Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 420
A New History of Ireland vol. 1: Prehistoric and Early Ireland edited by Daibhi O Croinin
Large Format Paperback; 40 Euro / 54 USD / 27 UK; 1250 pages, with black-and-white plates
Finally, in paperback, A New History of Ireland is the largest scholarly project in modern Irish history. In 9 volumes, it provides a comprehensive new synthesis of modern scholarship on every aspect of Irish history and prehistory, from the earliest geological and archaeological evidence, through the Middle Ages, down to the present day. Volume I begins by looking at geography and the physical environment. Chapters follow that examine pre-3000, neolithic, bronze-age and iron-age Ireland and Ireland up to 800. Society, laws, church and politics are all analysed separately as are architecture, literature, manuscripts, language, coins and music. The volume is brought up to 1166 with chapters, amongst others, on the Vikings, Ireland and its neighbours, and opposition to the High-Kings. A final chapter moves further on in time, examining Latin learning and literature in Ireland to 1500.
Making Peace with the Past!: Memory, Trauma and the Irish Troubles by Graham Dawson
Hardback; 90 Euro / 120 USD / 60 UK; 392 pages [Add To Basket]
This book explores the psychic, cultural, and political ramifications of memory within the Irish troubles. It investigates the traumatic impact of the violence perpetrated since 1969; the antagonistic cultural narratives of memory fashioned and mobilized in this context within public and private arenas; and the conflicts, paradoxes, and contradictions involved in "coming to terms with the past" both before and during the Irish peace process initiated in 1993-94. It traces the formation from below of competing public narratives--one concerned with the "ethnic cleansing" of Protestants by the Irish Republican Army, the other with British state violence on Bloody Sunday--and analyses their subjective roots in specific experiences of fear and loss, their role in ideological struggle, and their complicated relation to private, familial, and individual remembering.
Transforming the Peace Process edited by Aaron Edwards and Stephen Bloomer
Large Format Paperback; 27 Euro / 36 USD / 18 UK; 250 pages
This book focuses on the decade since the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998, as political and paramilitary actors attempt to adjust to the rigors of democratic participation. It delineates the key stumbling blocks in the current peace and political processes and examines in detail just how the conversion from terrorism to democratic politics is being managed in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It aims to fill a gap in the literature by juxtaposing top-level political party and inter-governmental politics alongside middle-range civil society interventions and grass-roots community level politics. Moreover, it provides an empirically informed examination of the central political ideologies, parties and identities at play, as well as the methodologies by which paramilitary groupings are attempting to deal with the legacies of the past conflict. The book draws its contributors from across the disciplinary boundaries of political science, history, anthropology, sociology and political sociology and is situated within a broad analytical and theoretical framework.
Through Streets Broad and Narrow: A History of Dublin Trams by Michael Corcoran
Large Format Paperback; 15 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 160 pages, with black and white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
At its peak the tramway system in Dublin had a fleet of over 300 tramcars running on its unique 5ft 3in gauge tracks. From the 1870s through to the final abandonment of the tramways in Dublin in 1949, the tramcar was a vital part of the life of the city. This book sets out the story of the growth and decline of the urban tramways of Dublin from the first horse trams of the 1870s to the luxury cars of the 1930s. An additional chapter deals with the famous Hill of Howth line, Ireland's last tramway, which survived until 1959. The other lines in the greater Dublin area, the Dublin & Blessington and the Dublin & Lucan are also dealt with. All the information a tramway enthusiast could wish for is covered here, including route maps and fleet lists, but it is also a social history of the city throughout the tram era. The story of the tramways is put in the context of the condition of the city and its people which is revealed in a detailed examination of the public services, housing, policing, living costs and a variety of other measures. These are reviewed at certain key dates throughout the story. The industrial strife which culminated in the famous lockout of 1913, that battle of wills between the larger than life figure of James Larkin and William Martin Murphy is discussed. How the legacy of poor industrial relations from that time rippled through to the late twentieth century is also explored. This trauma was quickly followed by the political turmoil of the period from 1916 to 1922. Despite the great material damage which the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War inflicted on Dublin the trams kept on running, serving the citizens as they always had.
