Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 379 - 26 May 2007
Recent Reprints
Irish Family Feuds: Battles Over Money, Sex and Power by Liam Collins
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 11 UK; 260 pages
Ireland is a land of feuds. People quarrel over money and love but the most destructive disputes arise when family members fall out. In this book the author explores the deeply divisive boardroom battles that have shaken some of Ireland’s wealthiest and best-known families. But it isn’t all about money and power. Passion plays its part and sometimes leaves a bitter legacy that is never healed. When a husband ran off with a younger women his scorned wife planned her revenge, taking care to cause him lasting damage. A child born to a businessman and his new mistress provoked a family feud that has lasted many generations. When sex, money and power collide, the results can be catastrophic for the feuding clan. The author looks at cases that have hit the headlines and delves into the secret world of feuding families. The first printing sold out in a few weeks and this new revised edition is likely to do the same – very quickly!
Stone Mad by Seamus Murphy
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 11 UK; 230 pages [Add To Basket]
Memories of seven years as an apprentice stonecarver by a craftsman/artist who became one of Ireland's most repsected sculptors. The young Seamus Murphy, studying modelling at the Crawford School of Art in Cork in the early 1920s, took the unusual step of apprenticing himself to a master stonecarver to learn the ancient craft of the mason. 'Stone Mad' tells the story of the seven years of growing knowledge of the challenges and joys of stone - and of the men who worked it. His artistic feeling for quality responded to his workmates' reverence for the'well-made thing', their insistence on the making of the hand before the mind and heart could properly speak. The result is a book of surpassing beauty, full of warmth, humour and perception.' A delightful and classically simple book that incidentally strikes far deeper than its subject implies. In the sharply formal conversations of the stonemen the bitter-sweet flavour of provincial Ireland is presented with neither sentiment nor adornment; there are lines to read between, and it's a pleasure to do so.' William Trevor, Guardian
Fear of the Collar: My Terrifying Chidhood in Artane by Patrick Touher
Paperback; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 9 UK
Life in Artane Industrial School was an education in cruelty and fear. Run by the Christian Brothers, the school has become synonymous with the widespread abuse of children in Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s and is currently under police investigation. Patrick Touher's story bears testament to the courage and determination of the children who were forgotten by society. Sent there at age eight, Patrick Touher spent eight long years in Artane Industrial School under the oppressive rule of the Christian Bothers.
The Irish Republic by Dorothy Macardle
Hardback; 55 Euro / 80 USD / 40 UK; 1060 pages [Add To Basket]
A complete history of the struggle that began on Easter Monday 1916, with the proclamation of the Republic and ended, or seemed to end, with the Republican defeat and cease fire order of May 24th, 1923. Dorothy Mcardle herself states, "This is not a narrative of battles and ambushes, it is with the political rather than the military aspect that the book deals". First published in 1937 and considered a seminal work of Irish nationalism and political republicanism, this edition contains the prefaces from all three previous editions as well as a new preface by Terry de Valera, son of the late Eamon de Valera.
Locke’s Distillery: A History by Andrew Bielenberg
Trade Paperback with Endflaps; 12 Euro / 15 USD / 9 UK; 124 pages, with 8-page black-and-white photo insert
Originally published in 1993 Locke's Distillery is being reissued to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the company. Despite market dominance by Scotch in this century, Irish whiskey remains its peer. Locke's Distillery has been manufacturing its famous brand of whiskey on the banks of the Brusna river in Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath, since 1757, linking Ireland's industrial past to its future. From business archives and family papers, Andy Bielenberg has written a compelling history of the fluctuating fortunes f the distillery, tracing its origins and transformations in organization through the years to its present-day revival. He surveys the buildings and machinery, the process of distillation and marketing strategies, as well as documenting the Locke family's role within the company and their contribution to the social life of the midlands. Illustrated by period photographs, portraits and trade labels, and augmented by useful tables and appendix matter, Locke's Distillery will be of keen interest to regional and economic historians, and fascinate all who savour Irish whiskey and its traditions. (Also available in Hardback, priced at 20 Euro).
Vanishing Ireland by James Fennell and Turtle Bunbury
Large Format Hardback; 30 Euro / 39 USD / 24 UK; 180 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout
"Vanishing Ireland" is a unique collection of portrait interviews looking at the dying ways and traditions of Irish life and taking us back to an Ireland virtually unrecognisable to today's post-boom generation. Illustrated with over a hundred evocative and stunning photographs, we meet the people and customs that shaped the cultural identity of the Irish nation. Through their own words and memories, sixty-four men and women transport us back to a time when people lived off the land and the sea, when music and storytelling were essential parts of life, when a person was defined by their trade. Divided into five parts - Children of the Field, Children of the Music, Children of the Horse, Children of the Trade and Children of the Water - "Vanishing Ireland" brings together the stories of those who lived through Ireland's formative years. We hear of children harassed by the Black and Tans, of ceilis in kitchens, and the rigours of working in the fields, of the wonder of electricity and the devastation of emigration. From coalminers to saddlers, farmers to fishermen, along with horse dealers, publicans, housemaids and musicians - these remarkably poignant interviews and photographs, in their simplicity and honesty, will make you laugh and cry but, above all, will provide a valuable chronicle that connects twenty-first century Ireland to a rapidly disappearing world.
