie Altzinger, John Evans, Judy Kravis, Orla Murphy, Briege Duffaud, Marie Hannigan, Jamie O’Neill, Colum McCann, Eithne Le Goff, Molly McCloskey, Eamon Sweeney, Shane Harrison, Tess Martin, Chuck Kruger, Arnold Fanning, Joseph O’Neill, Sean O’Reilly, Edel Moloney, William Hodder, Michael Taft and Jane S. Flynn.

The Ancient Celts by Barry Cunliffe
In this erudite and engaging illustrated history, Professor Cunliffe explores the archaeological reality of the bold Celtic warriors and skilled craftsmen of barbarian Europe who inspired fear in the Greeks and Romans. He investigates the texts of the classical writers and contrasts their view of the Celts with current archaeological findings. Tracing the emergence of chiefdoms and the fifth- to third-century migrations as far as Bosnia and the Czech Republic and into Turkey, he assesses the disparity between the traditional and contemporary information on the Celts. Other aspects of Celtic identity, such as the cultural diversity of the tribes, their social and religious systems, their art, language and law, are also examined. From the picture that emerges, the author is able to distinguish between the original Celts and tribes which were ‘Celtized’, thus giving the reader a new insight into the true identity of this ancient people.

The Sinn Fein Rebellion as They Saw It edited and introduced by Keith Jeffrey
Mary Louisa Hamilton Norway’s account of the Easter Rising was first published in 1916 and consists of family letters containing ‘a faithful record of the Sinn Fein Rebellion as I saw it.’ Living in the Royal Hibernian Hotel in Dawson Street, she was especially well-placed to observe events. Mrs. Norway’s husband, Arthur, was Secretary of the General Post Office in Ireland it was his office, literally, which was occupied and used as the insurgents’ headquarters and here published for the first time his is own reminiscences of the period, Irish Experiences in War. Together these accounts provide a vivid and revealing picture of both the official response to events and their impact on the civilian population of Dublin. The narrative also includes Norway’s schoolboy son Nevil, who served with the Red Cross during the Rising. Later he achieved world-wide fame as the novelist Nevil Shute.

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Last Days of Dublin Castle: The Diaries of Mark Sturgis edited and introduced by Michael Hopkinson
The five volumes of the Mark Sturgis’ Diaries provide a rich and entertaining source for Anglo-Irish history during the final stages of the Irish revolution between July 1920 and February 1922. Sturgis was a leading British Civil Servant seconded to Dublin Castle in the summer of 1920 as a consequence of the radical administrative reforms implemented at the time. In effect, he served as the main assistant to Sir John Anderson, the Joint Under-Secretary and effective leader of the administration. Sturgis played a key role in decisions made in the final stages of the Anglo-irish War and was actively involved in the peace negotiations. The volumes contain vivid and interesting descriptions of life in Dublin Castle and of Sturgis’ liaison work with London. There are portrayals of leading figures of the period on both the British and Irish sides. The Diaries are valuable not only as a historical source but also as social history with much revolving around Sturgis’ affection for the world of horses and country houses. Most importantly, they give a unique insight into the relations between civil servants and politicians at a time when civil servants were to a large extent in control of British policy in Ireland.

The Irish in Victorian Britain: The Local Dimension edited by Roger Swift and Sheridan Gilley
This volume of essays presents the fruits of recent research on the experiences of Irish men and women in Victorian Britain. In particular, it illustrates the diversity of the Irish experience by reference to studies of specific towns including Birmingham, Camborne, Hull, London and Stafford and regions including South Wales and the North-East which have hitherto received little attention from historians of the Irish in Britain during the Victorian period. It also addresses and examines a range of themes which are critical to our understanding of the Irish in Britain during the period but which have been relatively neglected by historians. As such, this collection of essays, penned by both established scholars and representatives of a new generation of historians, not only represents a major contribution to the burgeoning historiography of the subject but also illustrates the current ‘state of the art’ in Irish Studies in the 1990s.

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Mausolea Hibernica by Maurice Craig and Michael Craig
This collaboration between celebrated architectural historian Maurice Craig and his son Michael, a master draughtsman, will stand for most readers as both an introduction to his fascinating subject and the last word upon it. In 33 exquisitely rendered plates, Michael Craig illustrates the pyramids, chapels, classical and oriental temples, follies and pillar-boxes in which the grandees of Georgian and Victorian Ireland interred themselves. If the inhabitants of these extraordinary tombs have not in every instance achieved the immortal fame the mausolea were intended to bestow, the structures themselves now increasingly suffering from vandalism are immortalised in these plates in all their macabre splendour. Maurice Craig;s commentaries on the plates are much more that mere captions, and his introductory essay is a tour de force of scholarship lightly worn, examining the mausolea in all their architectural and socio-cultural mutations.

