Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 346
Field Day Review 2006 edited by Seamus Deane and Breandan Mac Suibhne
Large Format Paperback with Endflaps – 35.00 Euro / 42.00 USD / 28.00 UK; 350 pages
FIELD DAY REVIEW is an annual publication primarily concerned with Irish political and literary culture; it includes richly illustrated articles and essays and reviews of recent books in history, literature and cultural studies.
Contents: ~ Siobhán Kilfeather, Alice Maher’s Materials ~ James Chandler, A Discipline in Shifting Perspective: Why We Need Irish Studies ~ Emer Nolan, Irish Melodies and Discordant Politics: Thomas Moore’s Memoirs of Captain Rock (1824) ~ Marjorie Howes, Postcolonial Yeats: Culture, Enlightenment, and the Public Sphere ~ Maud Ellmann, Ulysses: Changing into an Animal ~ Peter McQuillan, Suairceas in the Seventeenth Century ~ Michael Griffin and Breandán Mac Suibhne, Da’s Boat; or, Can the Submarine Speak? A Voyage to O’Brazeel (1752) and other Glimpses of the Irish Atlantis ~ Sara Smyth, Shooting for the State? Photos from the National Photographic Archive ~ Susan McKay, ‘You can make your wee film. But no cameras’: Unionism in 2005 ~ Richard Bourke, Antigone and After: ‘Ethnic’ Conflict in Historical Perspective ~ Joe Cleary, The World Literary System: Atlas and Epitaph ~ Katie Trumpener, ‘The Stasi is My Eckermann’ ~ Joseph P. Buttigieg, Empire of Liberty: A Futile and Bloody Aspiration ~ Terry Eagleton, Fascists ~ John Gibney, Reading, Writing and Print in Early Modern Ireland ~ T. H. Breen, An Irish Revolution in Eighteenth-Century America? ~ Enda Leaney, Vested Interests: Science and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Ireland ~ Gavin Foster, In the Shadow of the Split: Writing the Irish Civil War ~ Tony Crowley, Monolingual Ireland’s Dead and Gone … ~ Willy Maley, Letter from Glasgow: Where the Streets have No Shame
Reviews by Peter Gray, Nicholas Allen, Liam Harte, Máirín Nic Eoin, Bill Kissane, D. Alan Orr
Reading Michael Longley by Fran Brearton
Trade Paperback; 19 Euro / 25 USD / 12 UK; 280 pages [Add To Basket]
Michael Longley has been called 'one of the finest lyric poets of our century' (John Burnside). This ground-breaking study is the first full-length assessment of his work, and looks in turn at all the major collections he has published over the past 40 years, and at the extraordinary growth of his reputation and influence. Fran Brearton's reading of Longley's work relates the development of his poetry to the recent literary and political history of Northern Ireland, and to the Irish poetic tradition from Yeats to the present day. In placing Longley's poetry in a network of cultural influences, and evaluating its critical reception, her study also engages with key debates in the criticism of modern poetry in English. She offers a broadly chronological reading of Longley's work from the 1960s to the present day, tracing thematic continuities across his collections. Longley's long silence between "The Echo Gate" (1979) and "Gorse Fires" (1991), she argues, helped him to re-shape and strengthen his poetry, so that his later work is in some ways a re-reading of his earlier poetry, but taken in new and unexpected directions. In this highly readable book, Fran Brearton draws on letters, manuscripts, published and personal interviews with Michael Longley, as well as on his memoir, "Tuppenny Stung", and his recent researches into his father's military career. She shows how his poetry is shaped by the dislocations and tensions of his English parentage and Irish upbringing, making him one of the most imaginatively various and formally inventive poets writing today.
The Fertile Rock: Seasons in the Burren by Carsten Krieger
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 162 pages, with full colour photos throughout
The Burren in County Clare on Ireland's west coast is a most enigmatic landscape - a unique mixture of fertile and barren, wild and domestic, visible and invisible. Stunningly beautiful but threatened, it captivates and perplexes and is of inordinate cultural significance. As poet Michael Longley wrote: 'we owe the place respect, courtesy, reverence'. This book takes you on a visual journey through and around the Burren during the four seasons. Conveying the serene beauty and unique aura of this ancient landscape the pictures, images of stunning natural beauty, tell their own story: the changing face of the Burren from season to season, the rich flora and diverse fauna, important heritage sites, small details of stone, and wider panoramic views of the landscape. While photos play a key role expressing the visual impact of the Burren, this is more than another photo book, it is a celebration of the place. For almost three years Carsten Krieger spent an average of 3 days per week on this project. It became a central part of his life: waiting for the perfect light, for the wind to die down, for the creatures of the Burren to come into the open, discovering the most beautiful and magical places, drinking tea with the people of the Burren. The result: he delivers the essence of his subject in a manner sympathetic to the everchanging panorama of weather, tone and light found in that rich landscape.
Day Tours from Dublin by Michael Fewer
Paperback; 13.00 Euro / 16.00 USD / 9.50 UK; 188 pages [Add To Basket]
"Day Tours from Dublin" takes the reader on twenty itineraries, all accessible in a single day by car from anywhere in the city. It includes such destinations as Avondale, Courtown Harbour, Ballitore and Moone, Birr Castle, Clonmacnoise, Tullynally, Newgrange and Slieve Gullion. Each route is described in detail in Michael Fewer's inimitable, lucid and compelling prose. He writes knowledgeably of history, folklore and, in particular, the built environment. In the Ballitore and the Moone tour, for instance, you learn that the Dublin Gliding Club, whose gates you pass, welcomes visitors; that Ballymore Eustace was the first Norman town on the Liffey protecting a river crossing; and that in Killeen Cormac you can find the grave of King Cormac of Munster. "Day Tours from Dublin" is the perfect family guide and will appeal to the growing market for offbeat leisure activity in the greater Dublin region.
