Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 148
Autobiographies, Biographies and Memoirs
Catherine Hayes: The Hibernian Prima Donna by Basil Walsh (Hardback; 30.00 IEP / 37.00 USD / 24.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
The achievements of the Irish-born prima donna Catherine Hayes are relatively unknown to the musical world and opera connoisseurs of the present day. This is the first definitive biography of this important nineteenth-century Ireland singer, thoroughly researched and presented in an accessible and entertaining style, with related photographs and a chronology of her performances. Catherine Hayes was born in Limerick in 1818 into abject poverty. She rose from total obscurity to great fame in the opera houses and concert halls of Europe, America and Australia in the mid-nineteenth century. She competed on the stages of Europe's best opera houses with Jenny Lind and Henrietta Sontag. Queen Victoria mentioned her in her diaries. Catherine Hayes learned to speak French, wrote and spoke Italian fluently despite having no formal education. Tragically, she died from a stroke in London, aged 42. Her short life as packed with excitement, great success, fame and fortune, and phenomenal earnings. She was fiercely Irish, though born in an era when it was more prudent to be British. This book tells the story of the achievements of this unique, young woman who embodied all the spirit, tenacity and perseverance of her race, and who made a very important contribution to Irish musical history.
Finally and In Conclusion: A Political Memoir by Barry Desmond (Paperback; 11.99 IEP / 14.00 USD / 10.00 UK) [Add To Basket]
Barry Desmond's habit of telling it like he saw it kept him close to controversy during 30 years in politics from the 1960s to the 1990s, repeatedly challenging the once high and mighty, from beef barons to bishops and trade unionists to Taoisigh. Throughout, he remained his own man, as often at loggerheads with some within his own party as with his opponents. From a young upstart in the Labour Party he went on to become a central participant in the party's fortunes in and out of government and a reforming Minister for Health. From opposing his own party's stand on EU membership in the 1970s, he took on the Catholic Church over contraception in the 1980s and played a crucial back-room role in Labour's success in the 1990s.
At the Coalface: Recollections of a City and Country Priest, 1950-2000 by J. Anthony Gaughan (Paperback; 14.00 IEP / 16.50 USD / 12.00 UK) [Add To Basket]
Fr. J. Anthony Gaughan has experienced many aspects of life in the Archdiocese of Dublin during the past fifty years. His recollections provide a fascinating insight into the lives and work of Dublin priests during that period. Of particular interest are his shrewd, amusing and kindly, even critical, sketches of colleagues and others which will bring a smile to many a face. In addition to memories of parishes where he served as curate and parish priest, Fr. Gaughan also recounts what it was like to be a clerical student in the 1950s when vocations to the priesthood were plentiful.
James Dillon: A Biography by Maurice Manning (Paperback; 14.99 IEP / 17.00 USD / 12.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
This book fills a significant gap in the recent political history of Ireland. It adds considerably to our understanding of how the State's institutions and political system became defined after independence. It examines, from a hitherto unexplored perspective, how the processes of parliamentary opposition operated in the new democracy which as the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland. The book is a valuable and original chronicle, from a unique perspective, of Ireland in formative, difficult and challenging times. It is an Ireland that is scarcely recognizable today.
Noel Browne: Passionate Order by John Horgan (Hardback; 19.99 IEP / 23.50 USD / 17.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
In three short years, from 1948 to 1951, Dr. Noel Browne left an indelible mark on the Irish political landscape. His controversial Mother and Child Scheme, which was vetoed by the Catholic bishops at the instigation of the medical profession and was then abandoned by the Cabinet, was a defining moment in Irish church-state relations, and in the Irish political history of the twentieth century. This first major biography explores in fascinating detail the entire life of the man and gives the reader the first rounded picture of a complex, passionate and controversial individual
An Hourglass on the Run: The Story of a Preacher by James A. Feehan (Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 12.50 USD / 8.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
The author grew up in the rural Ballinure area of County Tipperary. In this book, he vividly evokes the varied cast of characters he knew as a child. He was ordained as a priest for the diocese of Cashel in 1950 and went to minister in New Zealand until a vacancy should occur in his own Irish diocese. When he returned to Ireland in 1957, he found a changed society. In this book he lets his life run through an hourglass and picks out some individual grains of sand that makes for great stories.
Stealing Sunlight: Growing Up in Irishtown by Angeline Kearns Blain (Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 12.50 USD / 8.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
Growing up in a south Dublin slum, the author observed with the intense vision of a child how the lives of men and women diverged. Her father, a soldier, went on manoeuvres around Ireland (picking up syphilis along the way) while 'Ma begged and borrowed to keep us from dying young.' The author and her three brothers roamed the streets. At thirteen she left school and for a year trawled the Ringsend dump for cinders, which she sold for a shilling a sack. Funny, sad and harsh, with the bitter ring of truth, this extraordinary memoir of Dublin in the 1940s and 1950s recreates a forgotten community.
Letters from the Front edited by Jean Kelly (Hardback; 16.99 IEP / 20.00 USD / 14.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
The letters collected in this book tell the true love story of Eric Appleby and Phyllis Kelly, who met and fell in love during the First World War. Eric was from Liverpool who enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery in 1914 and was sent to Athlone for training. There he met Phyllis who was a native of the town. The collection consists of some 200 letters, field service postcards and telegrams. Eric's 1916 diary has been used to verify the locations and events. The letters cover Eric's experiences from the time he left Athlone in 1915 until October 1916, the tail-end of the Somme offensive. They show how much he depended on Phyllis's love and her letters to help him deal with the horrors of war.
Donal McCann Remembered: A tributed edited by Pat Laffan and Faith O'Grady (Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 13.50 USD / 8.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
This book is remarkable blend of reminiscence, anecdote and image that offers a fascinating insight into the life and personality of the late actor. The wide range of contributors - from his acting and directing contemporaries to his bookie and favourite barman - reveal the many sides to his complex and unpredictable character: his unique talent, his struggles with personal demons, his deep spirituality, and his mercurial nature - at once gentle and volatile, sensitive and irascible. Replete with drawings by the actor, a talented caricaturist, along with photographs from his life on and off the state and screen, this book is a captivating scrapbook on the life and times of one of the greatest Irish actors of all time.
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