Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 198
Liam Clancy: Memories of an Irish Troubadour by Liam Clancy
Hardback; 30.00 Euro / 25.50 USD / 21.75 UK; Virgin, 293 pages, with 8 page b/w photo insert [Add To Basket]
On St. Patrick's Night, 1961, Liam Clancy along with his brothers, Paddy and Tom, and their great friend, Tommy, four fiery and passionate young folk singers from rural Ireland, made their debut appearance on America's most influential television programme, the 'Ed Sullivan Show', and entranced the fifty million viewers coast to coast. This sensational overnight success led to the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem becoming a major part of musical history. They have justly been called 'the Beatles of Irish Music' and have sold millions of records over the last forty years.
His autobiography is by turns uproarious and wistful, charming and irreverent. His life was a party filled with music, sex and more than a few pints of Guinness. His nightly encounters with other soon to be famous young writers, actors and musicians on the Greenwich Village scene - among them Bob Dylan, Robert Redford, Walter Matthau, Lenny Bruce, Maya Angelou, Peter Seeger, Barbara Streisand - are remembered here with unabashed honesty.
Encounters: How Racism Came to Ireland by Bill Rolston & Michael Shannon
Paperback; 12.60 Euro / 11.50 USD / 10.50 UK; Beyond the Pale Publications, 108 pages [Add To Basket]
The Irish have been encountering people of colour both inside and outside of Ireland for over a millennium. The Vikings traded North African slaves in Dublin in the 9th century while later Irish peasants travelled with Norman lords on the crusades against Islam. The Scottish-Irish of the north and later the famine Irish migrated in their tens of thousands to America where they quickly came to learn that owning slaves and engaging in racist practices was the passport to being considered white. And the British Empire could not have operated without the loyal service of countless Irish administrators and soldiers, all of whom were implicated directly or otherwise in the task of subjugating, ruling and often slaughtering people with black, brown or yellow skin. This book provides a fascinating account of the origins of contemporary racism in Ireland.
The Garden of Eden All Over Again by Jude Collins
Paperback; 9.50 Euro / 8.75 USD / 7.99 UK; TownHouse Pocket Books; 293 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is set in 1959 in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Adam Faith is topping the Hit Parade and seventeen-year-old Jim McGrath is on the brink of adult life. But what sort of life? He could become a priest, which would mean he'd be in God's good books and could stop worrying about his death-day and having the pennies put on his eyes and going to hell. His mother and his uncle Father Frank the priest would like that. But studying to be a priest sounds grim. Besides, Jim's friend Presumer Livingstone doesn't give a damn about priests or brothers or anyone else and he seems to be having a much better time. And what about Christy Wenton, a girl who talks about undressing people with her eyes? As the school year draws to a close, Jim must choose: respectability or friendship, the spirit or the flesh? Both poignant and humorous, this novel captures the world of boyhood uncertainties and restlessness as the new decade approaches.
Scandal and Betrayal: Shackleton and the Irish Crown Jewels by John Cafferky and Kevin Hannafin
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 13.50 USD / 12.50 UK; 318 pages; Collins Press [Add To Basket]
In 1907, coinciding with the visit of Edward VII to Ireland, an extraordinary discovery was made - the Irish Crown Jewels had disappeared from Dublin Castle. The jewels - a badge and diamond star - had been presented to the Knights of St. Patrick by William IV in 1830. Scotland Yard uncovered a complicated web of mystery, intrigue and scandal. The Castle was heavily guarded. The thief had been an 'insider'. The custodian of the jewels, Sir Arthur Vicars and his staff, including his co-tenant Frank Shackleton, brother of the explorer, came under intense scrutiny. The investigation revealed the existence of a homosexual circle within the Castle, including Vicars himself, Shackleton, Lord Haddo - son of the King's Viceroy in Ireland - and the King's brother-in-law, the Duke of Argyll. The whiff of scandal was pervasive. A spectacular Irish burglary suddenly threatened to become an international scandal. The evidence pointed to Shackleton and Haddo as accomplices in the crime. However, the police report vanished, and since then the authorities have shrouded the case in official silence and destroyed all the police files. This book is an well-argued analysis of political conspiracy, scandal and betrayal, and presents a compelling case for the present whereabouts of the still-missing, priceless jewels.