Thomas Kinsella: Designing for the Exact Needs by Maurice Harmon
Large Format Paperback; 25 Euro / 32 USD / 16 UK; 246 pages
This comprehensive study interprets Thomas Kinsella's extraordinary progress from lyric poems and meditations about fragility and impermanence to complex assessments of individual isolation and helplessness in the modern world. His work, which has been knitted to Dublin city, expresses his engagement with Irish life and culture in 'Nightwalker', Poems from Centre City, Personal Places, and The Pen Shop. His involvement with Irish history, evident in his absorption with the past and his creative interpretation of the arrival and settling in of prehistoric people, is demonstrated in his extensive translations from Irish literature. He is also a universal poet who has explored Jungian archetypes in New Poems, psychological stress in the 'Wormwood' sequence, and the notion of meaninglessness in Her Vertical Smile and of living on the edge in Marginal Economy. In his persistent search for understanding he has examined the effects of evil whether expressed in man's proclivity for destruction, the direct concern of Man of War, or the reality of death in the elegies for Seán Ó Riada, John F. Kennedy, and his own father. Deprived of a community of shared values and the reassurances of philosophy or religion, he has conducted a systematic investigation of the question of causality and responsibility in the human and divine spheres, whether articulated by artists like Gustav Mahler or Seán Ó Riada or thinkers like St Augustine, Eriugena or Aurelius, and has verified the role of the artist as measured and exact recorder. His poems dramatise issues through narrative, elegy, allegory, and myth and commemorate love, ceremony, natural beauty and creativity itself.
Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival by Eugene McNulty
Hardback; 40 Euro / 56 USD / 28 UK; 258 pages [Add To Basket]
This is the first book-length study dedicated to the Ulster Literary Theatre. Officially established in 1904, the same year as Dublin's Abbey Theatre, this Belfast nationalist theatre has long awaited a full reassessment of its role in the development of a specifically Irish Drama. The Ulster Literary Theatre was considered by many contemporaries to be the equal of the Abbey Theatre, certainly in terms of energy, output and nationalist commitment. In the first decade of its existence this Belfast company produced a number of significant and exciting works, including the early efforts of Rutherford Mayne and the extraordinary burlesques of Gerald MacNamara. In so doing, it provided a key forum in which Ulster s cultural politics could be explored and performed. Drawing particularly on the northern group's early history, Eugene McNulty explores this intriguing performance history of Belfast's own nationalist theatre. In the course of this study a number of key issues are re-examined: the Ulster Literary Theatre's relationship with the Abbey Theatre; Ulster s role in the Irish Literary Revival; the interaction between northern cultural nationalism and an evolving Ulster Unionist politics. In all of this McNulty argues for a reassessment of the politics of the Revival, and insists upon the importance of a 'northern revival' and its significance for a fuller understanding of this crucial period in Irish history.
Guide to Irish Mythology by Daragh Smyth
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 14 UK; 200 pages [Add To Basket]
This guide, structured alphabetically with a helpful cross-reference system, allows the reader to delve into the ornate world of Irish mythology and its four cycles of tales: the Mythological Cycle, the Ulster Cycle, the Fenian or Ossianic Cycle, and the Historical Cycle or Cycle of Kings. The characters associated with each of these cycles are vividly brought to life ñ heroes such as C?chulainn, OisÌn, Cormac mac Airt, Conchobar mac Nessa, Finn and the Fianna.
The Generation Game by David McWilliams
Paperback; 13 Euro / 18 USD / 9 UK; 296 pages [Add To Basket]
David McWilliams identifies the winners and losers of the new Irish dream. While the Jugglers struggle to get a bigger piece of the pie, they are beginning to realise that the Jaggers have their cake and have eaten it too. Where do we go from here?
Something Beginning with P edited by Seamus Cashman
Large Format Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 156 pages with full colour illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
"Something Beginning with P" is a collection of new poems for children including poems from leading Irish poets: Seamus Heaney, Thomas Kinsella, Maighread Medbh, Paula Meehan, Brendan Kennelly, Michael Longley, Rita Ann Higgins, Matthew Sweeney, Biddy Jenkinson, Desmond O'Grady, Richard Murphy, Nuala ni Dhomhnaill, Celia de Freine, Cathal O Searcaigh, Frank McGuinness, Julie O'Callaghan, Tom McIntyre, Paul Muldoon, Dermot Bolger, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Frank Ormsby, Siobhan Campbell, Dennis O'Driscoll, John Montague, Moya Cannon, Peter Fallon, Mary O'Malley, Micheal O'Siadhail, and, John F Deane.
