Read Ireland Book Reviews
'Best' Books of 2008 - Non Fiction
13 December 2008
Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney by Dennis O’Driscoll
Hardback; Publishers Recommended Price: 30 Euro. Read Ireland Special Price: 25 Euro / 32 USD / 16 UK; 521 pages, with two 8-page black-and-white photo inserts
Widely regarded as the finest poet of his generation, Seamus Heaney is the subject of numerous critical studies; but no book-length portrait has appeared until now. Through his own lively and eloquent reminiscences, "Stepping Stones" retraces the poet's steps from his early works, through to his receipt of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature and his post-Nobel life. It is supplemented with a large number of photographs, many from the Heaney family album and published here for the first time. In response to firm but subtle questioning from Dennis O'Driscoll, Seamus Heaney sheds a personal light on his work (poems, essays, translations, plays) and on the artistic and ethical challenges he faced, providing an original, diverting and absorbing store of reflections, opinions and recollections.
Great Irish Houses with Forewords by Desmond Fitzgerald, Knight of Glin, The Honourable Desmond Guinness and Photography by Trevor Hunt
Hardback; 55 Euro / 80 USD / 40 UK; [Add To Basket]
With more than 200 beautiful colour photographs by Trevor Hart, one of Ireland’s leading photographers, and forewords by Desmond FitzGerald, Knight of Glin and President of the Irish Georgian Society, and The Hon Desmond Guinness, Great Irish Houses will take the reader on an extraordinary journey through the centuries that ends with the renaissance of Ireland’s historic homes in a vibrant and modern nation. Featuring many of these estates and houses for the first time, and allowing a peek inside many well-known fine houses, this illuminating book reveals how, with the help of the Irish Georgian Society and the commitment of their owners, these houses now stand as a fantastic showcase for Irish architecture, design and craftsmanship.
Doorways of Ireland by Michael Fewer
Large Format Hardback; Publishers Recommended Price: 22 Euro. Read Ireland Special Price: 16 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 130 pages, with full colour photographs throughout
We all relate readily to doorways - the possibilities they open up, their romance. The doorway tells us much about a building, its purpose and its occupier; and it has, throughout the ages, attracted the art of the designer and the skill of the craftsman perhaps more than any other architectural element. Michael Fewer takes a relaxed and imaginative look at how the idea of the entrance to a building has been dealt with by the builders, designers and craftsmen of Ireland from the earliest times until the present day. He considers function, style, composition, components and materials, together with design influences. The doors he examines range from the humblest to the most impressive, and from the architecturally significant to the whimsical, from the Seefin cairn at Kilbride, County Wicklow, dating from 3000 BC, to the eighteenth-century doors of Merrion Square, Dublin, and, coming right up to date, the doors of the National Gallery Millennium Wing. Describes and illustrates 54 doorways all over Ireland, from Neolithic times to the present day Provides a unique slant on the colourful history and architecture of Ireland By a knowledgeable and popular author
The Irish Pub by Turtle Bunbury and James Fennell
Large Format Hardback; Publishers Recommended Price: 40 Euro. Read Ireland Special Price: 32 Euro / 42 USD / 21 UK; 200 pages, with full colour illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
This nostalgic and entertaining tour of Ireland's most individual hostelries presents the historic pubs that epitomize the country's essential charm. They range from the richly decorated Victorian bars of Belfast and Dublin to country shop bars that double as grocery stores, where the decor consists of shelves laden with tins of fruit and packets of tea. Each pub is covered in four or six pages, with about 1,000 words of colorful description, history and anecdote, and atmospheric photographs that capture its interior and ambiance.
The News from Ireland: Foreign Correspondents and the Irish Revolution by Maurice Walsh
Hardback; 26 Euro / 36 USD / 18 UK; 250 pages
The Anglo-Irish war of 1919-1921 was an international historical landmark: the first successful revolution against British rule and the beginning of the end of the Empire. But the Irish revolutionaries did not win their struggle on the battlefield their key victory was in mobilising public opinion in Britain and the rest of the world. Journalists and writers flocked to Ireland, where the increasingly brutal conflict was seen as the crucible for settling some of the key issues of the new world order emerging from the ruins of the First World War. On trial was the British Empire s claim to be the champion of civilisation as well as the principle of self-determination proclaimed by the American president Woodrow Wilson. The News from Ireland vividly explores the work of British and American correspondents in Ireland as well as other foreign journalists and literary figures. It offers a penetrating and persuasive assessment of the Irish revolution s place in a key moment of world history as well as the role of the press and journalism in the conflict. This important book will be essential reading for anyone interested in Irish history and how our understanding of history generally is shaped by the media.
