Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 465
28 & 29 November 2009
Irish Times Book of the Year 2009 Edited by Peter Murtagh
Hardback; 27 Euro / 38 USD / 20 UK;
All the best stories in the period September 2008 to September 2009 are presented in book form and accompanied by stunning colour photography. The Irish Times Book of the Year 2009 is the perfect Christmas gift book for all those who wish to recover highlights of the year as recorded in Ireland's quality leading newspaper.
Historical Atlas of Dublin by Richard Kileen
Hardback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 15 UK; [Add To Basket]
Dublin started as a Viking trading settlement in the middle of the tenth century. Location was the key to its quick ascendancy among Irish towns. It commanded the shortest crossing to a major port in Britain. By the time the Normans arrived in Ireland in the late twelfth century, this was crucial: Dublin maintained the best communications between the English crown and its new lordship in Ireland. The city first developed on the rising ground south of the river where Christ Church now is. The English established their principal citadel in this area, although Dublin Castle was later described by one disgruntled governor as 'the worst castle in the worst site in Christendom'. Throughout the medieval and early modern periods, the city's importance was entirely ecclesiastical and strategic. It was not a centre of learning, or fashion or commerce. The foundation of Trinity College in 1592 was a landmark event but the city did not really develop until the long peace of the eighteenth century. Then the series of fine, wide Georgian streets and noble public buildings that are Dublin's greatest boast were built. A semi-autonomous parliament of the Anglo-Irish colonial elite provided a focus for social life and the city flourished. This parliament dissolved itself in 1800 under the terms of the Act of Union and Ireland became a full part of the metropolitan British state, a situation not reversed until Irish independence in 1922 (Northern Ireland always excepted). The union years saw Dublin decline. Fine old houses were gradually abandoned by the aristocracy and became hideous tenement warrens. The city missed out on the Industrial Revolution. By the time Joyce immortalised it, it had become 'the centre of paralysis' in his famous phrase. Independence restored some of its natural function but there was still much poverty and shabbiness. The 1960s boom proved to be a false dawn. Only since the 1990s has there been real evidence of a city reinventing and revitalising itself.
From the Republic on Conscience: Stories Inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Hardback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 15 UK; 256 pages
This book is the first bound collection of stories and essays by renowned Irish authors originally published to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Writers include Seamus Heaney, Roddy Doyle, John Boyne, Colm Tóibín, Jennifer Johnston, Maeve Binchy, Joseph O'Connor, Anne Enright, Hugo Hamilton, and Kevin Barry. The book is dedicated to the memory of Frank McCourt who contributed one of the essays in the book. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was created in 1948 as a direct response to the inhumanity suffered worldwide throughout, and following, World War Two. To mark the UDHR's 60th anniversary in 2008, Seán Love, who was executive director of Amnesty International (Ireland) at the time, and author Roddy Doyle decided to celebrate the declaration, telling the story of human rights to a new generation in a unique and compelling way. Each author took a different topic for each of the articles in the UDHR tackling the varied subjects of fair trials, prison, torture, war, refugees, but also, education, poverty, health, leisure, employment, and housing. The book, which features an introduction by Seamus Heaney, is a special commemoration of the work of the UDHR and Amnesty International. In a modern twist, it also features a special 'additional article'; by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly adding to the contemporary worth of this collection. Several visual artists such as Robert Ballagh, Vivienne Roche, Amelia Stein and Jim Fitzpatrick have contributed images to accompany some of the essays, while the cover features a piece by Louis le Brocquy, created especially for Amnesty.
