Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 326
Lark’s Eggs: New and Selected Stories by Desmond Hogan
Hardback; 18.00 Euro / 23.50 USD / 12.50 UK; 344 pages
Desmond Hogan is one of the most exciting literary talents to have come out of Ireland in the past half-century. "Larks' Eggs" reaffirms his stature, displaying anew a compressed lyricism, ferocity and sheer prismatic brilliance in these twenty stories from previous collections and twelve fresh ones. Cressida Connolly called 'Airedale', in William Trevor's "The Oxford Book of Short Stories", 'profound, moving and exquisitely executed. Hogan is one of the finest writers alive today and deserves to be much better known.' Joyce Carol Oates describes 'Winter Swimmers', in the Times Literary Supplement, as an 'elegiac, daringly sustained prose poem...a collage of meticulously rendered Irish scenes that weaves in and out of tales of tinkers and youths'. Hogan's compelling tales of diaspora and exile, of subsumed identity and allurement, merge landscape with mindscape. His history-burdened, fragmented personas are distinctly Irish, while exhilaratingly, wholly universal. 'Here's to the storytellers. They made sense of these lonely and driven lives of ours.' The Lilliput Press is proud to introduce Desmond Hogan to a twenty-first century readership.
Winter Blessings: Thoughts and Poems to Warm Your Heart selected by Patricia Scanlan
Hardback; 20.00 Euro / 25.00 USD / 13.00 UK; 190 pages [Add To Basket]
Widely known as one of Ireland’s best-loved writers, here Patricia Scanlan offers readers a glimpse into her own life. In Winter Blessings, Patricia shares her favourite poems, childhood recollection and personal stories that have inspired her spiritual journey – all bound together by the season of short days and frosty nights. From early Christmases with excited siblings in the cocoon of their parents’ love to learning poems by rote ‘on the hard wooden chairs’ of the classroom, and on through later days, suffering from chronic bank pain and struggling to make sense of her own life, here are treasured poems and stories from one woman’s life and her journey towards self-understanding and self-healing. Winter Blessings is a unique and heart-warming book – the perfect fireside companion for all those seeking shelter form that coldest of seasons.
Keeping the Faith: Church of Rome or Church of Christ? By Tony Flannery
Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 11.50 UK; 192 pages
The issues focused on in the book include the following: A. The misuse and abuse of authority by the Church down through the centuries; how this happened, and what structural and systemic change is needed to overcome it. B. Two problematic doctrines that are part of Church teaching: Infallibility and the Virgin Birth. Flannery questions both the meaning and the use made of both. C. Opening up the Church to all believers, including women. D. Abolishing compulsory celibacy for priests.
The Story of Virtue: Universal Lessons on How to Live by Joe Humphreys
Paperback with endflaps; 17.00 Euro / 21.00 USD / 11.00 UK; 250 pages [Add To Basket]
Religion is becoming an increasing source of tension in the world. Fundamentalism is on the rise. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, believers and non-believers are speaking to each other less and distrusting each other more. A clash of civilisations has been predicted. Future conflicts promise to be fought along lines of faith.But it need not be so. "The Story of Virtue" argues that the world's major faiths share much in common - more than many religious leaders will freely admit. Drawing upon core morality tales in Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Confucianism, as well as western secular philosophy, this important work identifies a universal plea for people to be good.The book speaks to religious believers, and those belonging to no organised faith, pointing the way to a shared human ethic - a common set of virtues on which everyone can agree and to which everyone can aspire.Accessible and enlightening, "The Story of Virtue" unearths a wealth of inspiring fables and sacred parables from across the world, thereby filling a gap in understanding between religions. This is a book for anyone who cares about the future of inter-faith relations, and for anyone wishing to answer in his or her own life that perennial question, "How should I live?"
The New World of Work: Labour Markets in Contemporary Ireland edited by Gerry Boucher and Grainne Collins
Trade Paperback; 23.00 Euro / 28.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 280 pages
Working in Ireland has changed dramatically over the last two decades. In the early 1980s, those fortunate to have employment would likely be working in either agriculture or manufacturing and it was expected that the wages received would be adequate for a man to support his family. That has now changed, unemployment has fallen and the new jobs are in the service sector and frequently done by women. Yet we lack research on the effects these changes have on individuals. This is surprising, since work fundamentally shapes our lives, defining who we are, how wealthy we are and how much free time we have to spend with our family and friends and in our communities. This book fills this gap in the research. Various chapters look at how time with families is moulded around the working day; how work is individualised and solidarity fragmented; how workers devise strategies to confront managerial authority; how workers reinvent their identity in the new workplaces; and how immigrants are integrated into and excluded from Irish society through work.