Germany and Ireland: 1945-1955 Two Nations’ Friendship by Cathy Molohan
German and Irish relations have been characterised by a wide variety of contacts throughout the centuries. These included ago-old religious, scholastic and, since the beginning of this century, military and economic links. This book sets out to explore a decade of these relations as yet undocumented. The time from 1945 to 1949 was a period of difficult decisions and complicated diplomatic activity following the end of World War Two, with Ireland having to decide on the fate of over 300 German citizens in the country soldiers, spies and diplomats who were wanted by the Allies. At the same time the Irish people, thankful for having been spared the horrors of this war, set about helping those affected by it. The period after 1949 is notable for the normalisation of relations with Germany on a political, diplomatic and economic level. These many moves towards stronger personal, economic and cultural links with Germany were among the first tentative steps towards Europe taken in the primarily isolationist Ireland of the 1950s.

A History of Meath County Council, 1899-1999: A Century of Democracy in Meath by Denis Boyle
The centenary of the establishment of county councils in Ireland under the Local Government (Ireland) Act of 1898 is an occasion of celebration for all local authorities and those admirers of democratic structures in Ireland. It is especially so for Meath County Council which has often been referred to as the ‘Premier Council’ during the past 100 years. As part of its celebrations, it commissioned this history of its first hundred years. It records the men and women who were prominent in making Meath County Council what it is today. It also deals with the obstacles and problems which successive councils had to overcome to provide efficient and economical administration for the county. The book is a fascinating look at the local history of one of Ireland’s counties.

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Irish Rebel: John Devoy and America’s Fight for Ireland’s Freedom by Terry Golway
In 1871, John Devoy, a young Irishman fighting for Irish independence, went to the United States in exile. Yet even while across this ocean, this Fenian greatly influenced Irish affairs. Terry Golway’s suspenseful and assiduously researched biography of Devoy chronicles a lifetime of activism in which he garnered tremendous financial and moral support for the cause in Ireland. Devoy was instrumental in both the Easter Rising of 1916 and the creation of the Irish Free State. Intimate details of Devoy’s life and his work are artfully interwoven as the author captures Devoy’s valiant role in Ireland’s struggle for freedom.

The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin
‘Helen woke in the night to the sound of Manus whimpering. She lay still and listened, hoping that he would quieten and turn on his side and sleep, but when his voice became louder and more insistent and she could vaguely make out the words, she got out of bed and moved towards the boys’ room; she was unsure whether he was dreaming or awake.’ It is Ireland in the early 1990s. Three women, Dora Devereux, her daughter Lily and her grand-daughter Helen, have arrived, after years of strife, at an uneasy peace with each other. They know that in the years ahead it will be necessary for them to keep their distance. Now, however, Declan, Hele n’s adored brother, is dying and the three of them come together in the grandmother’s crumbling old house with two of Declan’s friends. All six of them, from different generations and with different beliefs, are forced to listen to each other and to come to terms with each other. This is a novel about morals and manners, about culture clashes and clashes of personalities, but it is also a novel full of stories, as the characters give an account of themselves, and the others listen, awe struck or deeply amused at things they have never heard before. Written in a spare, powerful prose, The Blackwater Lightship is an astonishingly acute and moving work which offers sharp and memorable insights into the nature of love and family, and dramatises the lives of characters who appear remarkably exact and real. Recently nominated for the prestigious UK Booker Prize for Fiction.

