Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 104
Glorious Gardens of Ireland by Melanie Eclare (19.99 IEP / 28.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book is not only a celebration of the beauty and character of Irish gardens, but also a paeon to the people who create and maintain them. The book is the consummation of a love affair with all things Irish and a two-year photographic project. The author's reputation for stunningly descriptive plant portraits and evocative landscapes goes before her and has helped to open many gardens to her camera (some of which have not previously been exposed to public view). Her privileged access leads the reader right to the heart of the gardens because her extensive knowledge of plants and planting schemes encouraged the gardeners to reveal their own stories, recorded here with lively candour. The result is confirmation that 'a garden should be an aesthetic, even sensual experience.'
Daniel O'Donnell: My Story - the Official Book by Daniel O'Donnell (Hardback; 14.99 IEP / 21.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
This is the Irish singer's own story written with a close friend, in which he describes his ascent to stardom from humble origins in the small Irish fishing village of Kincasslagh in County Donegal. He recalls his simple childhood, tells of the effects of the death of his father at the age of six, and the people and events that shaped him as he grew up. He describes vividly the point when he set his heart on becoming a musician and performer, leaving college in Galway to join his sister's group. With a series of entertaining anecdotes, he tells of his spreading popularity and his perfomances all over the world. The pressures of major league stardom led to mental exhaustion and physical breakdown in 1992, forcing Daniel to quit the business for 4 months. There's a wealth of material on Daniel's home and private life as well as his views on love and marriage. His encounters with famous figures such as Cliff Richard and the Irish President Mary McAleese are included and a moving account of his work for Romanian orphanages and how this experience has changed his life.
No News at Throat Lake by Lawrence Donegan (Hardback; 15.99 IEP / 22.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The author, a former pop star and journalist, is part of the urban exodus. He dreams of a simpler life in rural Ireland and departs for Cresslough in County Donegal. He has a brief but bloody encounter with the farming world, then begs a job on the village newspaper. The Tirconaill Tribune is run by two men and a dog. It combines misprints with mischief, a circulation of 2,745 within the colemn belief that it can change the world - and Donegan is hooked. This book is the story of a love affair between the big-city hack and the small-time newspaper, featuring America's third most powerful politician, aa legendary Hollywood actress, a rotting whale called Stinky, a sport so violent that even the umpires join in the fighting, cinister men in suits, the holiest shrine in Ireland, the Celtic Tiger, a gypsy called John and a pony-tailed butler called Butler who left Cresslough for Hollywood. It is a contemporary, funny and affectionate account of rural life in today's Ireland.
The Garda Siochana: Policing Independent Ireland, 1922-1982 by Gregory Allen (Hardback; 19.99 IEP / 27.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This is the most detailed and comprehensive history of the Garda Siochana to date. It provides a general survey of the first sixty years of the Gardai which is solidly grounded in official sources but written with the general reader in mind. The author has the great advantage of having been a serving member of the Gardai. The insights that such service can alone provide complement the original and impressive research that underpins this book. The definitive history deals with recruitment, living and working conditions, the growth and increasing sophistication of crime and the vital role that the Gardai have played as an unarmed, dsiciplined and completely legitimate defender of public order.
Irish Agriculture in Transition: A Census Atlas of Agriculture in the Republic of Ireland by Seamus Lafferty, Patrick Commins and James Walsh (Paperback; 20.00 IEP / 27.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Land has been a dominant influence in the evolution of Irish rural society. The transfer of ownership from landlords to tenants a century ago has had enormous economic, social and landscape implications. While many farms have experienced deprivation and emigration, there has also been considerable technological and economic progress by a core group of farmers who are internationally competitive in their chosen farming systems. In common with trends in other western countries, agriculture in the Republic of Ireland is undergoing major restructuring in preparation for a more challenging market and policy environment. The transition encompasses elements of both economic modernisation and marginalisation which are reinforcing existing geographical deivision in rural landscape. This atlas is the most detailed every produces of Ireland's agriculture. Over 100 maps, with commentaries.
Ishbel: Lady Aberdeen in Ireland by Maureen Keane (Paperback; 12.20 IEP / 18.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Wife of the Viceroy of Ireland in the years leading up to the Easter Rising, Lady Aberdeen was one of the most energetic women every to put her mind to the health and happiness of the people of the country. Her position made it impossible for her to involve herself in the extremes of politics, but she threw herself without reservation into campaigning for greater recognition for Irish industry, especially arts and crafts. She was also a major inspiration behind the multi-faceted attack on the White Plague, tuberculosis, which ravaged town and country alike. In their lifetimes, the Aberdeens were accused of many things, including the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels, yet despite both personal tragedy and personal vilification, Ishbel become one of the most socially influential people in Ireland during the Home Rule years. In this sympathetic yet not uncritical biography, the author paints a picture of a women both liked and loathed, who cut her way through bureaucracy with a furious energy.
Sources: Letters from Irish People on Sustenance for the Soul edited by Marie Heaney (Paperback; 10.99 IEP / 16.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book is a memorable collection of letters on the nature of spirituality and its relevance for the individual, and will be an invaluable resource. Dipping into its pages you will find persuasive evidence of the human need for something beyond the routine and materialism of everyday life, a need for some sort of spiritual sustenance, especially at times of crisis. Unifying the diversity of response in Sources is the authenticity of each of the contributions. Whether about an unshaken belief in orthodox religion, new perspectives on traditional beliefs or hard-won individual credos, honest, commitment and passion shine through.
The Belfast Anthology edited by Patricia Craig (Hardback; 20.00 IEP / 27.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
When it comes to Belfast, no one - visitor or native - can remain neutral. It has been seen as perverse, awkward, dynamic, resilient, grim, boastful, thrusting and eccentric, but seldom as boring - unless it generates, in novelist Caroline Blackwood's words, 'a boredom so powerful that it finally acts as an explosive'. This major anthology presents reactions to the city from the early 1600s to modern times in short, lively extracts from memoirs, poetry, fiction, history, travel writing and letters. The selection has been unflinching, including savagely critical comment on the city as well as affectionate praise. The result is a finely detailed portrait of Belfast in all its light and shade - a place, in spite of everything, of the 'utmost interest, singularity, contrariness, spirit and abrasive charm.'
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