Read Ireland Book News - Issue 26
<-- [Back To Main Menu] 1. Children of "The Troubles": Our Lives in the Crossfire of Northern Ireland by Laurel Holliday (hardback; 14.30 Irish pounds / 21.45 US Dollars approximately) [Add To Basket]
In this remarkable book, the author presents a moving and powerful collection of young people's struggles throughout three decades of violence in Northern Ireland. In personal stories, poems, and diaries, Irish writers share for the first time their memories of growing up during "the Troubles." More than sixty Catholic and Protestant children, teenagers and adults chronicle their tragic, poignant, sometimes funny, sometimes bitter coming-of-age experiences in the war zone of Northern Ireland. from the bomb-devastated ruins of Belfast to the terrorist-ridden countryside. For the first time in 30 years there is some hope for an end to the murders and bombings that have killed more than 3,100 people and wounded more than 40,000. But the ravages of war remain indelibly etched on the minds and souls of the generation known as children of "the Troubles."
2. The Boss: Charles Haughey by Joe Joyce and Peter Murtagh (pb; 7.99 IRP / 12.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Of Charles Haughey's three periods as Taoiseach between 1979 and 1992, none was more eventful or more controversial than his nine months in office in 1982 which sowed the seeds of his eventual downfall.
This book is a detailed account of that time which broke new ground when first published in 1983, has become a classic book about Irish politics and was voted by Irish politicians as the best ever Irish political book in a 1996 booksellers' survey.
Now that Haughey's political career is being reassessed after his exposure as a liar at a judicial tribunal, this book is more than ever essential reading. With a new introduction by the authors and a foreword by broadcaster and author John Bowman, this book must be read by anyone who wants to understand the political career of Charles Haughey and the atmosphere of charisma and menace that marked his periods in power.
3. Celtic Pilgrimages: Sites, Seasons and Saints by Elaine Gill and David Everett (hardback; 18.99 IRP / 28.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The significance of Celtic traditions and the association with pilgrimage and its destinations were vital to our ancestors, and the Celtic saints and sites in particular were - and still are - especially important.
This fascinating book explains all the aspects of Celtic pilgrimage. The sense of adventure into the unknown, intrinsic to Celtic myth and legend, will make the reader want to visit many of the places in Ireland, Britain and Brittany described here.
Divided into thirteen sections, equivalent to the weeks between the four major festivals of the Celtic calendar, but adapted for modern readers using the twelve calendar months, this book is both practical and inspiring. The text is enhanced by the magnificent illustrations of celebrated modern Celtic artist Courtney Davis.
4. Ashes by Gerard Hannan (paperback; 6.99 IRP / 10.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
Ghostly voices from the lanes of Limerick rise from the ashes to tell the real story of growing up poor in the rain-sodden town in the aftermath of a world war.
The real story of the boys from the lanes is one of sacrifice and hard knocks, of widespread poverty but with a spirit of community to overcome a shared deprivation and strive for a better future.
The boys from the lanes follow a prevailing and persuasive political philosophy, courting condemnation and even death in a bid to end the bitter poverty of their youth.
Instead of saving to escape to America, the real boys from the lanes joined the IRA and fought to achieve their vision of freedom. For the first time, their story is told in this book, a chronicle of life in the Limerick of the post-war years, when hundreds of thousands packed the city streets for the funeral of Republican volunteer Sean South who was killed in action in Northern Ireland.
5. The Lost Distilleries of Ireland by Brian Townsend (hardback; 19.25 IRP / 28.90 USD) [Add To Basket]
Ireland's distilling heritage is richer and more varied than Scotland's and yet it is the later Celtic country which now boasts the greatest concentration of whiskey-making infrastructure in the world. In this book, whiskey historian and journalist Brian Townsend takes the reader on a journey to the last vestiges of what was once the greatest whiskey-producing country in the world. In so doing, we not only share a nostalgic experience with him but also learn many of the reasons as to why the Irish whiskey industry declined so rapidly and with such catastrophic results. The vast distilling complexes which grew up in Dublin in the 18th and 19th centuries such as Bow Street, Thomas Street and John's Lane are revisited and vestiges of them all are to be found, albeit many of them sad and pitiful.
