Read Ireland Book News - Issue 6
<-- [Back To Main Menu] 1. The Untouchable by John Banville (hardback; 16.65 Irish pounds/26.50 US dollars approximately) [Add To Basket]
Victor Maskell has been betrayed. After the announcement in the British House of Commons, the hasty revelation of his double, if not quadruple, life of wartime espionage, his blurry photograph is all over the papers. His disgrace is public, his knighthood revoked, his position as curator of the Queen's pictures terminated. His exposure, after a lifetime of hiding, leaves him with a painful consciousness of his age, and at the same time a curious feeling of rebirth, of being at the threshold of a new life.
"Why did you do it?" asks Miss Vandeleur, intending, she says, to write a book about him. Instead, Maskell sits down to write his own testament, in an act not unlike the restoration of one of his beloved pictures, stripping away layers of grime and varnish left by a lifetime of dissembling, in order for the process of verification and attribution to begin. There are questions to be answered. For whom has he been sacrificed, and to what has he sacrificed his life?
John Banville has created an unforgettable and breathtakingly vivid picture of a double life lived at the heart of this century. He deals with the most persuasive themes of our times with unerring depth and a rare understanding. This novel is remarkable, a complete and complex achievement that confirms John Banville's position as one of our greatest living novelists.
2. Fianna Fail and Irish Labour: 1926 to the Present by Kieran Allen (paperback; 13.50 IRP/22.60 US$ aprox) [Add To Basket]
Fianna Fail has been the major political party in the Republic of Ireland since the 1930s. Alongside the Catholic Bishops, it became one of the main pillars of conservatism in the country and, claiming to represent the 'plain people of Ireland', it fostered an image of a national community which was unsullied by class division.
In this new history of Fianna Fail from its earliest days, the author challenges the conventional view of the party, arguing that its primary aim was to establish a native Irish business elite and that it has shown little interest in ending partition. Throughout its history, Fianna Fail has prided itself on a special relationship with union leaders. Allen reveals that this partnership actually became an obstacle to an independent working-class movement. Despite its early successes, argues Allen, Fianna Fail can no longer mask the class divisions within Irish society: there is now the potential for a new Irish working class to outgrow the conservatism of Fianna Fail.
3. Great Irish Speeches of the Twentieth Century edited by Michael McLoughlin (paperback; 12.99 IRP/20.80 US$ aprox) [Add To Basket]
The twentieth century has seen the transformation of Ireland from a colony to a nation state, from a rural subsistence province to an export dominated urban manufacturing economy, split into two states. The changes that have taken place have all been accompanied by soul-searching, pain and oratory. This book charts the changes in 20th century Ireland through the speeches of those who shaped its destiny at home and abroad. Every major event, North and South is introduced and then described through the oratory of a contemporary leader. The subjects covered include the First World War, the Easter Rising, the War of Independence, the Civil War and the Second World War. Threaded throughout the book is the influence of th Catholic Church, the aspirations of nationalists and unionists in the North, and the way others see the Irish - from Winston Churchill to Bill Clinton, from John F. Kennedy to Pope John Paul II.
4. From Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles by Niall O Dochartaigh (paperback; 15.95 IRP/25.50 US$ aprox) [Add To Basket]
This book describes and analyses political changes in Derry from the beginning of the civil rights movement in 1968 to the height of the 'Troubles' in 1972. The author examines how, during those early years, conditions were created for a protracted conflict.
The situation in Northern Ireland is distinguished above all by its duration. After rapidly pitching forward towards full-scale civil war in the early 1970s, the conflict was stabilised and brought under control. Despite predictions that the conflict would gradually dissipate it has persisted for over two decades.
The city of Derry has been a principal focus for the conflict. It was in Derry that the first rioting broke out, Derry which was the focus for the early civil rights campaign and to Derry that the first British troops were sent in August 1969. By analysing the development and escalation of the conflict in Derry this book provides a detailed examination of a number of broader issues. It seeks to explain how the civil rights campaign was superseded by a conflict; how large sections of the Catholic community became actively hostile to the Northern Ireland state; how the Protestant community was transformed by events and why the British army became a major party to the conflict. Ultimately, it illustrates the way in which complex and durable relationships of confrontation were established, and how these relationships created a political framework within which conflict could be sustained for decades.
The book concludes with a powerful analysis of wider issues in the North such as the perception of loyalty, consent, policing and law and order. It is a micro-study with implications for explaining the complex political map of the North.
6. Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism by Feargal Cochrane (paperback; 17.95 IRP/28.70 US£ aprox) [Add To Basket]
This book is the first and most comprehensive study of unionist politics since the Anglo-Irish Agreement and sets out to explain the dynamics which underpin contemporary unionist political behaviour. An understanding of the mindset, fears and objectives of the largest political community in Northern Ireland is crucial to any attempt to address and resolve the political conflict in the region. This book concentrates on the period preceding the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 15 November 1985 through to the forum elections and multi-party talks of July 1996.
In this contemporary history of Ulster, the author examines the response to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the tensions this created both within and between the main unionist parties and the evolution of the unionist political strategy after the failure of the campaign against the Agreement. In addition to explaining what happened to his period, the book analyses why the unionist political community behaved the way it did, provides an account of James Molyneaux's political downfall, and gives the first serious evaluation of David Trimble's performance as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
7. Banished Babies: The Secret History of Ireland's Baby Export Business by Mike Milotte (paperback; 7.99 IRP/12.80 US$ aprox) [Add To Basket]
The story of a baby traffic organised by nuns, sanctioned by an archbishop, administered by civil servants and approved by politicians whose main concern was secrecy. Written by a senior Radio Telefis Eireann current affairs reporter who began to unravel the story in a television documentary last year, he has now gained access to hundreds of confidential files for this book.
Blending personal stories in his account, the author reveals how the state colluded with the Church agencies to facilitate the export of 'illegitimate' children, and how a black market existed in which Irish babies changed hands beyond the fringes of the official 'export scheme.'
In this hard-hitting book, Mike Milotte explains in vivid details how thousands of babies came to be exiled.
8. Dictionary of Irish Literature 2nd edition, 2-volume set edited by Robert Hogan (hardback; 99.50 IRP/160 US$ aprox) [Add To Basket]
Ireland has produced one of the most remarkable bodies of literature in the world. Many Irish authors, such as Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, and James Joyce are among the most widely read and closely studied writers in the English language. The Irish Literary Renaissance during the earlier decades of the 20th century prompted authors to incorporate traditional Irish myths and legends in their works, and the last fifteen years has witnessed a dramatic explosion of publishing activity in Ireland.
This second edition of the Dictionary of Irish Literature has been fully revised and updated, and is a considerable expansion of the original volume. Through hundred of entries the work provides biographical facts, critical interpretation, and extensive bibliographical information for all significant Irish writers past and present.
Nearly twice as many entries as in the first edition are included, along with current bibliographical material for all authors. Many of the new entries discuss writers who have emerged during the last fifteen years, but a substantial number of entries cover earlier authors who were omitted from the first edition. Introductory material discusses the principal themes of Irish writing and the history of Irish Literature, and a chronology which provides a literary and historical time-frame for the work.
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