The Bombings of Dublin’s North Strand, 1941: The Untold Story by Kevin C. Kearns
Hardback; 25 Euro / 32 USD / 20 UK’ 380 pages [Add To Basket]
On a gloriously starry night four bombs fell, the last and most devastating at precisely 2:05 a.m. on 31 May. There was a thunderous explosion and the earth quaked. Tremors were felt as far away as Enniskerry and Mullingar. Panic and pandemonium reigned in a "city seized with fear". Destruction was astonishing--homes and shops in the North Strand were largely demolished, 2,250 buildings in the city suffered some bomb damage, over forty people were killed, about 100 seriously injured, many more wounded. Hospitals and morgues filled within hours. Almost 2,000 people were rendered homeless refugees. It would later be determined that in terms of destructive performance a monstrous "perfect bomb" had done the deed. For two-thirds of a century, no book was written on what the Evening Herald proclaimed a "Night of Horror". Later called a "seismic event" in Dublin's history. Finally, near the end of the century both the Irish Military Archive and Dublin City Archive declassified their documents on the bombing -- some stamped "Secret" for sixty years. At last, the theories and myths long surrounding the mysterious incident could be examined in the light of real evidence. But the heart of a book on so human a tragedy is the oral historical testimony of survivors, rescuers and observers who provide graphic eye-witness accounts. This is a narrative social history of immense human drama. An on-the-scene account of calamity, terror, heroism and survival. And a mystery lingering long thereafter. This is the untold tale of a great historical event and human tragedy that has long needed telling.
Mna na heireann: Women Who Shaped Ireland by Nicola Depuis
Hardback; 25 Euro / 32 USD / 20 UK; 282 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
For too long when people discuss Irish heroes and important figures in our history, only men have been cited. Mná na hÉireann addresses that tendency and offers an impressive array of women who have brought change and progress to Ireland.
From the mythical era, through the Middle Ages, the Plantation, the Famine, the struggle for independence and the early years of the state, right up to the twenty-first century, Mná na hÉireann profiles over 50 formidable Irish women. The book will include: Dr James Barry (pretended to be male so she could study to become a surgeon), Eavan Boland, Granuaille (pirate), Mairead Corrigan Maguire (activist, winner of Nobel Peace Prize), Constance Markiewicz (the first woman in Europe to hold a cabinet position), Catherine McCauley (foundress of the Sisters of Mercy), Mary McAleese (current President), Nell McCafferty (award-winning journalist), Mary Robinson (former president & UN Human Rights Commissioner) and many more.
Sisters: The Personal Story of an Irish Feminist by June Levine with a Foreword by Nell McCafferty
Hardback; 25 Euro / 30 USD / 20 UK; 272 pages [Add To Basket]
Sisters is a revealing, intensely readable book by one of Ireland’s finest feminist writers. It contains a major assessment of the women’s movement in Ireland, but first and foremost it tells the story of one woman’s search for personal fulfilment. After growing up in Dublin, June Levine went through marriage, breakdown and divorce in Canada, returning to Ireland as an unmarried woman in the swinging sixties. She writes with special insight of the era of the mohair-suited Irish male and his liberated ‘girl’ friends. By the end of the decade, some women decided that this kind of liberation was no longer enough. The Irish women’s movement was born, and June Levine was there from the start. This book captures all the excitement and controversy of the time, and is laced with perceptive pen-portraits of some well-known feminist leaders. During the seventies June Levine worked as a journalist, and as a researcher on Gay Byrne’s Late Late Show. Her evaluation of the past ten years in terms of her own experience, and in terms of Irish feminism, makes fascinating and absorbing reading. Committed, compassionate, written from a strongly feminine viewpoint, there has never been an Irish book quite like SISTERS.
Written in Stone: The Graffiti in Kilmainham Jail by Niamh O’Sullivan
Large Format Paperback; 14 Euro / 19 USD / 11 UK; 100 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout and an audio CD [Add To Basket]
Written in Stone is an attempt to record the first-hand links to the people who changed the political landscape of Ireland, before all traces vanish completely. This book includs images of the numerous examples of graffiti left on the walls of Kilmainham Jail by its political inmates from the War of Independence, Civil War and even further back in Irish history.
Kilmainham Jail housed many of Ireland’s key historical flgures, from the 1798 rebellion right through to the Civil War; these political prisoners were proud to sacrifice their freedom for the cause they believed in.
Many of them also left a physical mark on the jail, inscribing their names and other messages on various walls and doorways in the building. Those mentioned in the graffiti in the jail include Robert Emmet, Éamon de Valera, Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy, among many others.