The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett edited by C.J. Ackerley and S.E. Gontarski
Large Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 686 pages
"The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett" is the most comprehensive reference to the ideas, characters, and life of Samuel Beckett. Alphabetically ordered and cross-referenced, it provides a wealth of information for all serious readers of Beckett. "The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett" is published to coincide with the centenary of his birth. It is a must-have reference book for Beckett fans, drama students, and theatre-lovers.
Animals of Ireland by Gordon D’Arcy
Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout
Ireland possesses a fascinating variety of wildlife: bats and voles, shrews and hedgehogs, badgers and stoats are just a few of the animals sharing the country with man. This pocket guide is intended not only as a guide to their identification but also as a source of information about their lifestyles and survival needs. Each animal is beautifully illustrated in full color and the accompanying descriptive text draws attention to its main features and habits. This book will alert readers to the range of Ireland's wild animals and will help them detect their presence from the tell-tale signs.
Irish Castles by Terence Reeves-Smyth
Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout [Add To Basket]
While the number and variety of castles scattered throughout Ireland testify to a turbulent past, visiting them today is frequently a fascinating and tranquil experience. This guide lists all the Irish castles that are both accessible and worth visiting. They range from early fortifications and medieval towers to the great Norman fortresses such as those at Trim and Carrickfergus and the Renaissance castles of Kanturk and Burncourt. Each has its own particular character and story to tell. Together they represent an astonishingly rich contribution to Ireland's heritage.
Irish Family Names by Ida Grehan
Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout [Add To Basket]
This handy, pocket-sized guide lists and describes eighty well-known Irish family names and explains the history of associations of each. Eighty families have been chosen from thousands, not merely because they are historically important and still numerous, but also because of their often outstanding personalities. Illustrations showing the shields of each family are also included, as are additional sections providing the meaning and place of origin or a further eighty popular names and crests for around another family names.
Irish Place Names by P.W. Joyce
Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout [Add To Basket]
Eighty families have been chosen from thousands, not merely because they are historically important and still numerous, but also because of their often outstanding personalities. Illustrations showing the shields of each family are also included, as are additional sections providing the meaning and place of origin or a further eighty popular names and crests for around another family names.
Irish Trees and Shrubs by Peter Wyse-Jackson
Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout [Add To Basket]
It describes in detail over sixty of the most common species of the countryside: plants that are found naturally in Ireland and others introduced from other countries which have gone wild. Each variety is illustrated in full color, making this an attractive and indispensable guide which no lover of the Irish countryside will want to be without.
A Short History of Ireland by Martin Wallace
Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout [Add To Basket]
A Short History of Ireland traces the successive invasions of Celts, Vikings and Normans, the Tudor and Stuart settlements and the gradual emergence of the 'Irish Question' in British politics. The failure of the union with Great Britain and the consequent partition of the island is described, and developments in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in modern times discussed.
Succinct biographies of prominent figures, descriptions of major historical sites and a list of important dates are included, making this an ideal introduction for anyone with an interest in Ireland.
Maestro of Crystal: The Story of Miroslav Havel and His Role in Waterford Crystal by Brian F. Havel
Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 11.00 UK; 270 pages [Add To Basket]
This work talks about how a young man from Czechoslovakia became the genius behind the celebrated designs of Waterford Crystal (including his signature Lismore pattern). Miroslav Havel came to Waterford from his home in Czechoslovakia at the age of 25, intending to stay only three months. He had been trained in glass-making at the prestigious High School of Industrial Design in Prague. Teaming up with an eccentric Czech businessman, Karel Bacik, Havel kept extending his stay in Ireland while the two men revived a crystal glass tradition that crippling British excise taxes had ended nearly two centuries before. The book traces Havel's early years growing up in Czechoslovakia, his father's bizarre business dealings and tempestuous lifestyle, his formation as a glass designer, his experiences during the Nazi occupation of his country, his mentor Bacik's sudden flight to Ireland, and Havel's strange adventures as a naive Czechoslovak joining Bacik in a distant country he mistakenly associated with tropical fruits and sunshine. The book explores how, after Bacik sold his interest to a group of Irish entrepreneurs, Havel remained in Ireland to guide the rise of Waterford Crystal by adapting antique Waterford crystal designs to modern production processes. It explains how his creative genius inspired him not only to design and install the magnificent chandeliers that now adorn Westminster Abbey and the Kennedy Centre in Washington, but to develop the beautiful suites of heavy lead crystal glasses that created a trusted brand identity for millions of consumers throughout the world.
Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age by Barry Raftery
Large Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 240 pages, with black-and-white illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
Our established impressions of early Celtic Ireland have come down to us through the great Irish myths and sagas, yet how do these images compare with archaeological evidence? The author seeks to present a comprehensive and lucid account of the Irish Iron Age. He discusses advances that took place in travel and transport; the common people; the local metalsmiths; and the religious beliefs exemplified by standing stones and offerings in lakes and rivers. New material is examined on Ireland's contact with the Roman world and the final chapter reviews whether La Tene culture was spread to Ireland through invasion or diffusion.
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