Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 376 - 5 May 2007
Irish History
1916: The Long Revolution edited by Gabriel Doherty and Dermot Keogh
Trade Paperback; 20 Euro / 27 USD / 14 UK; 480 pages
This book seeks to interpret the events of Easter Week 1916 as the central defining event of a 'long revolution' in Irish history. The origins of the long revolution lie in the second half of the nineteenth century, and its legacy is still being played out in the first years of the twenty-first century. Acknowledged experts on specific topics seek to explore the layered domestic and international, political, legal and moral aspects of this uniquely influential and controversial event. The contributors are: Rory O' Dwyer, Michael Wheatley, Brendan O'Shea and Gerry White, D.G. Boyce, Francis M. Carroll, Rosemary Cullen Owens, Jerome aan de Wiel, Adrian Hardiman, Keith Jeffrey, Mary McAleese, Owen McGee, Seamus Murphy, and Brian P. Murphy.
Comrades: Inside the War of Independence by Annie Ryan
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 19 USD / 11 UK; 278 pages [Add To Basket]
The period leading up to Ireland gaining independence remains hugely popular with readers both at home and abroad. The success of the film The Wind That Shakes the Barley has served further to ignite interest in those turbulent years. Comrades: Inside the War of Independence, a companion volume to the hugely successful Witnesses: Inside the Easter Rising, (also available for sale from Read Ireland for the same price) draws on official witness statements taken in the late 1940s and only released to the public in 2002. In its judicious use of the statements given by the foot-soldiers and second-line participants in the War of Independence, the book provides a unique perspective on the events of the War of Independence. Annie Ryan organises the events geographically and includes a chapter on the significant role played by women throughout the conflict. The flying columns, the ambushes, the activities of the Black and Tans and the reprisals are all vividly outlined through the voices of the protagonists, who recollect their roles, great and small, in the struggle that ultimately led to the Treaty negotiations and the establishment of the Irish Free State. Rare and unpublished images serve to illustrate the events and the book features a foreword by well-known historian and author Dr.Diarmuid Ferriter.
Easter 1916: Birth of the Irish Republic by Michael McNally
Trade Paperback; 21 Euro / 26 USD / 14 UK; 100 pages with full colour and black-and-white photos throughout
When the outbreak of World War I delayed home rule for Ireland, a faction of Irish nationalists - the Irish Republican Brotherhood - decided to take direct action. On Easter Monday 1916, a rebellion was launched from the steps of the Dublin General Post Office and Patrick Pearse proclaimed the existence of an Irish Republic and the establishment of a Provisional Government. The British response was a military one and over the next five days they drove the rebels back in violent street fighting until the Provisional Government surrendered on 29 April. Central Dublin was left in ruins. Covering in detail this important milestone in the ongoing Anglo-Irish struggle, bestselling author Michael McNally thoroughly examines the politics and tactics employed, to provide a well-researched study of the roots and outcome of this conflict. Furthermore, the array of unique photographs depicting this calamitous event help to bring to life one of the key episodes that shaped Irish history.
On a Rock in the Middle of the Ocean: Songs and Singers in Tory Island by Lillis O’Laoire
Hardback; 35 Euro / 45 USD / 28 UK; 350 pages [Add To Basket]
It has been said that true music repeats the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. In Ireland, music infiltrates many aspects of our lives and our culture, although this fact often goes unremarked. This inspirational book explores the topic of music, and its meaning within a particular society. Tory Island, the island of the uncrowned king, lies off the north west coast of Donegal. Although small in size, the island is privileged to be the bearer of an extensive singing tradition which dates back over 200 years, and remains an integral part of the island’s cultural infrastructure today. This book explores the place of music, specifically singing, within Tory’s society and beyond, placing a particular emphasis on its meaning and purpose for the community who have kept it alive. With up to eighty photographs, this is an essential buy for all those with an interest in the singing and musical traditions of Ireland. Insightful and unique, it uncovers the cultural treasure that is the living heritage of the Tory Islanders.
Cumann na mBan and the Irish Revolution by Cal McCarthy
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 11 UK; 276 pages
Cumann na mBan, a women's support group to the Irish Volunteers, was founded in 1914. Nationalist in outlook, its aims centred on arming Irish men, generating propaganda and presenting a united Irish opposition to English rule. The Free State government's awareness of Cumann na mBan's assistance to the IRA after the 1916 Rising resulted in large-scale imprisonment of republican women during the Civil War. But, for a time at least, Cumann na mBan had placed equality for women on the political agenda and demonstrated women could be as politically active and capable as men.
That Neutral Island: A Cultural History of Ireland During the Second World War b Claire Wills
Large Trade Paperback; 20 Euro / 27 USD / 15 UK; 502 pages
Despite Winston Churchill's best efforts to the contrary, the Irish premier Eamon de Valera stuck rigidly to Ireland's right to remain outside a conflict in which it had no enemies. Accusations of betrayal and hypocrisy poisoned the airwaves and the printed media; legends of Nazi spies roaming the country freely made Ireland seem a haven for Hitler's friends. This is the background to Clair Wills' brilliant and ground-breaking book. Where previous histories of Ireland in the war years have focused on high politics, "That Neutral Island" mines deeper layers of experience. Sean O'Faolain, Kate O'Brien, Elizabeth Bowen, Flann O'Brien and Louis MacNeice are a few of the writers whose stories, letters and diaries are used to illuminate this small country as it lived under rationing, heavy censorship, the threat of invasion and a strange state of detachment from the real world of the war.
