Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 121
Medieval Ireland: An Archaeology by Tadgh O'Keeffe (Hardback; 25.60 IEP / 33.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The study of Medieval Ireland between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries is traditionally the domain of history, but in the past decade there has been a phenomenal increase in archaeological data from the period, and the need for a fresh synthesis if felt by many archaeologists and historians. In this lively and wide-ranging book the author addresses this need. Individual chapters re-examine such familiar themes as urban and rural settlement, military, domestic, and ecclesiastical architecture, agriculture and craft, trade and industry. Other topics discusses include diet, dress, burial rites, and entertainment. The cultural relations between the Gaelic Irish and English populations of medieval Ireland are explored throughout the book, as are Ireland's relations with her European neighbours. With its elegantly written text and numerous illustrations, this portrait of medieval Ireland will appeal to general readers as well as to students and professionals in the fields of history, archaeology and historical geography.
The Story of a Toiler's Life by James Mullin (Paperback; 13.95 IEP / 18.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
This powerful memoir gives new insights into the experiences and forgotten hopes of the white-collar professionals who provided late nineteenth century Irish nationalism with its activists. First published in 1921, after the author's death, the book's unfashionable political and religious attitudes ensured its neglect, although it includes memorable vignettes of meetings with Parnell, Davitt and Pearse. It gives an invaluable description of the poverty and sectarian divisions of post-Famine rural Ulster and the anti-Irish prejudices of Britain in the 1880s, but also of the new opportunities provided by a slowly modernising state which a lucky and enterprising boy would attain at great emotional cost.
Ferocious Humanism: An Anthology of Irish Poetry from Before Swift to Yeats and After edited by W.J. McCormack (Hardback; 37.50 IEP / 45.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
In this avowedly interpretive anthology of Irish verse, W.J. McCormack traces through several centuries a creativity of contradiction, a 'ferocious humanism' which finds poets productively at odds with their forebears, their contemporaries - even with themselves. Swift's self-lacerating savagery sets the tone, yet this tradition of ferocity also includes great Gaelic poets like Daithi O Bruadair and Aodhagan O Rathaille, as well as Anglophone voices like James Clarence Mangan and Samuel Ferguson. Women poets - from Esther Johnson in the eighteenth century to Eavan Boland and Medbh McGuckian in our own - are in some ways the most representative voices of all in this tradition of outsidership. From Yeats's tragic laughter to the quieter ironies of Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley, from the rumbustious narratives of Merriman and Joyce to the pathos of Wilde's Reading Gaol, the same sparring spirit is found. Even Goldsmith's benign muse takes on an edge of ambiguity in this canonical context. Beckett's outlandish art on the other hand seems more comfortably at home here than would ever have been imagined. This exciting new anthology brings together the very best in Irish poetry to reveal a broad yet sharply-focuses tradition of diversity and dissidence. This compelling collection will provide a wide-ranging reconsideration of one of the world's richest literatures.
The Book of Irish Names: The Origins and Meanings of Over 150 Names for Children by Iain Zaczek (Hardback; 8.99 IEP / 12.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The Celtic tradition has given us some of the most beautiful and evocative names. This book lists the most popular names for both boys and girls, giving their derivations, pronunciations, meanings and the legends associated with their historical and mythical namesakes. Comprehensive calendars of Irish saints' feast days also allow a baby's birth to be matched to the saint of the day. The names, which range from the ever-popular Liam and Bridget to the more unusual Aoife and Lochlainn, are accompanied with specially commissioned illustrations making this book the ideal present for parents-to-be.
No Drinking No Dancing No Doctors by Martina Evans (18.50 IEP / 25.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
In her late 60s Beulah Kingston is still almost as tall, black-haired and headstrong as on her wedding day in 1944. Born into a strict Protestant sect and brought up an innocent in the tiny Irish village of Two Mile Cross, Beulah has more knowledge of the Bible than of her true feelings and desires. Now, as she faces the prospect of hospital and an X-ray for the first time in her life, she finds herself compelled to re-examine the secret passion of her youth and the death of her decent-hearted husband. But what finally triggers the journey into a past shared only by her sister Hester, the ne'er-do-well Danny Fox and the village doctor Joe Costello, is the arrival of her grand-daughter Beccy, the spitting image of the teenage Beulah. Told with imagination and humour, and peopled by living, breathing characters, this novel is a funny and affecting story that conceals a tragic secret at its heart.
Oracles of God: The Roman Catholic Church and Irish Politics, 1922-37 by Patrick Murray (Paperback; 19.95 IEP / 27.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
This superbly researched book gives a detailed account of the political outlook and activities of the Roman Catholic clergy, nationality and in the localities, during the fifteen years after the Treaty. The author examines and assesses the clerical response to the Treaty, the involvement of bishops and priests in pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty politics, their dealings with Fianna Fail, the fundamentalist Republicans of the left and right, and the Northern State. The author draws on a wide range of hitherto unexplored archival and other documentary material, and on the expertise of local historians and scholars. No other account deals in such depth and detail with the political involvement of the Roman Catholic clergy of every rank in Irish politics, North and South, between 1922 and 1937.
Easy Guide to Reading Faces: Character Analysis and Predictions by CaZee Carew (Paperback; 8.99 IEP / 11.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book is written with the desire for all to discover their own personal gifts and the true purpose of their unique journey through life.
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