Homefires: A Survivor's Story by Shivaun Woolfson
Trade Paperback; 19.80 Euro / 17.50 USD / 16.50 UK; Atlantic Books, 264 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is a moving, eloquent and often shocking story of a passionate and fiercely intelligent woman. Growing up in 1960s Dublin in a wealthy Jewish family, Shivaun survives the physical abuse of a beautiful and damaged mother and the control of a domineering father. Desperate to belong, she abandons her Jewish roots and falls in love with a Catholic musician, the bass player of an up-and-coming band called 'The Boomtown Rats'. When he goes to London, leaving Shivaun behind, she flees her family, her home and her country to seek comfort among the followers of an Indian guru. At 21, still haunted by her past, she makes her way to Miami and marries a handsome refugee from Cuba. But Julio is a womaniser and drug dealer and Shivaun soon becomes embroiled in Miami's seedy underworld. Eight months pregnant, she finds herself in prison, her chances of ever gaining American citizenship ruined. After Julio is sent down for trafficking, Shivaun falls for another man, who subjects her and her two sons to terrifying violence. Finally, she finds the courage to walk away and, alone with two small boys, she fights back, eventually earning respect as a mother, a scholar and community activist. For the first time, she also discovers meaningful love and is then, at last, able to begin plotting her journey home.
Endgame in Ireland by Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick
Paperback; 10.99 Euro / 9.99 USD / 8.99 UK; Coronet, 378 pages [Add To Basket]
Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick, two of the most respected journalist on Irish affairs, have been granted unique access to the research undertaken for the television series 'Endgame in Ireland.' This book tells more vividly than ever before the inside story of the Irish peace process from 1981 through the words of the key people involved - many of who have never talked 'on the record'. Those interviewed include both British and Irish Prime ministers and their most senior aides, including former cabinet secretaries. They also include former leaders of both the IRA and loyalist terror groups. The award-winning authors being to bear their years of experience of reporting on the conflict to relate this extraordinary account of secret meetings and clandestine negotiations, as all the parties struggled to overcome centuries of distrust.
Roger Casement by Brian Inglis
Paperback; 16.20 Euro / 15.00 USD / 13.50 UK; Penguin, 448 pages [Add To Basket]
This classic biography, originally published in 1973, examines the fascinating and contradictory career of Roger Casement, one of the most controversial Irishmen of the last century. He was brought up as a Protestant in Dublin and began his extraordinary career as one of Stanley's volunteers in the Congo Free State. During his time in Africa, he exposed King Leopold II's exploitation of the natives and went on to reveal the ruthlessness of the British in South America, for which he received a knighthood. In Germany after the outbreak of the First World War he claimed Ireland's right to recognition to independent nationhood; he returned to Ireland in 1916 in a U-boat, was captured, taken to London, tried and hanged as a traitor. To further blacken his name the British government released what purported to be his diaries, which demonstrated that he had been a practicing homosexual. Controversy still rages as to whether or not these were forgeries. In this absorbing study, the author throws light on Casement's life, examining evidence from Foreign Office files to discover the truth about his influence at home and abroad. He explores these contradictions - political, religious and personal - of a man whose life posed many questions that continue to be asked today.
Slanguage: A Dictionary of Irish Slang by Bernard Share
Trade Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 17.00 UK; Gill & Macmillan, 325 pages [Add To Basket]
This is an exceptional work of reference. It is a guide to the unofficial language of the 32 counties of Ireland, the language of the streets and pubs, but also of much of Irish literature from Swift to Roddy Doyle. It is the dictionary that lists and explains the words and phrases that Irish people actually use. Each entry is explained in normal dictionary style and the origin of each word or phrase is identified where possible. Subtleties of colloquial usage are illustrated by wide-ranging examples from many recorded sources. Whether you are a decent skin or a crawthumper, a horse-protestant, a hard chaw or a strong farmer, this book is for you. The book is full of fun, information, devilment and craic! It is also a unique piece of scholarship that captures and celebrates the vigorous and inventive world of Irish popular speech.
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