Read Ireland Book News - Issue 85
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The Truth About the Irish by Terry Eagleton (Paperback; 6.99 IRP / 9.99 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book separates the myths from the reality with a blend of caustic commentary, jokes that will make you laugh out loud, and answers to questions you were too polite to ask. From Alcohol to X-rated, from Celtic Tiger to Irish Wake, the author paints an entertaining but nevertheless accurate picture of a new Ireland that may have lost the leprechaun but appears to have found the pot of gold.
Step Together: Ireland's Emergency Army 1939-46 by Donal McCarron (Hardback; 20.00 IRP / 30.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Ireland adopted a neutrality policy during the Second World War which was locally known as 'The Emergency'. At the outbreak of the war, Irish defence forces were in a poor state; hence the creation of the Emergency Army. This fully illustrated oral history is an anecdotal and often funny account of the time. Based on the author's interviews with the men who served in 'The Emergency', giving immediate eyewitness accounts of recruitment, training and serving in the army. It includes the national 'Call to Arms', basic training, the equipment; 'Shoots' by Coast Artillery and in the Glen of Imaal; flying the planes; social events; the 'down' side; ;major manoeuvres' and parades and finally 'Stand-down'. Illustrated with rarely seen black-and-white photographs, and some unique colour photographs taken at the time.
Brits Speak Out: British Soldiers Impressions of the Northern Ireland Conflict compiled by John Lindsay (Paperback; 10.60 IRP / 16.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Thousands of young British men spent long periods of their youth walking the streets of Belfast and Derry and the country lanes of Fermanagh, Tyrone and South Armagh armed with lethal weapons. Occasionally there were welcomed, more often, they were spat at, pelted with missiles, shot at or ignored. They were in Northern Ireland to 'keep the peace', to 'assist the civil powers' and to 'fight terrorism'. On their return to Britain there were no street parties or victory parades to welcome them home. How did it feel to be a British soldier in Northern Ireland? How did the Army prepare them for their tours of duty? What did they see as their role? How did they feel about the land and the people that they patrolled? How did they feel about those who sought their removal by violent means? In this book, 14 British soldiers relate their own personal accounts of their time in Northern Ireland. Their stories reflect life lived close to the edge, the development of the conflict and the effect of fear and trauma on the human condition. These stories are riveting, depressing, frightening, horrifying and occasionally transcendent and uplifting which makes for fascinating reading.
The Jesuits in Dublin by E.E. O'Donnell (Paperback; 8.99 IRP / 14.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
In this book the author traces the development of the Society of Jesus in Dublin through the establishment of its various houses. The book catalogues the buildings in which the members lived and established their missions - religious, charitable and educational. Entwined with the story of the Jesuit houses is the broader history of the city of Dublin itself, where the Society has had a presence for the past 400 years. Combining extracts from his own Annals of Dublin and the photographs by Father Frank Browne, the author brings to life the sometimes turbulent history of Dublin, recreating a world in which the Jesuits not only survived but continue to flourish.
Consplawkus: A Writer's Life by Criostoir O'Flynn (Paperback; 9.99 IRP / 15.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
The term 'Conplawkus', as explained by the author, was a favourite term of praise used by his beloved Granny Connolly, as is 'Consplawkus to you, me boy, you're a chip off the ould block!' Only later did Criostoir understand that it came from the Irish phrase 'gan spleachas', meaning literally 'without dependence'.
O'Flynn was to discover that in the Ireland of the 50s and the so-called 'swinging 60s,' there was very little scope for artistic independence if you also happened to be a teacher whose school manager, the local parish priest, might regard you as a danger of the morals of his flock. After seeing a production of one of O'Flynn's plays, his revered manager threw Christian charity to the winds and invoked the power of the crozier of Cashel to dismiss the author from his teaching post in Pallasgrean, County Limerick - with the result that he was forced to emigrate to England in order to support his young family.
His views may have been unorthodox enough to fall foul of the hierarchy but he held to his religious and patriotic beliefs through all the vicissitudes of those years and looks back on them now with wry amusement rather than anger.
One Sad Ungathered Rose: Schizophrenia - a Mother's Story by Susan Poole (8.99 IRP / 12.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book is the story of Susan Poole and her schizophrenic daughter, Margaret, and spans the years 1961-1996. It describes a mother's anguish as she struggles to recognise, to understand and to cope with her child's torment. She watched Margaret slip from 'behaviour problems' to severe psychoses, to homelessness. As her bright, beautiful daughter joined to scrapheap of the homeless, she fought a sense of guilt, anger at society, the inadequacy of professional help and, finally, recognition that she could not restore Margaret to normality.
Lives Less Ordinary: 32 Irish Portraits by Judy Kravis and Peter Morgan (Paperback; 15.99 IRP / 24.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
The people who talk about their lives in this book represent a creative, dissident Ireland. They are water-diviners, weavers, artists, writers, teachers, farmers, wood-cutters, gardeners, travellers and monks. Some continue ways of life that have existed for generations; others have chosen to live and work in ways that are experimental, exploratory, and always singular. The choices they have made prompt us to reflect on our own choices. These 32 portraits in word and image provide an alternative view of the possibilities of life in Ireland, and a bracing antidote to the banalities of the consumer society.
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