In rural Ireland, Brusna Distillery (better known as Locke's) looks more hopeful with sympathetic owners who would like to re-establish distilling there again. Lesser-known distilleries such as Birr in County Offaly, Nun's Island in County Galway and Comber in County Down are also detailed. A picture emerges of an island once awash with distilling plants but which now can only boast activity at Midleton in County Cork, Old Bushmills in County Antrim and at Cooley Distillery at Dundalk.
The answers to Ireland's decline in distilling heritage are to be found in the pages of this book which looks at over 25 of the larger concerns that managed to survive through the better part of the 19th century until succumbing to the inevitable in the 20th. Also, information on some 15 largely forgotten concerns such as Burt, Westport, Shee's and Dodder Bank is published, much of it for the first time.
This book is a tribute to all those who once stoked the furnaces in the kilns, charged the stills, collected the spirit and who helped make Irish whiskey the most popular drink in the world. Contains numerous black-and-white photographs.
6. An Irish Boyhood by William Magan (hardback; 16.99 IRP / 25.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
Here is social history come alive in a charming account of a boy's intimate impressions and recollections of Irish life 80 years ago, the first in a trilogy of collected memoirs of William Magan's long, eventful life.
A kaleidoscope of memories emerge, viewed like an old sepia film, suffused in the wonderment of childhood. The ordered life of a privileged Ascendancy family - joyous sibling games and pastimes, the intriguing remoteness of parents, the beloved and indispensable Family governess "Minnar", nights hiding under the bedclothes as the Dublin express thundered by or moments spend straddling the front wall to watch in mute wonder the Bible-black solemnity of passing funerals.
This book lovingly recreates this bygone era amid a wider world of turmoil and violence as both the Great War and the struggle for Irish independence took their toll. Heart-warming and eloquent, the memories evoked are an unmissable delight.
7. The Star Factory by Ciaran Carson (hardback; 15.40 IRP / 23.10 USD) [Add To Basket]
In this highly original prose book which combines autobiography, oral history and reportage, the author takes the reader on a journey through his own memories of growing up, and through the divided city of Belfast. This meandering and haunted memoir is structured by stories that weave in and out of each other. Carson touches everywhere on associations with his own past and with the history of the city; mad coincidences open new 'wormholes of memory', detours lead into danger and revelation. He understands the beauty of abandoned factories, old radios, stamps, films, trams and railways, faded photographs, and the myth of the Titanic, the differences between the English and Irish languages (he grew up in an Irish-speaking family), his father's voice, and even of the brooding waste ground between the Catholic Falls and the Protestant Shankill.
Special Offers
The Grand Irish Tour by Peter Somerville-Large with Photographs by Mark Fiennes (hardback; Original price: 19.99 IRP / Sale Price: 8.99 IRP / 13.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The author's 'grand tour' was a slow wander around Ireland during the course of a year. This book is its record. In it he has evoked the landscapes and townscapes, the people, and the different memories that make up Ireland. He weaves together an opinionated, vivid, wonderfully sharp eye-witness impressions as he takes the reader through Killarney and Cork, Limerick and Galway, Killala and Sligo, Drogheda and Wexford, Ballyshannon and Bushmills, Downpatrick and Antrim. The author has an ideally acute eye and ear for the Irish peculiarity or charm or disagreeableness. The book is funny, touching, beautifully descriptive, eccentric; it contains numerous black-and-white photographs: a classic!
Heritage of Ireland by Brian de Breffny (hardback; Original price: 19.99 IRP / Sale Price: 8.99 IRP / 13.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
In this book the author traces the history of Ireland, covering the island's geological origins and earliest known settlers, the Norman invasions, Cromwell's conquest, the rise of Nationalism, emigration to America, Sinn Fein and modern industrial Ireland and her place in Europe. The author's knowledge of the changing social and religious life of the Irish people, their writings, their building and their crafts, makes this book much more than a history, and enables the reader to gleam a colourful and intricate understanding of a fascinating land. The book is richly illustrated with 16 pages of colour photographs and 100 black-and-white illustrations and photographs.
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