Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 372 - 31 March 2007
Kicking a Dead Horse by Sam Shepard
Paperback; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 9 UK
This striking new play tells the story of one man’s quest for authenticity. The play continues Dublin’s Abbey Theatre’s exploration of Sam Shepard’s work and the theatre’s commitment to Shepard as one of the most important playwrights of his generation. The play was written for the Abbey Theatre and the celebrated Irish actor Stephen Rea, and was first performed on the Abbey’s Peacock Stage on 12 March, 2007.
Casement by Angus Mitchell
Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 11 UK; 186 pages [Add To Basket]
Roger Casement (1864-1916) is remembered in England as a "traitor", but passionately revered in Ireland as a founding father of the Irish State. By 1913, with an international reputation as a savior of the oppressed in Africa and South America, Sir Roger Casement resigned from the Foreign Office and devoted himself openly to the cause of Irish independence. He was a founder of the Irish Volunteers and soon after the outbreak of World War I traveled to Germany to seek international guarantees for Irish independence. Returning to Ireland in 1916, he was arrested on the eve of the Easter Rising, given a state trial in London and executed for high treason. Since his execution, Roger Casement’s place in history has become a riddle entwined in the waging of war followed by the delicate negotiation of peace that has defined Anglo-Irish politics. Was Roger Casement’s rebellious nature motivated as much by his ‘incorrigible’ Irishness as by his exposure of the appalling crimes against humanity that he witnessed in Africa and South America?
Wilde by Jonathan Fryer
Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 11 UK; 160 pages
This is one title in a series of short, illustrated biographies. They tell the stories of those who have shaped our present and our past, from Beethoven to Dietrich and from Einstein to Churchill. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), self-styled master of the "bon mot" turned Victorian bogeyman, was resurrected by a more liberal age as St Oscar, slayer of the dragons of pomposity, hypocrisy and cant. The big Irishman with the golden tongue had posthumously proved that the world is not black and white. His wit and paradoxes were understood as profound and moral and his best plays were recognized as gems of English comedy. As unrepentant Wildean Jonathan Fryer shows, Wilde had a genius for extremes. Only the mediocre and the tedious were excluded.
For the Love of My Mother by J.P. Rodgers
Trade Paperback; Publishers Recommended Price: 20 Euro. Read Ireland Book Review Special Price: 16 Euro / 21 USD / 12 UK; 410 pages [Add To Basket]
"For the Love of My Mother" is the tragic and uplifting story of one Irish mother and her son. Born into a life of poverty and detained at the tender age of two for begging in the streets, Bridget Rodgers proceeded to spend the next 30 years of her life locked away in one institution or another. The orphanage came first but after being raped and falling pregnant, she was sent to a home for unmarried mothers where she gave birth, had her son taken away from her and then was sent to one of the infamous Magdalen Laundries. And that really is only the beginning of the story. A truly gripping tale told by the son she thought she'd lost for ever, it is a story of triumphing over poverty, a tale of hope when there seems to be none, and a tribute to a mother's love for her son.
Ireland: This Land is Ours by Lewis Elia
Trade Paperback; 20 Euro / 26 USD / 13 UK; 250 pages
Michael Davitt was born in Straide, County Mayo, Ireland in 1846 at the height of the "Great Hunger". Overcoming many hardships, he rose to become an international figure and one of Ireland's most beloved patriots. This fictionalized biography brings back to life the beginning of the fight for Irish independence. Travel the journey with Michael Davitt as he struggles to break the power of the landlords and take Ireland out of the feudal system imposed upon the country by the British aristocracy.
Empire of Analogies: Kipling, India and Ireland by Kaori Nagai
Hardback; 40 Euro / 52 USD / 28 UK; 190 pages
Starting from the analysis of the Irish characters in Kipling's Indian stories, this book shows that the representation of the British Empire was greatly indebted to analogies and comparisons made between colonies. It contrasts two different ways of making colonial analogies: 'imperialist' and 'nationalist'. Kipling, as a young journalist, was keenly aware of the fact that Indian and Irish nationalists drew analogies between each other's colonial situation to make the case for self-government and British misrule, and his repeated emphasis on Irish participation in the Raj can be seen as a powerful 'imperialist' counter-representation to these subversive analogies. With this framework in mind, this book traces how Kipling's representation of Empire changed over time as he moved away from India and also how the hegemony of British imperialism faltered toward the end of the nineteenth century. This book makes a major contribution to post-colonialism studies in general and to the comparative study of Ireland and India in particular.
Ireland Painted by Marie Hennessy
Small Gift Hardback; 10 Euro / 13.50 USD / 7 UK; 72 pages, with full colour illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
Paintings are the ideal form in which to capture the lush green landscapes, the barren wildness and the ever-changing skies of Ireland. They are soft and atmospheric, or wild and moody, like the place they describe. Here, the artist paints the landscape she knows intimately. From Antrim to Wexford, Kerry to Mayo, she encapsulates the feel of Ireland through its well-known places and its obscure, secret corners. The pictures are enhanced by an evocative text which captures the essence of the land and its people.
Living and Working in Ireland 2ed by Joe Laredo
Large Format Paperback; 23 Euro / 30 USD / 16 UK; 555 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is the most comprehensive guide available to anyone hoping or planning to live in Ireland.
Irish-English Dictionary from Geddes & Grosset
Small Format with Plastic Cover; 6 Euro / 9 USD / 4 UK [Add To Basket]
A new compact Irish-English dictionary with over 20,000 heardwords.
New in Paperback:
The Emergency: Neutral Ireland 1939-45 by Brian Girvin
Paperback; 14 Euro / 19 USD / 10 UK; 385 pages [Add To Basket]
Brian Girvin has written a fresh and original history of Ireland between 1939 and 1945. Drawing on new sources and recent scholarship, he tells the story of what is known as The Emergency in Ireland, but elsewhere as the Second World War. Despite Ireland still being a member of the Commonwealth, Eamon de Valera refused to join the war against Nazi Germany and declared his country neutral. This decision, Girvin concludes, cost de Valera his ultimate prize: a united Ireland. Woven into this political maelstrom are the stories of the people who lived through those years, those that went against the Government and fought for the allies and those, who even if they disagreed, were not easily allowed to express that opinion.
Gregory Carr, Independent Bookseller
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