Dail Spats: Explosive Outbursts and Debates in the Dail by Mary Minihan
Paperback; 11.00 Euro / 14.00 USD / 8.50 UK; 340 pages
When the gloves are off, many of our TDs still know how to debate with passion. Here is a selection of the most powerful, humorous and dramatic exchanges that have taken place during the Ahern administrations. Explosive outbursts and bitter spats are documented, along with withering put-downs, creative catcalls and outrageous insults.
Of course, increased political stability in recent years has toned down the histrionics and encouraged deputies to vote slavishly along party lines. Those who visit the Dáil often witness a listless TD in a practically empty chamber droning his way through a pre-prepared speech, coined by spin doctors and littered with recycled soundbites.
But when the scripts are dispensed with and long-running tensions flare up into all-out war, the 'out of order' sparring that results can be sparkling and often hilarious. Dáil Spats provides an insight into the personality clashes, turf wars and scandals that make Irish politics unique. Sometimes serious, sometimes slapstick, the contents of this stimulating book will amuse and inform. This book challenges the widespread perception that Leinster House is an irrelevant talking shop.
The Highland Lady in Dublin 1851-1856: Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus edited by Patricia Pelly and Andrew Tod
Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 26.00 USD / 14.00 UK; 436 pages [Add To Basket]
ELIZABETH GRANT OF ROTHIEMURCHUS, 'THE HIGHLAND LADY' WHOSE MEMOIRS AND DIARIES ARE SUCH A VIVID AND INDIVIDUAL RECORD OF THE FIRST HALF OF HER LONG LIFE IN SCOTLAND, ENGLAND, INDIA, FRANCE AND IRELAND, CONTINUED TO KEEP A JOURNAL DURING THE 1850S.
In the years covered by this volume, she and her husband, Colonel, later General, Henry Smith, and her two unmarried children moved to Dublin. Hers was a busy existence with an invalid husband, a testy aunt who needed to be humoured if only because her favourite niece was to be her principal legatee, an unmarried daughter, and a young son who, despite his mother's wish for him to lead the life of an improving country gentleman back in Co. Wicklow, aspired to follow in his father's footsteps.
Their full part in the Dublin social whirl is entertainingly described, as they move with their Blessington neighbours, such as the Earl and Countess of Milltown and the Hornidges, and their city friends, through the lévees and balls, operas and concerts that graced the season. The estate meantime was far from neglected and the châtelaine of Baltiboys kept a watchful eye on all that occurred in the neighbourhood she loved so well, as well as the increasingly complicated fortunes of her wayward son-in-law whose duplicity contrasted with her own high standards. In town and country, public and family life, her observations and comments cover the full range of society, with shrewd, amusing and often significant insights into her life and times.
This penultimate volume of the Highland Lady's diaries closes with the Crimean War, on all aspects of which she has her own trenchant views. And, tragically, with the development of a cataract in one eye, which she accepted with her characteristic stoicism: 'I don't see well what I write. Instinct guides the pen. A blind old age for the busy bee, a cross indeed with a thousand blessings.'
Andrew Tod was formerly Head of History at Strathallan School. His previous publications include Memoirs of a Highland Lady and A Highland Lady in France, 184-1845. Now retired, he divides his time between his flat in Edinburgh and a cottage in Donegal.
Second Son by Christy Kenneally
Paperback; 10.00 Euro / 13.00 USD / 7.00 UK; 465 pages [Add To Basket]
When Gabriel Flaherty plunges to his death from a cliff in suspicious circumstances, it is left to his brother Michael, a priest from New York, to return home to The Island and uncover what has happened. Michael finds his childhood home much changed. With the opening of a factory, the sea that had given the islanders their livelihoods, as well as claiming so many of their lives, is no longer paramount. But along with steadier incomes and easier lives, the factory has brought suspicion and jealousy. Whilst confronting his past – his estranged father, the old priest who shaped his life and his first love – Michael uncovers an intricate, far-reaching web of evil that touches everyone he knows. But when the close-knit islanders realise the full extent of what is going on, they unite to avenge their own, seeking justice of a different kind. As the net tightens, they hold their breath, waiting to see who will survive…
The Collegians by Gerald Griffin
Paperback; 11.00 Euro / 14.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 290 pages [Add To Basket]
In 1819 the body of a young woman was washed ashore near Kilrush in Co. Clare. Soon after, John Scanlon, son of one of the leading county families was arrested and brought to trial for murder. The brutal murder of "The Colleen Bawn" was to prove, a decade after the event, the ideal framework for a novel in which Griffin vividly expressed both himself and the age in which he lived. The novel combines a hero whose curious psychology paralleled the author's own with a vivid and universal picture of a society in decay. A classic of Irish literature.
Gregory Carr, Bookseller
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