Read Ireland Book News - Issue 60
<-- [Back To Main Menu]
Prejudice in Ireland Revisited by Micheal Mac Greil (Paperback; 12.00 IRP /18.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book is an outstanding contribution to our knowledge of Irish society and understanding of racism in Ireland in all its various manifestations. It is much more that a study of prejudice and tolerance towards social groups and minorities; it also provides a comprehensive survey of Irish attitudes and values. It is not only authoritative and informative but readable and interesting. The findings present a challenge to us all, and demand thought and attention from politicians, lawyers, opinion formers and indeed every one of us. The book is a goldmine of accessible information, particularly valuable because it does not just set out Irish attitudes on a wide range of issues but shows how they have changed since the early 70s. This makes it fascinating reading for anyone interested in social change in Ireland.
Magennis VC: The Story of Northern Ireland's only winner of the Victoria Cross by George Fleming (Paperback; 11.95 IRP / 17.99 USD) [Add To Basket]
James Magennis was born in West Belfast and served in the Royal Navy in World War II. He was the only person from Northern Ireland to win the Victoria Cross, the only naval rating with a VC to survive the war and the only person in naval history to exit a submarine in a diving suit, perform a military operation and return to the same submarine. Yet while honoured in his adopted town of Bradford England, he was made to feel unwelcome and virtually forgotten in his home town of Belfast. The author rescues Magennis from obscurity in a book that begins with Magennis's life in West Belfast in the 1920s and 1930s. Magennis escaped Belfast's poverty by joining the Royal Navy in 1935. The middle part of the book is packed with adventure and history of war at sea, and finishes with Magennis winning the Victoria Cross in 1945. The closing chapters bring the reader back to the reality of his return to Belfast where the political and religious problems had not changed. He was an embarrassment to the Unionist establishment and unwanted by his fellow Catholics. Forced to leave the city, Magennis went to England where he was simply accepted as a war hero. Always a quiet man who never sought glory, he died in obscurity in 1986.
The Clash of the Ash in Foreign Fields: Hurling Abroad by Seamus King (Paperback; 10.00 IRP / 15.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
From the beginning the Gaelic Athletic Association attempted to spread the gospel of hurling outside Ireland. Star teams of hurlers were sent abroad to advertise the fame and hurling was organised among the Irish diaspora. This book tells the history of these efforts and how the game was played in the United Kingdom and North America, in Argentina and South Africa, in Australia and New Zealand, in fact in any place the Irish settled in substantial numbers. The book is a followup to The History of Hurling by the same author, is over 175 large format pages long and contains over 50 black-and-white photographs.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan: A life by Linda Kelly (Paperback; 16.50 IRP / 24.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The first night of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal, on 8 May 1777, was one of the great dates in theatrical history. From then on, Sheridan was launched by his fame as a playwright into the 'little great world' of 18th century society. Sheridan's comedies - and his comic opera, The Duenna - were all written by the time he was 28. For the next 30 years he was wholly involved in his twin careers an manager of Drury Lane theatre and Member of Parliament. At a time when politics were dominated by a few aristocratic families, he rose above the inbuilt disadvantages of his poverty and Irish background to become one of the greatest parliamentary figures of the age, greater even, in the opinion of the Prime Minister William Pitt, than his leader Charles James Fox. Linda Kelly's biography, drawing on a wide variety of published and unpublished sources, gives a comprehensive picture of Sheridan's tempestuous and brilliant career.
A Flame Now Quenched: Rebels and Frenchmen in Leitrim, 1793-1798 by Liam Kelly (Paperback; 9.99 IRP / 15.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
The Irish rebellion of 1798 comprised a scattered series of local uprisings and desperate incursions that, tragically for the rebels, failed to cohere. This fascinating portrait of County Leitrim in the 1790s provides important insights into the rebellion in Connaught. In Leitrim, the spirit of rebellion peaked in 1795 - three years before General Humbert's French troops and their Irish allies marked almost the full length of the country, with the government's superior force in pursuit, towards their eventual defeat just over the Longford border at Ballinamuck. Leitrim was shaken by violent Defender disturbances in 1793 and 1795, culminating in the battle of Drumcollop, which brought the county to a state of insurrection. Following the battle of the Diamond in County Armagh and the formation of the Orange Order in September 1795, large numbers of refugees from Ulster descended into Leitrim, bringing with them revolutionary ideas and a sense of outrage that helped to keep the flame of rebellion alive. But Leitrim had risen too early, and the government's suppression of the Defenders and, later, the United Irishmen, was brutally effective. The author of this book has made extensive use of local and archival sources to produce and authoritative and accessible account - complete with maps, illustrations and original documents - of the two strands of history: the rise and fall of the Defender and United Irish movements in Leitrim in the mid-1790s, and the French invasion of Connaught, which began promisingly but soon became a march towards certain defeat, with dire consequences for the Irish rebels who flew to the French standard.
Read Ireland - the Internet Bookstore for Irish Books
392 Clontarf Road
Clontarf, Dublin 3, Ireland
Tel & Fax: +353-1-853-2063
Subscribe to Read Ireland Book News - Free
<-- [Back To Main Menu]