As Kilmainham Jail lay derelict for so long, over the years many of the graffiti have faded or disintegrated, with some having disappeared completely. Written in Stone is a product of years of painstaking research into the graffiti and the (sometimes little-known) people who made them. The book, which contains photographs of many of the pieces of graffiti, discusses some of the heartbreaking messages left for posterity, as well as drawings of the Four Courts and Adolf Hitler! It is a unique record of these highly unusual links to the people who changed the political landscape of this country forever.
Follow the Money by David McWilliams
Large Format Paperback; 17 Euro / 22 USD / 12 UK; 300 pages
Large Format Paperback with 8 page full colour photo insert; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 10 UK; 300 pages [Add To Basket]
We catch up with old friends, Breakfast Roll Man and Miss Pencil Skirt, and meet new characters like the Merchant of Ennis, Shylock and the Godfather. We have late night tea with Brian Lenihan, are charmed by Miriam O'Callaghan and cross swords with Seanie Fitzpatrick. We learn why the average drug dealer on the side of the street has more in common with the banker than either would care to mention, as we follow the money -- in both rackets -- from its source at the very top right down to the 'buy now, pay later' deals at rock bottom. Why should we trust the people who got us into this mess in the first place? They were wrong then and they are wrong now. The politicians, bankers and developers think they can hand us the bill and walk away from the carnage. They want us follow a route that will make things worse for the ordinary man on the street while saving the bankers at the top of the tree, insisting that there is no other way. But there is an obvious alternative which has been adopted by every economy that has successfully emerged from this type of crisis. With the same sense of fun as The Pope's Children, David McWilliams makes answering hard questions easy. In his typical breezy style, he suggests where to go from here. To be led up the garden path once in the past ten years is a tragedy; to be led up twice by the same people is unforgiveable. There is an alternative. Follow the Money is an optimistic and uplifting book about that alternative, which is well within our grasp if only we'd wake up and seize it.
Making Ireland Roman edited by Jason Harris and Keith Sidwell
Hardback; 49 Euro / 60 USD / 40 UK; 256 pages [Add To Basket]
This collection of articles by leading scholars focuses on Irish writing in Latin in the Renaissance and aims to rewrite Irish cultural history through recovery and analysis of Latin sources. This book renders accessible for the first time the vastly important Irish contribution to the counter-reformation, to European Renaissance and baroque literature in Latin and to the intellectual culture of European Latinity. The ethnic, cultural and religious divisions within Ireland produced a divided Latin writing and reading community. The Latin language became the medium in which the Catholic Church operated. When Christianity took root in Ireland so too did Latin. It became one of the principal languages of Ireland for over a thousand years resulting in over one thousand books being published by Irish authors. In order to convey the idiosyncrasies of Gaelic culture in the language of European scholarship to an international audience, Irish authors had to engage in a process of cultural translation. Many were Catholic exiles who attempted to promote an alternative to the English colonial narrative being written by domestic scholars. Some writers felt compelled to defend their country’s reputation as a result of defamatory comments made by other writers. Articles include a detailed reconstruction of a feud with Scottish historians about the identity of medieval “Scotia” as they claimed that it referred to Scotland rather than Ireland. Other articles include a contextual study of the political epic poem “Ormonius”, an examination of the major Latinist Richard Stanihurst and an evaluation of the literature of Catholic exile.
Once Upon a Hill: Love in Troubled Times by Glenn Patterson
Paperback; 10 Euro / 13 USD / 8 UK; 233 pages [Add To Basket]
What happens when history tries to squeeze itself into a town of ten thousand people, most of them related somewhere down the line? For Glenn Patterson's grandparents, Jack and Kate, sedate old age in Lisburn belies the turmoil of their early life together, but also apart - they had to wait ten years to marry. Part personal memoir and part family story, with riveting awareness of the forces which sever and link generations, Once Upon a Hill is a detective story written against the simple erosion of memory and the reluctance of family members to talk. It is a rich, clear-sighted book which deals with love, violence, fortitude and, finally, forgiveness.
Please note: Prices were correct at time of original posting but are subject to subsequent change without notice.
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