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Books Ireland (Oct. 2001): Review Shirley Kelly, ‘Midwife to a Generation of Writers’ [interview], Books Ireland (Oct. 2001), pp.245-46.); grandson of refugee from Lithuanian pogroms; b. Cork, 1924; abandoned religion in teens; experienced casual anti-semitism; prevented from studying Arts by his father; called to bar, 1945; his trans. of “The Yellow Bittern” published in Irish Times after chance encounter with Frank O’Connor; trans. The Midnight Court (Dolmen 1953), following banning of O’Connor’s version earlier; in partnership with Terence Smith, sub-ed. Cork Examiner, and with financial backing of Jewish community, issued first issue of Irish Writing, 1954; contribs. from Frank O’Connor, Sean O’Faolain, James Stephens, Edith Somerville, Bryan MacMahon, Mary Lavin, Liam O’Flaherty, Benedict Kiely and Samuel Beckett; issued Next Year in Jerusalem (Macmillan 1954); worked in Britain in insurance for 13 years after the rejection of his second novel; returned in 1967 at behest of his br. Louis Marcus, film-maker; commenced Irish Writing in Irish Press, 1968-88; assoc. with Hennessy Lit. Awards; later revived by Sunday Tribune; lit. ed. of Irish Press; m. Ita Daly, 1972; fnd. Poolbeg with Philip McDermot; issued A Land Not Theirs Bantam (1985), Irish best-seller; A Land in Flames (1986); Who Ever Heard of An Irish Jew?, stories; autobiography as Oughtobiography. Leo Cullen, author of Clocking Ninety on the Road to Cloughjordan (Blackstaff 1994), and now Let’s Twist Again (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 2001), interviewed by Shirley Kelly, Books Ireland (Oct. 2001), p.247. B. Tullamore, Co. Tipperary, son of hoteliers; moved to country when his father remarried after death of his mother when he was eight; published poems in Irish Writing (Irish Press) during early eighties. Lola Montez, née Eliza Rosana Gilbert, b. Limerick c.1820; dg. young English soldier and 14-year old milliner; moved to India at three; ed. Scotland; at 17 eloped with her mother’s lover, Irish lieutentant Thomas James and returned to India; married and separated; returned to England, 1840; divorce proceedings initiated by James cited George Lennox; became actress; travelled to Spain; adopted name of Donna Lola Montez, exotic dancer and war-widow; affairs with Franz Liszt, newspaper editor Henri Dujarier (who died in a duel); mistress to King ludwig of Bavaria (aetat. 60) in Munich; banished from Bavaria at his abdication; married English officer in Paris; travelled to USA; issued autobiography and a play, Lola Montez in Bavaria, which was a success in US and Australia; affair with Austrian prince; pub. beauty manual; worked with Magdalen Society, NY; suffered stroke; died of pneumonia, at 41. Anne Barnett, The Largest Baby in Ireland after the Famine (London: Virago 2001), 288pp.; title character Sarah-Ann, in glens of Protestant Ulster, and her passionate relationship with Felix Campbell, set in 1916, her husband having died in the war’; commended for craft by Bridget O’Toole (Books Ireland, Oct.2001, p.254.) Desmond Traynor, review of Eoin MacNamee, The Blue Tango, giving details of plot [as supra] and underlying events adding that a huge bloodstain was discovered in an upstairs room four years after when the house was sold and the carpet lifted. Traynor recognises MacNamee as a ‘true artist’ and remarks: ‘Again, as with his previous book, the prose styule is reminisicent of the lapidary puritan discourse of a morality play, a kind of latter-day Northern Catholic John Bynayn, which is ideally suited to the Manichean societal structures up there. Also striking is McNamee’s sensitivity to language register and its betrayal of social standing, as when some of the statements in the police records by soldiers read more like the product of