Connemara: The Last Pool of Darkness by Tim Robinson
Hardback; Publishers Recommended Price 30 Euro. Read Ireland Special Price: 22 Euro / 30 USD / 15 UK; 373 pages [Add To Basket]
The first volume of Tim Robinson's Connemara trilogy, "Listening to the Wind" now available in paperback, covered Robinson's home territory of Roundstone and environs. "The Last Pool of Darkness" moves into wilder territory: the fjords, cliffs, hills and islands of north-west Connemara, a place that Wittgenstein, who lived on his own in a cottage there for a time, called 'the last pool of darkness in Europe'. Again, combining his polymathic knowledge of Connemara's natural history, human history, folklore and topography with his own unsurpassable artistry as a writer, Tim Robinson has produced another classic.
God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland by Micheal O Siochru
Large Format Trade Paperback; 17 Euro / 24 USD / 12 UK; 310 pages, with an 8-page full colour photograph insert [Add To Basket]
Cromwell spent only nine months of his eventful life in Ireland, yet he stands accused there of war crimes, religious persecution and ethnic cleansing. The massacre of thousands of soldiers and civilians by the New Model Army at both Drogheda and Wexford in 1649 must rank among the greatest atrocities in Anglo-Irish history: a tale that makes decidedly uncomfortable reading for those keen to focus on Cromwell's undoubted military and political achievements elsewhere. In a century of unrelenting, bloody warfare and religious persecution throughout Europe, Cromwell was, in many ways, a product of his times. As commander-in-chief of the army in Ireland, however, the responsibilities for the excesses of the military must be laid firmly at his door, while the harsh nature of the post-war settlement also bears his personal imprint. Cromwell was no monster, but he did commit monstrous acts. A warrior of Christ, somewhat like the crusaders of medieval Europe, he acted as God's executioner, convinced throughout the horrors of the legitimacy of his cause, and striving to build a better world for the chosen few. He remains, therefore, a remarkably modern figure, somebody to be closely studied and understood, rather than simply revered or reviled.
The Battle of Tourmakeady: A Study of the IRA Ambush and Its Aftermath by Donal Buckley
Hardback; 20 Euro / 29 USD / 14 UK; 144 pages [Add To Basket]
On 3 May 1921, the IRA's South Mayo Brigade Flying Column, commanded by Commandant Tom Maguire, ambushed an RIC/Black and Tan resupply patrol in the village of Tourmakeady, in order to destroy the patrol and to cause the closure of Derrypark RIC Barracks, seven miles to the south. Following the ambush the Flying Column took to the nearby Party Mountain and was subsequently engaged by British troops from the Border Regiment. The IRA commander said that the Flying Column was surrounded by up to 600 troops and that they fought their way out, inflicting up to 50 casualties and suffering 3.A Border Regiment Company Commander says that he shot the three IRA casualties and that he was the only British soldier wounded in the encounter. Was this a major success for the South Mayo Brigade IRA as is now generally accepted? Was it a minor action for a platoon from 'C' Company, 2 Battalion, The Border Regiment? What really happened? This book studies the available evidence in detail and for the first time puts into place the actual sequence of events surrounding the ambush and the Battle of Tourmakeady.
Traditional Boats of Ireland: History, Folklore and Construction edited by Criostoir Mac Carthaigh
Very Large Hardback; 60 Euro / 90 USD / 45 UK; 600 pages, with full colour photos throughout [Add To Basket]
Two centuries ago sail and oar dominated local Irish trade and fisheries. At least 60 traditional boats operated. This remarkable work, many years in the making, describes these craft, their construction and handling, usage and history, with recollections by old men who experienced the often arduous life associated with them. Many craft have survived in the life of coastal and island communities. A revival in traditional boats for leisure and sport now allows them to prosper as many are restored and replicas built. Arranged by coastal area, the contributors include local historians, boat-builders, sailors, former fishermen, and classic boat enthusiasts. Traditional Boats of Ireland looks beyond technical descriptions of boats to the background to their use. Changing patterns of fishing and water transport are considered, and the wider role of boats in people's lives boat racing, dramas at sea, and other stories of human interest. This brings alive the array of craft once a feature of our coasts, lakes and rivers. Gloriously illustrated with evocative photographs, exquisite boat plans and maps, this wonderful work is the finest and most complete description of Ireland's traditional boats.
