Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 480
19/20 June 2010
Irish Soldiers in Europe, 17th-19th Century by George B. Clark
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 16 UK; 352 pages
This title contains fascinating stories of Irish soldiers who fought for European powers from the seventeenth century until the twentieth century. Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was a dangerous place. Religious strife and unstable politics saw war stretch across the centre of the continent for long periods of time. Amidst that chaos Irishmen, exiled from their homeland by the re-conquest of the island by Elizabethan England, emerged as a powerful force. From before the Flight of The Earls in 1607, through the Flight of The Wild Geese after the Fall of Limerick in 1691 and until the British placed a ban on Irishmen travelling to join foreign armies in the middle of the eighteenth century, Irishmen fought for Austria, Spain, Poland, Russia, France and England. In this selection of Biographies, George B. Clark offers us an overview of the wars they fought in, the battles that they turned, won or lost and the profiles and attitudes of those men who created the myth of the fighting Irish.
Beyond Consolidation: Or How We Became Too Clever for God … and Our Own Good by John Waters
Large Format Paperback; 16 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 229 pages [Add To Basket]
Waters explores the process by which the hope of a society was sabotaged and plundered in the name of a mis-defined freedom and a utopia of the now. In the late spring of 2008 the acclaimed Irish writer Nuala O' Faolain went on a national Irish radio program to tell the Irish people that she was dying of cancer. She was frightened of death and of the short time left to her. She went right to the heart of the modern attitude to God, to hope, to life and death. Here was a spokesperson for a generation which now conjured up an abyss for itself, reviewing a culture she had inhabited and helped to create one last time. She believed neither in an afterlife nor in God. This abyss, argues John Waters, is created by pursuing the failed hypothesis that humankind can live without God. The despair she expressed is the despair of a generation which believed it could create a utopia of reason, free of the encumberments of tradition and the dread of the absolute. With Nuala O' Faolain's broadcast as his point of departure, Waters examines this trajectory of Irish Culture to this point of despair. How reasonable is it to believe in nothing? He explores a new language to excavate the journey of Irish society from what appeared to be profound in its traditional faith to this moment of what might easily have been taken as a moment of nihilistic clarity. What modern men and women suffer from in modern culture is the lack of an idea of the infinite and the eternal. Secularization, he argues, is completely meaningless as a term to describe what has happened to them. Taking up the theme of his previous best selling book "Lapsed Agnostic", Waters explores the process by which the hope of a society was sabotaged and plundered in the name of a mis-defined freedom and a utopia of the now.
G2: In Defence of Ireland by Maurice Walsh
Large Format Paperback; 17 Euro / 24 USD / 13 UK; 384 pages
The Irish Military Intelligence Service is often referred to as G2. Michael Collins was its first Director in the War of Independence when the IRA succeeded in the intelligence war against the British Army and the Royal Irish Constabulary. After the Civil War the Free State army was subjected to severe reductions - G2 was not spared. Only the efforts of successive Directors of Intelligence, Michael J. Costello, Liam Archer and Dan Bryan, ensured its survival. In a twist, as part of their role in the new state, they kept a close eye on the IRA and other subversives. During the Emergency, as the Second World War was known in Ireland, G2 was involved in counter-espionage, propaganda and maintaining Ireland's pro-Allied neutrality. Officers detained and interrogated IRA gunrunners as well as Nazi, British and American airmen and agents prior to imprisonment. The work of cryptologist Dr Richard Hayes was essential to the war effort as it ensured German codes were decrypted and passed to London. Drawing heavily on Irish intelligence records, many disclosed for the first time, this compelling book fills a gap in the history of Irish intelligence and some twists and turns in Anglo-Irish relations.
The Siege of Derry by Richard Doherty
Large Format Paperback; 16 Euro / 22 USD / 13 UK; 288 pages [Add To Basket]
'No Surrender!', the Unionist war cry, was first used in 1689 by the Protestant defenders of Londonderry as James II's army laid siege to the city for 105 days. There were astonishing acts of courage, from the heroic death of Captain Browning to the anonymous boys who played signal roles in the defence of the city. This book examines how the Jacobites might have achieved success, and the far reaching impact of the siege as a crucial event in the second British civil war. Renowned military historian Richard Doherty brings his expertise to bear on this pivotal campaign, using contemporary accounts, official French and English records, and published works. With an understanding of seventeenth-century warfare, especially siegecraft, he probes many of the myths that have grown up around the siege, sets it in its rightful context, and shows how the history of Europe was turned by the events of 1689.
Unknown Commander: Life & Times of Denis Barry, 1888-1923 by Denis Barry
Large Format Paperback; 13 Euro / 19 USD / 10 UK; 256 pages [Add To Basket]
In size and tone, Denis Barry's funeral cortege in the midst of a bloody civil war was similar to those that marked the burials of Tomas MacCurtain and Terence McSwiney and, in more peaceful times, of Christy Ring and Jack Lynch. But who was 'the Unknown Commandant'? A martyr and a hero to his countrymen, Denis Barry is overlooked today. This book seeks to rescue this hugely respected Cork man from relative anonymity. Denis Barry toiled in the shadows of McSwiney and MacCurtain in the tumultuous period of the Irish War of Independence. A brave soldier, patriot and sportsman, hunger strike ended his life at the Curragh Military Prison in 1923 for the cause he believed in.
