Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 219
History
The Celts: A History by Raithi O Hogain
Trade paperback with flaps; 20.00 Euro / 23.50 USD / 15.00 UK; Collins Press, 296 pages [Add To Basket]
The Celts were one of the most important population groups ever to spread across the ancient European continent. From 800BC to 1050AD, the story of the Celts is one of expanding power and influence followed by contraction and near extinction. Drawing on all possible sources of evidence, from the material archaeological remains of ancient Greece and Rome to the surviving native Celtic cultural influences, the author outlines the history of the people known as the Celts. The reader follows the evolution of this culture as it gains strength, from its earliest origins in central Europe, through tumult and destruction, to its 'twilight' and dwindling survival in the far west. Yet, while this once important culture managed to survive in some areas only, the influence of the Celts is far more wide-spread. It remains a vital component of European history and heritage from east to west. The book contains some maps and an 8-page black-and-white photo insert.
Recoveries: Neglected Episodes in Irish Cultural History 1860-1912 by John Wilson Foster
Hardback; 30.00 Euro / 35.00 USD / 20.00 UK; UCD Press, 158 pages [Add To Basket]
In three fascinating contributions to the little-researched subject of the history of science in Ireland, the author looks at neglected episodes in Irish cultural history from mid-Victorian to Edwardian times. He discusses Darwinism in late nineteenth-century Ireland and its impact on Irish churchmen, with special reference to Darwin's champion John Tyndall, who famous declaration of materialism in his Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Belfast, 1874 provoked a vehement response from the leaders of the Protestant as well as Catholic churches. He then moves to the Belfast of 1911 and the building and launching of the 'Titanic', which he sees as the culmination of the engineering genius of Belfast from the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth century. In his third essay, he looks at the growing interest in Belfast towards the end of the nineteenth century in amateur scientific fieldwork (for example, botany) encouraged by the values and preoccupations of Victorian culture.
To the Leaders of Our Working People by Standish James O'Grady
Paperback; 17.00 Euro / 20.00 USD / 12.00 UK; UCD Press, 119 pages [Add To Basket]
This book contains the author's important but little-known pieces from 'The Irish Worker', written in 1912-13. Although O'Grady has usually been regarded as a Protestant unionist, he was always a maverick and, later in life, shared the columns of 'The Irish Worker' with socialists such as Jim Larkin, James Connolly and Sean O'Casey. He makes militant statements against capitalism and uses military vocabulary to advocate a commune system. He would not have supported armed insurrection, yet his rhetoric is a stirring call for action. This book is part of the Classics of Irish History series.
Victory and Woe: The West Limerick Brigade in the War of Independence b Mossie Hartnett
Paperback; 18.00 Euro / 21.50 USD / 13.00 UK; UCD Press, 168 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is a fascinating account of life at the grassroots during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War by the Officer Commanding, 2nd Battalion, West Limerick Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. Mossie Hartnett (1893-1977), who fought on the Anti-Treaty side in the Civil War, describes his early life on a farm in Tournafulia in the southwest corner of Limerick, his enrolment in the Irish Volunteers in 1915, and his involvement in the conflict until his release from a Free State prison in 1923. In an appendix, the British troops' little-known and short-lived practice of taking hostages in order to protect themselves is vividly described by Mossie's cousin, Dr. Edward Hartnett, who was taken hostage in the Spring of 1921. This book is part of the Classics of Irish History series.
Free State or Republic?: Pen Pictures of the Historic Treaty Session of Dail Eireann by Padraig de Burca and John F. Boyle
Paperback; 14.00 Euro / 17.00 USD / 10.00 UK; UCD Press, 98 pages [Add To Basket]
This book contains eye-witness accounts by two reporters from the 'Irish Independent' newspaper of the historic Treaty debates of Dail Eireann, held in University College Dublin's Earlsfort Terrace building in December 1921 and January 1922. Eamon de Valera, Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, and a host of other participants come to life in these pages. The colourful descriptions of the scene and of the reactions to speeches, written while the debates were in progress, are far more revealing than the published records of the debates. This book was originally published in 1922, and this reprint is part of the Classics of Irish History series.
