Read Ireland Book News - Issue 20
<-- [Back To Main Menu] 1. Provos: The IRA and Sinn Fein by Peter Taylor (hardback; 18.70 Irish pounds / 28.00 US Dollars approximately) [Add To Basket]
Never before has an outsider had such access to record the remarkable history of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and its political wing, Sinn Fein. This book documents their dramatic beginnings to the critical juncture they have reached today.
Thirty years ago, the IRA was a fading historical memory. It had dumped its guns and embraced left wing politics. The result was that when sectarian violence erupted in 1969 and nationalist areas came under loyalist attack, only a handful of IRA veterans were on hand to defend them. Taunting graffiti read 'IRA - I ran away'. The consequences were mementous. The IRA split and the Provisional IRA was born to become the most formidable organisation of its kind in the Western World. For more than a quarter of a century the Provisionals have fought a bloody campaign, in which over 3,000 lives have been lost, to force the British government to disengage from Northern Ireland and re-unify Ireland.
Today their leaders, once branded as 'terrorists', have been feted at the White House and held talks with British Ministers. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are now Westminster Members of Parliament, steering the 'Provos' to what they hope will be an historic peace in Ireland. In a series of remarkable, first-hand interviews with the Provisionals who fought on the military and political fronts and the British who countered them, this book tells the story of the evolution of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein over 30 bloody years, from gunmen and bombers to potential statesman.
The author has reported Northern Ireland for more than 25 years and has made over 50 documentaries on the conflict.
The Magician's Wife by Brian Moore (hardback; 17.60 IRP / 26.40 USD) [Add To Basket]
From one of Ireland's most internationally-celebrated authors, this stunning new novel is set in the late 1850s in France and Algeria. It blends political intrigue, moral enquiry and the unforgettable portrait of a lady - all trademarks of Moore's award-winning fiction.
Emmeline Lambert is married to an illusionist sent by Napoleon III to persuade the Arabs - poised for holy war and in thrall to charismatic leaders - that France's might and magic are the greater. Emmeline begins to feel like an illusionist herself, when she dazzles the Emperor and then sheds her inhibitions along with flimsy notions of patriotism and propriety in the hot glare of the Algerian sun.
Power, politics, religion and love, the court of Napoleon III and the deserts of Algeria combine in this mesmerising new novel from the master storyteller.
3. The Angel Tapes by David Kelly (paperback; 6.99 IRP / 10.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
A massive bomb explodes in the heart of Dublin, killing five people and maiming many more. The bomber is threatening to strike again, this time targeting a US presidential visit. Blade Macken, detective superintendent of the Special Branch of the Irish police, is sent to investigate.
The scene is set for a bizarre heart-stopping chase to find 'Angel,' a viciously clever killer who has covered tracks like no one else throughout the grim history of terrorism. Macken, ex-soldier, boozer, deeply-flawed human being, will have to galvanise all his powers of reasoning, intuition and memory to head off an international incident that will rock the world.
A gripping thriller!
4. Boyzone: The True Story by Rob McGibbon (pb; 6.99 IRP / 10.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The definitive account of the Irish teenage heart-throbs who shot to stardom in 1994 and have had two number one albums and eight top ten singles, with 16 pages of colour illustrations.
5. Edward Carson by A.T.Q. Stewart (paperback; 9.90 IRP / 15.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book is a reissued classic: the story of Edward Carson, widely regarded as the father of Northern Ireland and still a potent figure in the unionist imagination.
Born in Dublin in 1854, Edward Carson was one of the leading barristers of his day. He practised at both the Irish and English bars, and was the relentless prosecuting counsel in the celebrated trial of Oscar Wilde.
Maintaining the Union, however, was the guiding star of his life. A Unionist MP since 1892, he first took office in 1900 as solicitor-general under Salisbury. When Asquith's 1912 Home Rule Bill was introduced he mobilised Protestant Ulster against it, playing a leading role in the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force. He hope to save all Ireland for the Union but events in the south both before and after the 1916 Easter Rising made this impossible. Regarding the partition of Ireland as a defeat, he retired from politics, disillusioned and embittered. His name, however, lives on and is still inspirational for the groupings - constitutional and paramilitary - who continue to cherish the union with Britain.
New in Paperback This Week:
Erskine Childers by Jim Ring (14.35 IRP / 21.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
An impressive and compelling life study - well researched and constructed as a narrative as gripping as one of the classic adventure novels of his hero's time.
A Year's Turning by Michael Viney (11.00 IRP / 16.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
A classic of Irish nature writing.
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