Michael Collins’s Intelligence War: The Struggle Between the British and the IRA 1919-1921 by Michael Foy
Paperback; 15 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 350 pages [Add To Basket]
Michael Collins is often thought of as Ireland s lost leader: a man born into a revolutionary environment who became a skilled statesman and military leader. Michael Foy s new book looks in depth at Collins s key role in the Anglo Irish War. It is based on primary sources that have not been accessed by previous historians. This book is from the author of the best selling "Easter Rising". It offers fantastic reviews and sales of the hardback. It includes the subject of a major TV documentary. It is updated from the hardback. Michael Collins is often thought of as Ireland's lost leader: a man born into a revolutionary environment who became a skilled statesman and military leader.
Justice for Raymond by Raymond McCord
Paperback; 15 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 220 pages [Add To Basket]
On 9 November 1997, the body of 22-year-old former RAF radar operator Raymond McCord was found dumped at Ballyduff quarry, Newtownabbey, just a few miles outside of Belfast. He had been killed with a concrete breeze block. His face had been so badly disfigured from the rain of blows that his coffin had to remain closed during his funeral. The outlawed UVF, the oldest Protestant paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, had killed him on the jailhouse orders of Mark Haddock, the head of a drug-dealing unit in the north Belfast suburb of Mount Vernon. Haddock feared that Raymond McCord Jnr was about to reveal his activities to the leadership of the UVF.The murder sparked an unstinting ten-year campaign by his father Raymond Snr to find his son's murderers and attempt to bring them to justice. Through a relentless campaign of death threats from the UVF, Raymond Snr's quest for truth and justice was rewarded in January 2007, when the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O'Loan, published her report into his son's murder.
Codenamed Operation Ballast, Mrs O'Loan's inquiry discovered that, at the time of the McCord murder, Mark Haddock was an RUC Special Branch informant who had been paid IR Punt80,000 from the public purse. Moreover, she discovered that Haddock had been directly involved in at least ten murders, several attempted murders, drug dealing, extortion and punishment beatings for which he was never brought to book. This is the story of how one man, Raymond McCord, finally proved that the RUC Special Branch were colluding with loyalist paramilitaries in murders and other serious crimes.
What to See in Northern Ireland by Alf McCreary
Pocket Paperback; 8 Euro / 12 USD / 6 UK; 130 pages, with full colour photos throughout [Add To Basket]
What to See in Northern Ireland is a beginner’s guide to Northern Ireland! The book is a simple alphabetical listing by county of all the best things to see, making it simplicity itself to use. Each entry features a brief description, address and contact details and other essential need-to-know information such as opening hours etc. Some will already be familiar favourites but there is lots to discover in this surprising area and even locals will be astonished to discover what is on their doorsteps.
Things to See and Do in Belfast by Alf McCreary
Pocket Paperback; 8 Euro / 12 USD / 6 UK; 100 pages, with full colour photographs throughout [Add To Basket]
Things to See and Do in Belfast is a beginner’s guide to Belfast! The book is a simple alphabetical listing of all the best things to see, making it simplicity itself to use. Each entry features a brief description, address and contact details and other essential need-to-know information such as opening hours etc. Some will already be familiar favourites but there is lots to discover in this surprising city and even locals will be astonished to discover what is on their doorsteps. Features colourful photography throughout.
The Irish Chateaux: In Search of the Descendants of the Wild Geese by Renagh Holohan
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 10 UK; 256 pages [Add To Basket]
Fascinating material, beautifully accompanied by drawings of chateaux... a pleasurable and thought-provoking book.' - The Irish Times.
The Irish Chateaux looks back over centuries of migration between Ireland and France, beginning with the 'flight of the earls' in 1607 when military defeat at Kinsale and exile initiated a tradition sustained by political and economic necessity in subsequent years.
The text, lavishly illustrated by over fifty pen-and-ink drawings, tells the stories of individual families and their chateaux, which number among the finest buildings in France. Soldiers, slavers, wine-producers, statesmen and entrepreneurs, many bear illustrious names and made lasting contributions to their host culture - the O'Mahonys and the Butlers of northern France, the Walshs of the Loire, the Hennessys of Cognac, the Bartons, Boyds and O' Byrnes of Bordeaux and Aquitaine, the MacMahons of Burgundy, the O'Neills and de Plunketts of Paris, the Dillons, MacCarthys and O'Briens of the Irish Brigades.
The narrative begins and ends with Irish women memoirists: the celebrated Mme de la Tour du Pin, born Lucy Dillon; and the hitherto-unknown Lady Isabella Fitzgerald, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Leinster and niece of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.
A delightful, informative guide, with map and gazetteer, it will apeal to traveller, historian, student, genealogist and Francophile alike. This new impression of a classic study contains an extended listing of chateaux
Please note: Prices were correct at time of original posting but are subject to subsequent change without notice.
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