Read Ireland Book News - Issue 29
<-- [Back To Main Menu] 1. New Irish Cooking: Recipes from Dublin's Peacock Alley by Conrad Gallagher (hardback; 19.99 Irish pounds / 30.00 US Dollars approximately) [Add To Basket]
This book explains how this innovative chef's new cooking style works, and how it can be adapted for home use. He starts with a respect for the produce, buying only the very best. Then he mixes flavours in stunning and unexpected ways. As he says: "I want to cook food that is interesting, I want four or five flavours on the plate - there are no boundaries."
In the course of preparing this book, the author and his partner Domini Kemp took the essence of his signature dishes, and tested them with the apparatus and equipment typically available in a domestic kitchen. Every recipe was adjusted and refined so it could readily be cooked at home, and yet reain the bravura and kaleidoscope of the originals.
The result is a book for cooks, and also for those who simply like to read about food and cooking. The author has worked in some of the leading restaurants and hotels in the world - the Trump Plaze, Le Cirque and the Waldorf Astoria in New York, and the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo where he worked with the famous Alain Ducasse. He has received numerous awards for his innovative cooking, and his Peacock Alley is one of Dublin's leading restaurants. Contains over 20 colour pictures.
2. Sparrow's Trap by O'Carroll (pb; 5.99 IRP / 9.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Dublin boxer Sparrow McCabe has the Spanish contender on the floor. The World Featherweight title is his for the taking. But something stops Sparrow from throwing that final punch and suddenly it's all over.
Fifteen years later Sparrow is working as a driver for gangster Simon Williams, trying to turn a blind eye to the scams, the extortion rackets and the rough justice handed out by Williams and his heavies.
Then murder enters the picture and Sparrow decides to take a stand. This is one fight he cannon lose. O'Carroll is a natural storyteller. He came to fame as Ireland's most outrageous comedian, and has achieved huge success as an author with his best-selling Mrs. Brown trilogy: The Mammy, The Chisellers and The Ganny. This morality tale will have a wide appeal.
3. Irish Churches and Monasteries: an Historical and Architectural Guide by Sean D. O'Reilly (paperback; 7.99 IRP / 12.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
From simple drystone oratory to imposing Gothic cathedral, the church building tradition in Ireland embraces fifteen centuries of Christianity, and is a proud and enduring monument to the religious dedication of the Irish people. But it is also a tradition bound in with the events of Ireland's troubled history, a sequence that includes the contribution of potent outside forces. In this interesting and informative book, the author has selected for description forty venues from the monastic/church scene that are accessible to visitors, and that may be regarded as representative of the main trends in church building over the whole course of Ireland's Christian era. The result is an introductory illustrated synthesis of the historical, architectural and descriptive aspects of the subject from the sixth century until today. The treatment of historical and architectural detail does not take from the fact that each venue described has its own unique features. Each church has its own decor, furnishings, and memorials; its own architects, patrons, sculptors and artists. All form an integral part of the story. Contains numerous black-and-white photographs throughout.
4. Paddy's People by Paddy O'Gorman (paperback; 7.99 IRP / 12.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Ashkey, the junkie prostitute of Dublin's Benburb Street; Big John, the Connie, Armagh, and the rest of the building workers in Germany; Dee, West Cork's tranvestite hippy; the perverts of Kilkenny; the drug-dealers of Cork and Belfast ... these are some of Paddy's people.
Since 1984, Paddy O'Gorman has had remarkable success and popularity as a broadcaster and journalist. He is never detached or disinterested. He is passionate, comical and prejudiced; his feelings show. Perhaps that's why the poorest and most despised of Irish society talk to him as they will talk to no one else. This book contains their stories.
5. The Promise by Mary Ryan (hardback; 16.99 IRP / 25.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
Irish best-selling romance author Mary Ryan has written another powerful story: a novel which movingly explores thoughts, emotions and lives.
Enjoying his student days in Florence, Colm becomes friends with Robin, a rootless American girl. In the intense embrace of youth they are able to help each other face the horror of their pasts. Before parting, they promise to meet again in Florence on Colm's 50th birthday/
In the autumn of 1996 Colm is travelling back to Florence, nursing a failed marriage, burdened with the recall of events he wants to forget, and half remembering the promise of a tryst made 28 years earlier.
This time, in the heat and shade of Florence, darker memories will stir. The mature man will see the city and its citizens Ð particularly Paola, his calm and alluring landlady and her studious, ailing son Ð with a different and more sensitive eye. His is a journey of self-discovery, love and absolution.
6. God and the Gun: The Church and Irish Terrorism by Martin Dillon (hardback; 19.90 IRP / 29.85 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book, astonishing and terrifying in its revelations, is the first of its kind to examine the role of religion in Northern Ireland by talking directly to those involved: to the churchmen and the terrorists. It shows how religious conditioning and history lead inexorably to political violence. It asks Roman Catholic and Protestant paramilitaries how they can reconcile murder with their Christian convictions, and what the men of God should Ð or could Ð do to stop the killing.
The author talks to Kenny McClinton, a convicted murder who once advocated beheading Roman Catholics and impaling their heads on railings; to Billy Wright, loyalist hard man who spurned terrorism to walk with Christ until the 'betrayal' of the Anglo-Irish peace agreement turned him back to paramilitary activity whatever the cost to his soul; to motherly Eileen, a leading member of the women's arm of the IRA; and to Father Pat Buckley Ð prepared to break the confessional seal to save a Unionist Member of Parliament under threat of assassination but also to smuggle a Republican prisoner's wife across the Irish border.
Informed by his own experience, the author shows how historical injustices and religious divisions have led to the current situation. He charts the history of the paramilitary forces on both side of the political divide as well as the wavering attitudes of religious leaders and politicians towards them. Dillon exposes the shocking covert role of British intelligence in the conflict. He points the finger at those who he feels are to blame: the Church and governments who have failed their communities, allowing the men and women of violence to fill the vacuum with bigotry and bullets.
7. Atlas of Irish History edited by Sean Duffy (paperback; 9.99 IRP / 15.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This is the first full-colour atlas of Ireland's history from earliest times right up to the present day. Using a combination of colour illustrations and specially commissioned maps, it is a superb graphic illustrations of the Irish past.
The text, written by six scholars Ð all experts in their respective fields Ð gives an integrated overview of Irish history. The maps and text combine to cover subjects as diverse as the spread of christianity; the nature of Norman colonialisation; the impact of the Reformation; the Elizabethan, Cromwellian and Williamite wars; the revival of the Catholic church; the Famine; the rise of nationalism; and the development of the Northern Ireland troubles.
The maps do not simply illustrate the text: the complement it and make the information live for the readers. As a comprehensive and vital survey of the major events in Irish history this atlas has nothing to rival it.
8. Big Little Book of Irish Wit and Wisdom (hardback; 9.99 IRP / 15.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
In this delightful compendium, you'll find words to warm you on many a cold evening, insights as illuminating as a full moon on a dark night, and humour to smooth your path through life's little ups and downs.
A beguiling blend of whimsy and wisdom, sharp-edged satire and comforting sense, this book gloriously captures the spirit of the Emerald Isle and the love of language for which the Irish are so justly admired. The book contains an array that ranges from traditional words of thanks and prayers for Divine intervention to a humble charm to cure an aching back and a blessing to be said when taking snuff at a wake. Ireland's rich folk wisdom, shared through generations, is here too, in 50 pithy and pointed proverbs, that are as relevant today as they were centuries ago. With full colour drawings throughout.
<-- [Back To Main Menu]