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’Tis: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Angela’s Ashes was a publishing phenomenon. Frank McCourt’s critically acclaimed, lyrical memoir of his Irish-American childhood won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, the Royal Society of Literature Award, and the Los Angeles Times Award amongst others, and rapidly became a word-of-mouth bestseller, topping all charts worldwide for over two years. It left readers and critics alike eager to hear more about Frank McCourt’s incredible, poignant life. ‘That’s your dream out now. That’s what my mother would say when we were children in Ireland and a dream we had came true. The one I had over and over was where I sailed into New York Harbor awed by the skyscrapers before me. I’d tell my brothers and they’d envy me for having spent a night in America till they began to claim they’d had that dream, too. I appealed to my mother. I told her it wasn’t fair the way the whole family was invading my dreams and she said, Arrah, for the love o’God, drink your tea and go to school and stop tormenting us with your dreams.’ ‘Tis is the story of Frank’s American journey from impoverished immigrant with rotten teeth, infected eyes and no formal education to brilliant raconteur and schoolteacher. Saved first by a straying priest, then by the Democratic party, then by the United States Army, and then by New York University which admitted him on a trial basis though he had no high school diploma Frank had the same vulnerable but invincible spirit at nineteen that he had a eight and still has today. And ‘Tis is a tale of survival as vivid, harrowing and often hilarious as Angela’s Ashes. Yet again, it is through the power of storytelling that Frank finds a life for himself. ‘It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he’s done McCourt proves himself one of the very best’ (Newsweek). ‘Tis blesses readers with another chapter in McCourt’s story.

Cork: A City in Crisis volume 1 by Sean Daly
Originally published in 1978, we have 2 copies of this history, subtitles: A History of Labour Conflict and Social Misery of 1870-1872, in Cork. Based on contemporary newspapers and manuscript sources, the book portrays life in Cork from an angle hitherto unexplored. It records social conflict on a grand scale including the first general strike in the country. Social history, labour history, local history, are all herein combined to recapture a glimpse of everyday life in 19th century Cork.

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Dictionary of Hiberno-English compiled and edited by Terence Patrick Donal
When this book first appeared in hardback, it was hailed by many critics as the Irish book of the year and described as a tremendous feat of scholarship. It is the only dictionary which provides an authoritative lexicon of the English language as spoken in Ireland. Hiberno-English differs from standard English in a number of ways, most notably through the retention of archaic forms redundant in standard English and through borrowings from the Irish language. This is a book of anyone interested in the Irish and the way we speak.

The Ireland Anthology edited by Sean Dunne
First published to huge critical acclaim in 1997, this book has finally appeared in paperback. It is a truly magnificent and comprehensive collection of poetry and prose that is a collective portrait of the country, the people and their philosophy. It is a ‘literary map of Ireland’, according to Seamus Heaney.

An Age of Innocence: Irish Culture 1930-1960 by Brian Fallon
In this radical reappraisal of Irish cultural life, the author argues with passion and conviction that culture and the arts in Ireland prospered in the years 1930 to 1960. He rejects the crude stereotype of the period as one of insular failure. (I have one hardback copy of this book which I am willing to offer at the paperback price to the first customer who requests it.)

Sean Lemass: The Enigmatic Patriot by John Horgan
This is the definitive history of one of the finest Taoiseach in the history of the state.

Big Fellow, Long Fellow: A Joint Biography of Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera by T. Ryle Dwyer
This is the first joint biography of the two major figures of the modern Irish state. These two contrasting figures complements and contrasted with each other in the making of the Irish revolution. This book traces their different backgrounds, upbringings and temperaments in a fascinating counterpoint.

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The Great Shame: A Story of the Irish in the Old World and the New by Thomas Keneally
This masterly book covers eighty years of Irish history, told through the intimate lens of political prisoners some of them ancestors of the Keneally family who served time as convicts in Australia. It has been generously and uniformly hailed at an ‘important book’ and a ‘monumental achievement’ for anyone interested in the forces of idealism and rebellion which have shaped modern Ireland. (I have one hardback copy of this book left in stock, priced at 29.90 Irish pounds which I will sell for 20.00 Irish pounds to the first customer who requests it.)

Jonathan Swift by Victoria Glendinning
This biography from the prize-winning biographer has taken a literary zoom-lens to illuminate this proud and intractable man. She investigates at close range the main events and relationships of Swift’s life, providing a compelling and provocative portrait set in a rich tapestry of controversy and paradox.

Every Dead Thing by John Connolly
Haunted by the unsolved slaying of his wife and young daughter and tormented by his sense of guilt, Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker is a man consumed by violence, regret and the desire for revenge. Then Bird’s ex-partner asked him to track down a missing girl and Bird embarks on an odyssey that is to lead him into the bowels of organised crime; to an old black woman who dwells by the Louisiana swamps; to cellars of torture and death; and to a serial killer unlike any other. This is stylishly written and disturbing thriller, spell-binding, riveting and chilling.

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