British Voices from the Irish War of Independence 1918-1921 by William Sherman
Paperback; 13 Euro / 17 USD / 9 UK; 250 pages [Add To Basket]
The Irish War of Independence has generated a wealth of published material but very little from a British perspective. Many British soldiers, sailors and airmen who served in Ireland from 1918-1921 left accounts of their service. Most describe military operations, views on the IRA, the Irish, the actions of their own forces, morale and relationships with local communities. Secret contacts between the British and the IRA and the use and abuse of intelligence are described. The author has gone deep into British military archives to unearth never before published accounts.
Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge
Paperback; 10 Euro / 13 USD / 7 UK; 200 pages [Add To Basket]
The poetry of Francis Ledwidge evokes an Ireland of traditional nostalgia. But Seamus Heaney has said of Ledwidge that his fate was more complex and more modern; his moral courage alone gave him "membership in the company of the walking wounded, wherever they are to be found at any given time". He was killed in action in 1917, and Irish poet who richly deserves a place in the ranks of his British counterparts Wifred Owen, Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon.
Illustrated Favourite Poems We Learned in School by Thomas F. Walsh
Large Square Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 11 UK; 120 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
"Favourite Poems We Learned at School" and its companion volumes "More Favourite Poems We Learned at School" and "Favourite Poems We Learned at School as Gaeilge" have become enduring bestsellers in Ireland. The illustrated edition takes forty of the most popular poems from the three volumes and juxtaposes them with classic photographs of children, schoolrooms and teachers of times past - some humorous, some quirky, some poignant. The photographs are drawn from sources such as the great collections of Lawrence, Poole and Father Browne, the archives of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and from the portfolios of individual photographers, some famous, many anonymous. The anthology contains such gems as "The Village Blacksmith", "Daffodils", "Sea Fever" and "All Things Bright and Beautiful", which readers will remember with affection from their own schooldays. It is truly a collection to treasure.
An Chead Chloch by Padraic O Conaire
Paperback; 11 Euro / 15 USD / 7 UK; 105 pages [Add To Basket]
Eight short stories (in Irish) that deal with themes of tragic love, jealousy, betrayal and displacement. A classic of Irish literature.
Diamonds and Hole in My Shoes: A Memoir by Deirdre Purcell
Paperback; 9 Euro / 13 USD / 6 UK; 354 pages [Add To Basket]
When Deirdre Purcell turned sixty, she cheered. Never again would she have to worry about fitting into a size ten dress, and while her dream of crossing the US on a Harley remains active, if it is never realised, well, she'll live. In "Diamonds and Holes in My Shoes", for the first time, this much-loved storyteller takes stock of her years to date and reveals very personal memories and reflections. From her earliest days as a child with a large imagination trotting perilously close to the edge of the River Tolka near her home, her head buried in her library book, she weaves an engrossing tapestry of a resilient personal and professional life punctuated by astonishing and sudden changes. Recounted with characteristic frankness, humour and insight, Deirdre chronicles her years as an Abbey actress, the challenges of being the first female anchor of RTAe's Nine O'Clock News, the triumphs and failures as an acclaimed journalist who elicited memorable interviews from a host of famous personalities, the break-up of a marriage in an era when tolerance of single mothers was not as it is now - and her transition into the peculiar life of the novelist via the ghost-writing of Gay Byrne's autobiography. Illustrated with a treasure trove of photographs, "Diamonds and Holes in My Shoes" is the personal story behind the storyteller from a keen observer who has recorded a dramatically changing Ireland over the past sixty years.
Between the Mountains and the Sea: Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County by Peter Pearson
Hardback (Now Out of Print): 40 Euro / 52 USD / 30 UK; Illustrated with over 700 photographs, old prints, maps, etchings. 378 pages [Add To Basket]
Dublin city is blessed in its location, between the splendid Dublin/Wicklow mountains and the beautiful Dublin bay, and in this setting the hinterland of the city has grown over the centuries into a rich heritage of inner and outer suburbs as important as the city centre itself. In this book, Pearson tells of the geographical, economic and social history of this area, its famous inhabitants, its agricultural development, methods of transport, sport and recreational aspects, but most of all he details the architectural heritage of the county which is studded with riches from many different eras, and with the most desirable homes in the country.
Gregory Carr, Independent Bookseller
Read Ireland
392 Clontarf Road
Dublin 3
Ireland
Tel + Fax: +353-1-853-2063
Customer Services Comments, Criticism and Questions
Subscribe to Read Ireland Book News - Our Free Weekly Email Newsletter