Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 112
Stone Mad for the Music: the Slibh Luachra Story by Donal Hickey (Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 13.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Slibh Luachra is the wet upland region, dominated by the imposing Paps mountains, that straddles the infant River Blackwater along the Cork-Kerry border. The area is famous for its poetry, and for traditional music and dance. In this lively and informative book, the author brings together the various strands that make Sliabh Luachra such a unique place: the music, the singing, the dance, the stories, the poetry, the indomitable spirit of the people in good times and bad.
The Story of Irish Dance by Helen Brennan (Hardback; 19.99 IEP / 26.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book is a full account of the phenomenon of Irish Dance. Writing in a style that is authoritative but very accessible to the general reader, the author traces this story back to the early accounts of dance customs in medieval Ireland. She focuses on the developments of the 19th century (with the introduction of quadrilles, waltzes, etc.) and explores how dance played a vital role in the formation of a new national culture. A wealth of colourful anecdotes bring alive the surprisingly strong conflicts which arose in relation to dance - conflicts with puritanical church leaders; between native dancers and bureaucratic instructors; and over what constituted 'real' Irish dancing. In modern times there has been a revival of set-dancing, and there has been the enormous international success of Riverdance. This is a lively and fascinating account of the many aspects of Irish dance.
The Spirit of the City: Voices from Dublin's Liberties by Bernadette Flanagan (Paperback; 8.99 IEP / 12.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The study of spirituality in a modern urban setting is a new challenge facing Christianity. In this book the author sets out to sketch the post-modern milieu in which the Christian experience of the residents of Dublin's South Inner City is unfolding. She points out that spiritual experience is always embedded in a cultural matrix. The Liberties is well described by her in geographical and socio-cultural terms. Her historical sketch of the Liberties shows how this area became the Dublin of the poor. The Liberties, through the course of its history, has been a place of hospitality for those driven from their families and homelands, whether they be Huguenots, Jews or refugees. Through all these changes the community has always been characterised by enormous resilience and vibrancy.
The Border: Personal Reflections from Ireland, North and South edited by Paddy Logue (Paperback; 9.95 IEP / 13.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
Asked the question: 'What is the border and what does it mean to you?' , a plethora of Irish and Northern Irish persons responded, including: Gerry Adams, Esmond Birnie, Seamus Deane, Polly Devlin, Hugh Frazer, Lord Anthony Gifford, Mary Holland, Jennifer Johnston, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, Bernadette McAliskey, Nell McCafferty, Eamon McCann, Frank McGuinness, Gary Mitchell, Christy Moore, Austen Morgan, Paul Muldoon, Dervla Murphy, Nuala O'Faolain, Ardal O'Hanlon and Rurairi Quinn to name only a few.
Inis Meain Images: Ten Days in August 1912 by Henry Cecil Wilson (Hardback; 15.00 IEP / 21.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
In August 1912, Cecil Watson visited Inis Meain, the middle island of the Arans. Using a box camera, he took a series of pictures capturing, for ever, the people and landscape, and the interaction between the two. Published here for the first time is a selection of Cecil Watson's photographs. They are striking images of the life of a community at a time when the people were seemingly unaware that their traditions and ways were on the brink of collapse.
Dublin Today by Pat Liddy (Hardback; 10.00 IEP / 13.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The city's changing face, in text and illustrations selected from the Irish Times. The book is a mine of information on the aspects of building, street furniture, and miscellaneous objects passed daily in journeying through Dublin city. This book will bring a smile of reminiscence, add a little knowledge, and encourage the reader to seek further into the many fascinating aspects of Dublin city that can remain hidden from the everyday hurrying eyes. The author's pen in text and illustration evidences his ever searching eye for detail which he brings to the attention of the reader in this personal choice based on the series published weekly in the Irish Times.
Dress in Ireland: A History by Mairead Dunlevy (Paperback; 14.99 IEP / 19.99 USD) [Add To Basket]
Throughout much of our history, the clothes worn gave signals to contemporaries of the status, aspiration and wealth of the wearer, for many centuries this was shown through clothing that protected against wind and rain, the length of fabric used in a garment, the number of garments owned and the ownership of cloth which did not scratch the skin. Status was signalled too through the use of particular colours, which were controlled by law. These signals and many others are recalled in this book, all of which related to aspects of the lives and attitudes of our ancestors. The work is based on historical and archaeological research and on contemporary literature and documents. Each chapter begins with a brief historical summary of the political and military history of the period. Costume is then considered under the relevant headings of the period - English and Irish dress styles in Ireland as well as that at Court and that of the poor. At the end of each chapter a listing of the textiles used during the period is given as well as references to source material for students of Irish dress and textiles.
The Story of the Court Laundry by Robert Tweedy (IR)(Hardback; 15.00 IEP / 22.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The art of laundering fabric emerged thousands of years ago when people first brought their clothes to the nearest river and whacked them off a rock. As time went by, soap was developed and the craft was honed down to become a definable domestic skill. In the wake of the vast mechanisation of the industrial revolution, new technology brought some change to the laundering of clothes but it still remained as mainly a 'cottage' industry. In Ireland, the domestic commercial laundry did not really take a strong footing until the end of the 19th century. A hundred years later it had vanished as an industry and way of life for its workers. Domestic technology, together with modern fabrics and fashion trends, totally superseded this unique business. This illustrated volume chronicles the growth and demise of an industry which is a memory in the minds of only a very few. It overviews not only the workings of the laundry, but also the changing social and industrial circumstances and attitudes from the 1916 Rising through the First World War, Irish Independence right up to the 1960s.
Religion in Ireland: Past, Present and Future edited by Denis Carroll (Paperback; 8.99 IEP / 12.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
Religion has been a formative ingredient in Irish society for a very long time. It recent times, religion, like every other aspect of our social and cultural life, has been experiencing rapid and challenging times. In Sean MacReamoinn's phrase, 'religion in Ireland seeks to be with the past, in the present and for the future.' Ireland's religious past has been a divided one, and this book provides the insights and hopes of the various religious groups in the country: Michael Drumm on Catholicism since the Reformation; Bishop Richard Clarke on the Church of Ireland; John Dunlop on Irish Prebysterians; Robert Dunlop on the minority churches; and Dermot Keogh on the Jewish contribution to Irish society. Josephy Liechty talks about sectarianism. And Sean MacReamoinn gives an historical overview of the relationship between faith and culture in Ireland, and Donal Flanagan recalls some of the lost voices in Irish religious history.
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