A Short History of the Troubles by Gordon Gillespie
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; [Add To Basket]
For thirty-eight long years, from 1968 until the St Andrew's Agreement and IRA decommissioning in 2006, Northern Ireland was wracked by inter-communal violence. It became notorious as one of the world's most intractable quarrels whose effects were felt not only in Northern Ireland but in the Republic of Ireland, the rest of the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States. The Troubles sprang from the nature of Northern Ireland itself. Established in 1920 in order to contain the local unionist majority within the United Kingdom, it none the less embraced a one-third minority of nationalists. The distinguishing mark between unionist and nationalist was confessional - Protestants and Catholics. Nationalist refusal fully to acknowledge the legitimacy of the state was met by unionist discrimination against the minority. The imperial government in London, nominally the sovereign power, looked the other way. The Troubles started in 1968 as a demand for equality and civil rights within the UK, but quickly changed character when the re-formed IRA decided to take aggressive military action against Britain with a view to securing Irish independence by force of arms. It gradually developed into a contest that neither side could win. Along the way, there were many atrocities, many brutal murders and maimings and the moral compromise of both communities -- almost 3,000 people lost their lives.
A Woman to Blame: The Kerry Babies Case by Nell McCafferty
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; 180 pages [Add To Basket]
Joanne Hayes, at 24 years of age, concealed the birth and death of her baby in County Kerry, Ireland, in 1984. Subsequently she confessed to the murder, by stabbing, of another baby. All of the scientific evidence showed that she could not have had this second baby. The police nevertheless, insisted on charging her and, after the charges were dropped, continued to insist that she had given birth to twins conceived of two different men. A public tribunal of inquiry was called to examine the behaviour of the police and their handling of the case. The police, in defence of themselves and in justification of confessions" obtained, called a succession of male experts on the medical, social and moral roman catholic fibre of Joanne Hayes. Her married lover detailed the times, places and manner of her love making. Using the twins' theory as a springboard, the question was posed and debated: Did she love this man or what was he and other men prepared to do with her? After six months of daily discussion among the men, the judge declared 'There were times when we all believed she had twins'. The treatment of Joanne Hayes, who stood accused of no crime, was a model for Irish male attitudes to woman. She was caught up in a time of rapid social change between two Irelands, an earlier Ireland in which the Catholic Church had held a moral monopoly and a new liberal and secular Ireland.
The Happiness Habit by Brian Colbert
Paperback; 17 Euro / 24 USD / 13 UK; [Add To Basket]
Whatever you want from life, this book will have a benefit for you. A key element to finding happiness is understanding what your (often unconscious) basic drives are and ensuring that these are being satisfied. Brian Colbert addresses the core questions that will help you discover who you really are. In this book he will teach you how to get past what's stopping you from reaching your true potential and how to bring about lasting happiness into your life. Many of us think that in order to change, we need therapy. This is not always the case--you may just need this book. Using a series of powerful mind exercises, The Happiness Habit shows you: * how to improve your relationship with yourself (and others) * how to build your confidence and stay positive * how to face adversity and overcome challenges * how to live a happier and more fulfilling life Research is increasingly proving that traditional methods of exploring negative experiences from your past doesn't necessarily help you to move forward. The exercises in this book will help you train your brain to replace constant self-criticism and depreciation with more useful ways of thinking. Brian will teach you the skills, ability, direction and focus to develop the habit of happiness. Together with the free mind programming CD, this book gives you all the tools you need to lead a happier life.
The Naughties: From Glitz to Gloom in Ireland by Brenda Power
Large Format Paperback; 13 Euro / 18 USD / 10 UK; 300 pages [Add To Basket]
Brenda Power has worked in the media for more than twenty years, covering a breadth of social, political and public interest issues. Her comments are frequently controversial and generate huge responses, such as her 1996 interview with a poet planning his suicide and a 2009 article on gay marriage. She tackles difficult and divisive subjects without fear or favour. Her views on the rapid changes in Irish society during the boom years are a fascinating commentary on the values and practices of that extraordinary period in Irish history. These snap-shots highlight issues that shaped our lives in Ireland in recent years.
The Drystone Walls of the Aran Islands by Mary Laheen
Paperback; 8 Euro / 11 USD / 6 UK; 352 pages [Add To Basket]
The Aran Islands produced writers such as Liam O'Flaherty and Tim Robinson who were inspired by their surroundings. The drystone-wall field-boundary system of the islands is one of Ireland's richest cultural landscapes, retaining remarkable continuity with the past - Celtic occupation, Christianity, invasion, famine and evictions - a unique combination of the forces of humankind and nature. Unlike other cultural landscapes around the world, the surface of the islands is almost entirely made by man. This book explores this landscape, which is threatened by the change. The author outlines the background history and factors that have influenced the landscape and looks at one ceathru or quarter of a townland, a specific farm in that ceathru, and the pattern of landholding and farming practised today. This book traces the threat to traditional methods and the agricultural landscape from changes in European and Irish farming.
Locomotive Compendium: Ireland by Colin Boocock
Large Format Paperback; 25 Euro / 36 USD / 18 UK; 128 pages [Add To Basket]
For enthusiasts of Irish railways this book will be the ultimate reference guide. It summarises the purpose and principal features of each locomotive design ever to run on the railways since 1949, and illustrates all the significant differences between locomotives within a class. Each section of this book begins with a summary of a particular railway's territory and locomotive fleet. Then the locomotive classes are individually documented, each with its own section, including a table of basic dimensions, photographs and a narrative covering the design of the locomotive, use and subsequent history. Designed in a user-friendly format, readers will find it easy to trace any locomotive type that they wish to reference. Although the book does not cover multiple units, industrial railway or pleasure railway locomotives, it does include most preserved locomotives in Ireland today as they come from types that fall chronologically within the locomotive classes described here and their preservation is referenced in the text.
Please note: Prices were correct at time of original posting but are subject to subsequent change without notice.
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