Ireland Since 1939 by Henry Patterson
Paperback; 17.50 Euro / 21.50 USD / 10.00 UK; OUP, 406 pages [Add To Basket]
This book traces the historical development in Ireland north and south of the border since the outbreak of World War II. It explores the dramatic events of the past 60 years, from the signing of the 1938 Anglo-Irish Agreement by de Valera and Chamberlain to the current peace talks. Ireland's ongoing struggle to reconcile its internal disagreements is documents through the decades - from the growth of the Orange Order, the formation of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party in the early 1970s, the reverberations of the Haughey government in the 1980s, and the atrocities committed by the paramilitary organizations. As well as tracing the extraordinary economic growth and expansion, the author places political development within an international context, citing the toppling of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, and the end of apartheid as events that inspired a more pragmatic approach to the Irish troubles - spurred on by such key players as John Hume and David Trimble (joint recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize), Gerry Adams and Mo Mowlam, to bring about peace on the island of Ireland.
The Murder of Conell Boyle, County Donegal, 1898 by Frank Sweeney
Paperback; 9.95 Euro / 12.00 USD / 7.50 UK; Four Courts Press, 64 pages [Add To Basket]
On 30 August, 1898, a sixty-year-old widower, living alone, was murdered in his own single-roomed home in a quiet townland in north-west Donegal. This brutal event sent shock waves through the local community because there was no apparent reason for his death. He had no contentious involvement with his landlord, nor did he have any interest in religious, agrarian or political agitation either locally or nationally. He was a man of little money, living on a few acres of broken mountainland in a scattered townland best described in 1898 as a peasant society. This study sets out to examine that murder and its aftermath in the context of a changing society in north-west Donegal at that time when the long established and well-embedded, centuries-old, local Gaelic culture was being overtaken by the rapid intrusion of the expanding institutions of the state. The murder provides a suitable vehicle to examine the attitudes of a small remote community to this ever-changing world and their resilient efforts to deal with events according to their own standards rather than bow to the external powers of the intrusive state institutions.
Fr. Michael Dungan's Blanchardstown, 1836-1868 by Elizabeth Cronin
Paperback; 9.95 Euro / 12.00 USD / 7.50 UK; Four Courts Press, 64 pages [Add To Basket]
In 1826, seven hundred parishioners from the Catholic parish of Blanchardstown sent a petition to Archbishop Murray requesting that he institute an inquiry among the laity, who complained of 'a system of neglect unexampled in any other parish in the diocese'. This neglect, according to the parishioners arose from the many changes of curates and from 'the unfortunate circumstances of the Rev. Gentleman over them having devoted himself to concerns by which he became a stranger in his own parish and lost the respect which is necessary between pastor and flock'. It is against this background that thirty-seven-year-old Fr. Michael Dungan took up his appointment as parish pries of St. Brigid's, Blanchardstown, on 29 October 1836. He was the first Maynooth parish priest to serve there. This study attempts to reconstruct the parish as it was in the period of that pastorate, 1836-1868. This period was a formative time in the life of the Irish Church. The changes and developments that took place in this parish may be seen as a microcosm of what was happening in the archdiocese of Dublin and in the country as a whole. The study profiles a parish priest who accomplished great changes, because he was not only an energetic highly organized administrator, but also a great facilitator.
The Story of the Irish Pub by Cian Molloy
Trade Paperback; 22.50 Euro / 28.00 USD / 15.00 UK; Liffey Press, 308 pages [Add To Basket]
One of the most honoured ranks in Ancient Celtic society was that of 'briugu', or 'hospitaller', who was only worthy of the status if he had 'a never-dry cauldron, a dwelling on a public road and a welcome to every face.' According to the medieval historians, a brewer and a hospitalier were among the very first people to set foot on the soil of Ireland following the Great Flood of the Bible. The Pub occupies a very special place in Irish social history, yet surprisingly little has been written about it. This book tells the story of licensed premises in Ireland from ancient times to the present day in an informative and highly entertaining way. The author describes all the major developments in the history of the pub and unearths many amusing facts and figures about the licensed trade in the context of Irish history in general. Following the history of the licensed trade are profiles of over 100 pubs that have been owned by the same family for over 100 years. A photograph and brief description of each pub is included, as well as stories from their often glorious pasts. These pubs are scattered all across Ireland and a map is included to help readers locate them. This book will be of keen interest to social historians, visitors looking for the 'real' pub experience, and anyone who has that special affection for the pub and the role it has played in Irish society over the years.
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