Read Ireland Book News - Issue 75
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Irish Country by Nicholas Mosse (Hardback; 22.50 IRP / 33.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Irish country style evokes both richness and simplicity, with wonderfully textured natural materials, earthy colours and uncluttered interiors where the beauty of individual objects shine through. This book shows how to recreate this look in your own home, wherever you may live. It looks at the essential elements of the style, including pottery, fabric and furniture. Each chapter opens with fascinating information and history, covering everything from traditional spongeware motifs and the origins of Irish quilts to the prime importance of the dresser and settle in Irish interiors. Contemporary craftspeople and decorators are also features, illustrating how long-established techniques still have relevance today and how the beautiful, pared-down simplicity of their creations fits so well into many modern interiors. Practical information, including step-by-step projects, enables the reader to bring these ideas into their own home, with sections on decorating pottery, for example, embroidering and using linen for all kinds of purposes, or painting furniture.
Dublin's Victorian Houses by Mary E. Daly, Mona Hearn and Peter Pearson (Hardback; 19.99 IRP / 29.99 USD) [Add To Basket]
The sturdy redbrick houses of Victorian Dublin are one of its unsung treasures. Although they were designed for the lifestyles of another era, from those of prosperous professionals to modest clerks and artisans, these solidly built homes have proved marvellously adaptable and attractive. This pioneering book explores the social and economic pressures that led to their evolution, how the houses spread both north and south of the city, and the intimate links between the houses and the lives of those who lived in them; from basic functions such as washing, storing food and cooking to the sophisticated rituals of 'calls' and elaborate dinners. Finally the book sets out the principles to follow when conserving the essential components of a Victorian house, from sash windows to cast-iron railings, from brilliantly coloured fanlights to elaborate plasterwork.
Wild Wicklow: Nature in the Garden of Ireland by Richard Nairn and Miriam Crowley (Hardback; 18.99 IRP / 28.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
In this book the two authors, both environmental scientists, take a sweeping view of Wicklow's wildlife and its habitats, beginning with the thrilling history of the landscape and ending with a thoughtful consideration of the human imprint from earliest times on this most spectacular of counties. In between comes a series of chapters on Wicklow's uniquely diverse habitats: the mountains, the woods, the waters, the farmed lowlands and the seashore. Illustrated with breathtaking wildlife and landscape photography, the book includes a comprehensive gazetteer of wild places to visit in Wicklow, complete with simple directions on how to get there.
Ireland from the Sea by Andrew Phelan (Paperback; 9.99 IRP / 15.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Like the coastline itself, Irish life has long been shaped by the sea. The author set out in his slook 'Sarakiniko' to discover the extent of his maritime heritage. It was a voyage that took him right round the coast of Ireland and deep into the island's history. Every promontory, reef and shoal - Bloody Forehead, O'Malley's Breaker, the Lucifer Bank - records the story of a seafaring culture. Coping day after day with wind and tide, he discovers coves and harbours, brings to life the conditions that caused great ships to founder, and helps make sense of the tragedy of the Famine, when people died on the shores of an abundant ocean. This ragged coastline has had an influence stretching far beyond its own shores. Its fortified headlands have stood watch on the ocean from earlier times. This book is an invaluable companion for cruising the Irish coast, and for anyone interested in life on the Irish sea.
Irish Carnegie Libraries: A Catalogue and Architectural History by Brendan Grimes (Hardback; 39.50 IRP / 60.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book describes Andrew Carnegie's philanthropic work in favour of library development. Between 1897 and 1913, Carnegie promised over #170,000 to pay for the building of some 80 libraries in Ireland. Sixty-two of the libraries built have survived to the present day. In his recent research, the author extensively consulted The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust papers in the Scottish Records Office. Most of the Irish files consist of correspondence between the Irish authorities and James Bertram, Carnegie's private secretary. The second part of the book is a catalogue, arranged alphabetically by town, which details the origin and design of each library and gives an account, particularly, of the background to its establishment, the uses to which the building was put, and its present condition. The catalogue is illustrated with architectural plans and photographs. This book will be of interest especially to librarians, local historians and architectural historians.
Walking Ireland by Tom Lawton (Hardback; 19.99 IRP / 29.99 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book is a collection of 25 walking routes stretching from the granite heights of Wicklow to the pointed, quartzite peaks of Connemara; from the rugged mountains surrounding the Nire Valley in the south-east to the magnificent coastal scenery of the south-western peninsulas and the limestone landscapes of the Burren. Lavishly illustrated throughout with innovative, computer-generated diagrams and Tom Lawton's own stunning colour photographs, this book is both beautiful and immensely practical. All the walks have been meticulously researched by the author in the company of local walking guides. The diagrams include relief profiles showing the heights to be climbed, the steepness of the approach slopes, and how the time is ticking away as you walk along, while the photographs illustrating each of the walks are keyed into the routes, making them additional aids to route finding. The author provides contact details for local walking guides, accommodation, eating places and taxi services, together with suggested itineraries for spending an enjoyable walking holiday in Ireland.
A Close Shave with the Devil: Stories of Dublin by Ena May (Paperback; 6.99 IRP / 9.99 USD) [Add To Basket]
In these unsettling tales of the late 1940s Dublin, young Eily Doolin encounters the gentle foot-fetishist next door, the 'Argentinian tango-dancer' from Ballybough, the Jewish couple who introduce her to the delights of carrot cake and Chopin, the 'simple' boy who carries a secret hatred, and, in the climactic closing story, the devil himself. The author's post-Emergency Dublin is at once instantly recognisable and utterly unlike all previous literary versions of the city. Her gimlet-eyed narrator inhabits secret childhood places as well as the grown-up kitchens and parlours of 'Blarney Park', twitching the veil between public and private, street and home. She has created a remarkable narrative voice, perfectly pitched between the knowing and the naïve, the compassionate and the sarcastic, the intrepid and the bewildered. This is storytelling at its best, a remarkable debut collection.
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