a well-educated middle-class professional hand. […] the nuances of the social pecking order are perfectly rendered. “Authority” is one of the most frequently recurring words in the text’ . Seán Moncrieff, Dublin (Doubleday 2001), 272pp., set on Bloomsday and concerning Simon Dillon, a documentary researcher and cocaine-addict. The author comperes RTE ‘Don’t Geed the Gondolas’ quiz show. Cathal Liam, Consumed in Flames: A Novel of Ireland’s Struggle for Freedom 1916-1921 (Cincinnati: St. Padraic Press 2001), 442pp., centred on Aran Roe O’Neill, a seventh son of a seventh son from Galway. John Kirkaldy, reviewing, quotes an encounter with Patrick Pearse (‘I can see you are an exceptional young man’): ‘Modesty prevented him from telling Pearse that the local commander recognised his natural born leadership qualities straight away. This coupled with his physical attributes, his skill as a crackshot and his tireless determination to learn all he could about military strategy soon saw Aran quickly promoted within his local unit. All of this combined with his other talents, his keen sense of history and his outspoken desire to break the ties now binding Ireland to Great Britain.’ Kirkaldy remarks, ‘the plot often creaks.’ (Books Ireland, Oct. 2001, p.256.) Moran Llywelyn, A Novel of the Irish Civil War (Forge 2001), 446pp., concerning Ned Halloran and Matt Nugent, friends divided by the conflict, and covering Matt’s love-affair with Anlo-Irish Protestant woman Ella Rutledge; a child Precious is adopted by Ned and Sile O’Halloran. Ernest T. S. Walton, Nobel 1951, ed. Methody (Belfast). Greacen quotes Senator Wilson, formerly a methodist shopkeeper whose dg. was killed in the Enniskillen bombing: ‘I have no ill will. I bear no grudge. Don’t ask me for a purpose. I don’t have a purpose, and I don’t have an answer. But I know there has to be a plan, and God is good.’ (Books Ireland, Oct. 2001, p.261.) Roy Johston, ‘The Derry Hares’, review of various works incl. two by Derry Kelleher [infra], commences: ‘The present writer, along with the late Derry Kelleher, and perhaps a handful of others, has struggled over our lifetimes to salvage the basic Enlightenment secular republican democratic tradition from the various overlays of Catholic nationalism, Fenian conspiracism and quasi-Stalinist centralism which have infested it.’ T. G. Fraser, ed., The Irish Parading Tradition: Following the Drum [Ethnicity and Intercommunity Conflict Ser.] (Basingstoke: Macmillan 2001), q.pp. [contribs. incl. Keith Jeffrey, Valerie Morgan, Neil Jarman, Dominic Bryan.] Sean Moran Farrell, Rituals and Riots: Sectarian Violence and Political Culture in Ulster 1784-1886 (Kentucky UP 2001), 262pp. Colm Tóibín with Diarmid Ferriter, The Irish Famine: A Documentary (London: Profile 2001), incl. Tóibín on Enniscorthy Cathedral, opened in 1846; ‘It must have carrried the great weight of power and newness which factories had in more industrial landscapes.’ (BI, Oct. 2001, p.266. Rep. edn. of Donal O’Sullivan, Carolan: The Life and Music of an Irish Harper, app. by Bonnie Shaljean [2 vols., 1958] (Ossian 2001), 378pp. [incls. recently discovered works]. Patrons of the harper incl. Terence MacDonough, a prominent Catholic lawyer. His best friend was fellow-harper and drinking companion Charles MacCabe; Carolan a fervent Catholic; made pilgrimage to Lough Derg where reportedly be recognised the hand of his first love Bridget helping him from the boat; funeral attended by 60 members of the Catholic clergy; returned to the MacDermott Roes; forsaw his own death and that of their daughter; composed his “Farewell to Music”. Moore Abbey, formerly the home of Count John McCormack, is now devoted to the mentally handicapped. Books Listed Collins Press, Cork [www.collinspress.com]
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