Bard of Erin: The Life of Thomas Moore by Ronan Kelly
Hardback; Publishers Recommended Price: 40 Euro. Read Ireland Sale Price 32 Euro / 44 USD / 22 UK; 630 pages [Add To Basket]
Colm Toibin has called Thomas Moore 'the most influential figure in shaping the Irish psyche'. Through his Irish Melodies, Moore created an iconography of silenced harps, misty landscapes and round towers that lives on today, more than a century and a half after his death. In "Bard of Erin", Ronan Kelly tells the story of Moore's extraordinary life. From humble beginnings in Dublin to glittering social and literary success in London (at one point his popularity was eclipsed only by that of Sir Walter Scott and his close friend Lord Byron), Moore lived in the glow of fame and under the burden of national expectation. Ronan Kelly's biography is a gripping and definitive account of a great romantic figure.
Ireland’s Misfortune: The Turbulent Life of Kitty O’Shea by Elizabeth Kehoe
Large Format Trade Paperback; 17 Euro / 24 USD / 12 UK; 586 pages [Add To Basket]
At the end of the nineteenth century, Charles Stewart Parnell, MP, was the only man who both the English government and Irish radicals believed could secure Home Rule for Ireland. But when Parnell met and fell in love with Kitty O'Shea, a married woman, Parnell's life - and Ireland's history - would change for ever. When Parnell was named as co-respondent in Kitty's divorce and revealed as the father of three of Kitty's children it would trigger the most notorious scandal of the Victorian era.Elisabeth Kehoe's vivid biography introduces us to a woman who is unrecognisable from the home-wrecker and historical catastrophe she is commonly seen as. From this book emerges, for the first time, the real Katie O'Shea: a gifted woman bound by impossible financial and social restrictions who influences political policy with an acuity and sensitivity sorely lacking in her Irish lover. "Ireland's Misfortune" is a compelling account of one of history's most misunderstood women and offers a fresh insight into a defining moment in Irish history.
Angels in My Hair: The True Story of a Modern-Day Irish Mystic by Lorna Byrne
Large Format Paperback; 15 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 324 pages [Add To Basket]
Angels In My Hair is the autobiography of a modern day mystic, an Irish woman with powers of the saints of old. When she was a child, people thought Lorna was 'retarded' because she did not seem to be focussing on that was around her. Lorna remembers seeing not just the world around her but seeing, equally vividly, angels and spirits. For many years she assumed everyone saw the same. As Lorna tells the story of her life, growing up in a poor family, later working in Dublin, marrying and experiencing family tragedy, the reader meets, as she did, the creatures from the spirit worlds who also inhabit our own - mostly angels of an astonishing beauty and variety, including the prophet Elijah and an Archangel - but also the spirits of people who have died. Today, it is not only the sick and troubled who come to visit Lorna, looking for healing and consolation, but theologians of different faiths and the head of a religious order in Rome travel to see her for guidance and spriritual insight. This remarkable document is the testimony of a woman who sees things at the far end of the spectrum, beyond the range of our everyday experience.
Great Hatred Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland by Jonathan Powell
Large Paperback; 16 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 304 pages [Add To Basket]
The Blair administration's pursuit of a lasting settlement in Northern Ireland stands out as one of the great achievements in modern British politics. * Even after the initial moves towards a peace, there was every chance that long-nursed grievances would break out again into paramilitary extremism. That they did not is a lasting monument to the determination and guile of many of those involved. As the government's key negotiator, Jonathan Powell is uniquely qualified to give the definitive account of the end of the Troubles. Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland will become a landmark in the literature of conflict resolution: an historical document of lasting importance that is also a vivid and dramatic account of fallible men and women working at the limits of their endurance.
Irish Walled Towns by John Givens
Hardback; 30 Euro / 40 USD / 20 UK; 250 pages, with full colour photographs, maps and illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
Ireland's history can literally be found in its walled towns. The Vikings in 9th century Dublin, the Anglo-Normans in 13th century Fethard, and the English Planters in 17th century Derry all found themselves surrounded by intransigent belligerents and responded by building walls. These walls were instrumental in the history, development and layout of Ireland's key towns and cities and are essential to an overall understanding of Irish history. In "Irish Walled Towns", the story of each of 20 key settlement areas throughout Ireland is told. Illustrated with contemporary photographs as well as historical maps and drawings, "Irish Walled Towns" explores a fascinating aspect of Ireland's history and heritage. Towns and cities profiled in "Irish Walled Towns" include Athenry, Athlone, Carlingford, Carrickfergus, Cashel, Clonmel, Cork, Derry, Drogheda, Dublin, Feathard, Galway, Kilkenny, Kilmallock, Limerick, New Ross, Trim, Waterford, Wexford and Youghal.
Please note: Prices were correct at time of original posting but are subject to subsequent change without notice.
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