Irish Regiments in the World Wars by David Murphy
Trade Paperback; 17 Euro / 21 USD / 12 UK; [Add To Basket]
The tens of thousands of Irish soldiers who fought in the British Army in World War I gained a fierce fighting reputation, distinguishing themselves at Ypres, Gallipoli, the Somme, and Palestine. Despite the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, Irishmen continued to volunteer for the British Army in World War II. Again their war record was distinguished; units included the famous 38th Irish Brigade who fought in North Africa and Italy, and the Irish Guards who won a total of two Victoria Crosses, 33 Military Crosses and 90 other military medals. Providing the first concise, illustrated history of the Irish Regiments in both World Wars, this book covers their uniforms and insignia, as well as battle histories and proud service records.
The Telling Year: Belfast 1972 by Malachi O’Doherty
Trade Paperback; 17 Euro / 23 USD / 13 UK; 236 pages [Add To Basket]
The world running out of fresh vegetables. The Irish don’t like yoghurt. The Chamber of Commerce say ‘no’ to Portadown hotelier because she is a woman. (Mind you, she looks good in her hot pants. This is the North in 1972 and journalists previously employed on such frothy stories as these, now have the job of reporting the Saturday night bombings and the barricading of the ghettos. One of those reporters, Malachi O’Doherty, goes home to streets patrolled by Provo gunmen. The army and the IRA hold fire to let his mother walk to work between them. The moralistic columnists on the paper he works for, The Sunday News, say the IRA is ‘a disease carrying vermin’ and Malachi wonders if he is infected. The question of where a young man fits in between these equally absurd and opposed worlds, is a moral challenge that faces O’Doherty as Belfast inches inexorably and indulgently towards civil war. But first there are stories to write and even a bear to fight. Will Ulster Vanguard declare UDI? Who is dumping bodies in back alleys? Will the girl in the boutique get her tits out for the photographer? How much more of this can a man take?
Available Again:
Eyewitness to Irish History by Peter Beresford Ellis
Trade Paperback; 17 Euro / 22 USD / 13 UK; 312 pages [Add To Basket]
It is easy to see why Ireland has produced so many notable storytellers, poets, and historians. It has a rich oral and written history stretching back over three thousand years. More important, it has what may be the oldest vernacular literature of Europe. The Irish have been writing eloquently in the language spoken by the common people for more than fourteen hundred years–despite concerted efforts by the English, beginning with Henry VIII, to extinguish the Irish language and deny the people any formal education.
A unique documentary history of Irish civilization from ancient times to the present, Eyewitness to Irish History draws upon original source materials to capture the tumultuous events and distinctive texture of Irish history like no other book. Comparing the readings compiled here to snapshots, the renowned Celtic scholar Peter Berresford Ellis offers what, in essence, is a family photo album of Ireland and the Irish people–beginning with Golamh, the legendary leader of the band of Iberian Celts who settled the island more than three thousand years ago, as told in the Lebor Gabála Erenn, or Book of Invasions, and concluding with gripping firsthand accounts by those on both sides of the bloody civil conflict in Northern Ireland.
From the codification of the Irish laws by the poet Ollamh Fodhla in the eighth century b.c.e. to the defeat of the Vikings by High King Brian Boiroihme in 1014 c.e., from the English Tudor conquests of the sixteenthcentury to the Easter Uprising of 1916 and the subsequent establishment of the Irish Free State, virtually every major event is covered here in texts ranging from ancient forsundun (praise songs) and the hero kings to newspaper accounts, public decrees, and even graffiti. At the same time, you’ll find vivid portraits of everyday life in Ireland throughout the centuries as chronicled in everything from St. Patrick’s confessions to heartrending accounts of the famine of 1848 to the letters, diaries, and memoirs of a vast and multifarious array of authors.
The story of Ireland as told through the words of those who actually lived it, Eyewitness to Irish History offers you an unparalleled opportunity to experience the grand sweep of one of the world’s most ancient and vital civilizations.
New in Paperback:
The Emergency: Neutral Ireland 1939-1945 by Brian Grivin
Trade Paperback; 13 Euro / 17 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. To the endless frustration and anger of Churchill - and later Roosevelt - de Valera pursued an isolationist policy that changed the course of Irish domestic and foreign politics. In this brilliantly argued history, Girvin shows how this policy went against the national interest, and far from being the only option for the Government, was simply the only one they would consider. 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. Using personal testimonies of these people brings the feel and shape of those times readily to life. Bold, fearless and compelling, "The Emergency" is a unique and important addition to any understanding of Ireland and the Second World War.
Gregory Carr, Independent Bookseller
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