Read Ireland Book News - Issue 54
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Unusual Suspects: Twelve Radical Clergy by Denis Carroll (Paperback; 9.99 IRP / 15.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book is a fascinating study of radical clergymen in Ireland from different traditions and varying times. In ten chapters the reader meets Presbyterian, Catholic and Church of Ireland clergy who spoke for inclusion of all people in an Ireland free of sectarian hatreds and economic oppression. They spoke fearlessly and always at a tangent to prevailing orthodoxies. Their honesty incurred trouble for themselves not only with civil authorities but with vested interests in their churches. Their thought ranges from theology to social analysis. Their common bond is a radical diagnosis of our long-standing hostilities and courage to articulate that diagnosis. Many of them ordered an Irish 'political theology' every bit as radical as liberation theology today. The book accompanies the reader through dramatic periods of Irish history - the United Irishmen, the relapse into sectarian difficulties of the early 18th century, the Famine, the re-emergence of Irish separatism from the late 1860s, and the foundations of a partitioned Ireland. It draws on academic history while playing full attention to local traditions and the insights of modern political theology.
Uniforms of 1798-1803 by F. Glenn Thompson (Paperback; 9.95 IRP / 14.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book describes and illustrated the arms and uniforms which were a familiar part of the Irish scene during the 1798 rebellion and its aftermath. Insurgents, the French, Regulars, Yeomanry, Militia, Fencibles, Artillery, etc. - officers and men - are depicted in meticulously detailed full colour illustrations.
Blasket Memories: The Life of an Irish Island Community edited by Padraig Tyers (Paperback; 8.99 IRP / 13.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book presents a powerful insight into the lives of those who lived on the Blasket Island and describes how the island was evacuated in 1953 when their numbers decreased to a point where they could no longer survive as a separate community.
The first part of the book is based on the writings of Sean O Criomhthain. He vividly describes the immense difficulties experienced by the fishing community at the hands of the landlords and bailiffs, as they battled with the harsh elements. Two things helped to sustain them: their firm faith in God and their support for one another. They were great lovers of music and some even made their own instruments. Sean tells with great glee of the coming of the first gramophone to the island.
The second part of the book consists of interviews with Sean O Criomhthain; Nora Ni Sheaghda, a mainlander who taught for many years in the island school; Sean O Guithin, who was one of the last group to leave the island at Christmas 1953; and Cait Bean Ui Naoilchairain, widow of Muiris O Suilleabhain, the author of Twenty Years a Growing.
Scarecrow by Sean Lysaght (Paperback; 6.95 IRP / 11.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
A central group of poems in this collection adjusts the perspective of his earlier field notes and nature sketches and explores questions of individual integrity through the motif of the scarecrow. Other poems recharge familiar landscapes with images from natural history and science. There is an emphasis throughout on freeing feelings and objects from the cumber of the past, while keeping faith with those locations where 'things are sung.'
Voice of Rebellion: Carlow in 1798- The Autobiography of William Farrell edited by Roger McHugh with an introduction by Patrick Bergin (Paperback; 8.99 IRP / 14.95 USD) [Add To Basket]
Years after the Rebellion of 1798, William Farrell set down his passionate and detailed eyewitness account of life in Carlow during that resonant time in Irish history. Now, to mark the bicentenary, actor Patrick Bergin has returned to his roots to bring this forgotten classic out of the shadows of the past. The reader walks with Farrell down the streets of Carlow in 1798 and listens to the many vivid voices of an Irish county town. The reader follows him through scenes of terror and suffering which surrounded the Rebellion - a time when the scales of life and death could be tipped by the favour of a jailer, the mood of a militiaman or even the fashion of a haircut. This book is the untold story of Carlow in 1798 brought to life by a man who survived it.
In the Season of the Daisies by Tom Phelan (Paperback; 9.99 IRP / 16.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
One night in 1921 and IRA action goes horribly wrong, leaving young Willie Doolan dead. Set in an Irish village, the story of that fateful night unfolds through the distinct voices of each character: the schoolteacher, the butcher, the doctor, the shopkeeper, the priest, and Seanie - Willie's twin brother - whose ghostlike presence serves as a constant reminder. In a direct and uncompromising style, the author conveys the town's pain and loss, the power of evil, love's redemption, and the toll of ancient animosities.
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