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Read Ireland Book Reviews, February 2002
Ascendency to Oblivion:
The Story of the Anglo-Irish by Michael McConville
This book is a sane, lucid and wonderfully
entertaining account of the rise and sudden disappearance of the group
commonly known as the Anglo-Irish. Tracing every immigration to Ireland
from the Celtic invasion onwards, the author unravels the attitudes of
the Anglo-Irish, their achievements (parliamentary democracy, enduring
cultural establishments, language, writers and soldiers, Georgian architecture0
and failures - the seemingly intractable conflict in Northern Ireland.
Originally published in 1986, this book remains the classic history of
this group of people.
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Public Architecture
in Ireland 1680-1760 by Edward McParland
This innovative book examines the
public architecture of Ireland from 1680 to 1760, a crucial period during
which the country undertook the combined tasks of recovering from war
and constructing a new and stable society. New buildings and new types
of buildings were needed to express and sustain this society. The author
is an architectural historian, and here he explores the role of public
architecture in this enterprise, focusing on public buildings as works
of architecture and art, while also discussing the political, social and
economic contexts in which they were built. More than 100 specially commissioned
photographs by David Davison beautifully document this cultural process.
The book opens with a discussion of the people who were involved in the
creation of public architecture and a description of the physical appearance
of Ireland at the time, including its roads and harbours, its market houses
and churches. The author then presents detailed portraits of key public
buildings, among them the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, The Royal Barracks,
Dublin Castle, Trinity College Dublin, and Edward Lovett Pearce’s Parliament
House. Drawing on extensive research in archives throughout Britain and
Ireland, the author documents in vivid detail the architectural and social
importance of these remarkable buildings.
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The Irish Soul
in Dialogue by Stephen Costello
The Irish have always been a soulful
people, both in the spiritual sense and in their depth and passion. Yeats
wrote: ‘Man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick unless
soul claps its hands, and louder sing for every tatter in its mortal dress.’
This depth of soul has been manifested throughout Irish history in art,
music, religion, philosophy, literature, psychology, sports and politics.
The men and women interviewed in this volume have been selected as representing
a cross-section of contemporary Irish culture. The author’s compilation
of names is eclectic. From Gerry Adams to Cardinal Desmond Connell, from
Richard Kearney to Daniel O’Donnell, from David Norris to Roddy Doyle,
each questioning involves, at an intimate level, a questing after something
for nobody us completely at home in himself or his world. The personalities
encountered in these pages, with the passions and prejudices, will inspire,
interest and intrigue. They offer a plurality of possibilities and perspectives.
Searching still and, sometimes, succeeding. Remembering and recording.
The Irish soul, then, in dialogue with itself.
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History and Memory
in Modern Ireland edited by Ian McBride
This book is about the relationship
between the past and the present in Irish society, and the ways in which
Irish identities have been shaped by oral tradition, icons and images,
rituals and reenactments. It examines pivotal moments in Irish history,
such as the 1798 rebellion, the Famine, the Great Way, and the Northern
Ireland troubles, investigating the ways in which they have been recalled,
commemorated and mythologised. Beginning with the conviction that the
commemoration has its own history, the essays address questions concerning
the workings of communal memory. How have the particular political and
social groups interpreted, appropriated and distorted the past for there
own purposes? Why does the collective amnesia work in some situations
and not in others? What is the relationship between academic history and
popular memory? Such questions are central to the study of nationalism
and national identity, the ‘invention of tradition’, post-colonial studies
and the development of the heritage industry, as well as ongoing debates
on Irish historiography and current cultural politics on both side of
the border.
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St. Patrick’s City:
The Story of Armagh by Alf McCreary
This book sets out to discover the
read St. Patrick from his own writings which are included in full at the
end of the book, and to separate fact from fiction, myth from reality.
The author traces the dramatic and colourful story of the City of Armagh
where St. Patrick established his main church and which has long been
recognised universally as the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland. Using
a wide range of historical sources from the earliest times, and narratives
up to the present day, the author paints a revealing portrait. The photographs
are simply wonderful. It also contains a preface by Archbishop Eames and
Archbishop Brady.
Goodly Barrow:
A Voyage on an Irish River by T.F. O’Sullivan
This book is a long unavailable classic,
first published in 1983, that charts this history and character of Ireland’s
second-longest river, from the Sieve Bloom Mountains to the sea in Waterford.
This riverine narrative embraces legend and song, literature and anecdote,
viewing Irish history through the prism of the waterway: from the early
tribal kingdoms of the Celts, to the Vikings and Normans who made passage
up the estuary; leaving a legacy of castles, abbeys, monasteries and towns;
from the Tudor and Cromwellian settlements on the fertile plains of Carlow
and Kildare, to Quaker bridge-builders and Huguenot refugees. It opens
up a little-known part of Ireland’s countryside and heritage, and is an
invaluable guide for boaters and armchair travellers alike.
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Irish Lighthouses
by Sharma Krauskopf
Ireland possesses almost 1980 miles
of varies and often dramatic coastline, so lighthouses have long played
significant and crucial roles in the island’s coastal landscape. From
the first lighthouse at Hook Head, Co.Wexford, established in the fifth
century and manned by St Dubhan, to the twentieth-century total automation
of all Irish lights, these structures have guided and protected seafarers
for centuries. The author takes the reader on a lively and insightful
tour of 36 lighthouses, starting at The Baily near Dublin on the East
Coast and finishing at the 112-foot Haulbowline tower in Carlingford Lough
in the north. The histories of the lighthouses and descriptions of the
surrounding localities are combined with illuminating anecdotes and accounts
of adventures at sea. With 58 beautiful colour photographs, including
stunning aerial shots from renowned lighthouse photographers, this compilation
is a visual delight; and with a detailed introduction, list of all Irish
lights by date of establishment, glossary, bibliography and map, it forms
an indispensable companion for all lighthouse enthusiasts and visitors.
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In Time’s Eye by
Douglas Gageby
For years the author of ‘In Time’s
Eye’ was known only to his devoted followers in the Irish Times newspaper
as ‘Y’. In this book, ‘Y’ reveals himself as Douglas Gageby, beloved and
distinguished editor of that newspaper and naturalist extraordinaire.
Elderflower fritters, barbecued squirrels and tiger dung are some of the
more recondite topics that he wrote about over the years with characteristic
quirky good humour. A tenacious concern for environmental issues, a passion
for trees and a vigilant commitment to animal and plant conservation are,
however, the real pre-occupations of the writer. Douglas Gageby and the
famed Irish journalist, John Healy, his friend and angling companion,
started the column. Healy signed his pieces ‘H’ and 23 of those pieces
are included in this selection. Both carry their erudition lightly, delighting
their readers with seasonal observations, alerting them to ecological
issues and entertaining them with their encyclopedic knowledge.
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Godfathers: Inside
Northern Ireland’s Drugs Racket by Jim McDowell
This book is the story of the Northern
Ireland drugs trade. It names the names and tells the stories of the dealers
and their enemies. Dealers like Brendan ‘Speedy’ Fegan and Brendan ‘Bap’
Campbell, two of the brashest, highest-living, most cavalier young gangsters
in Belfast. They loved the high life, flash cars, the wads of money, the
champagne lifestyle, and the wild women. They both ended up on a pathologist’s
slab, gunned down by paramilitaries. The book also reveals that the paramilitaries
are in the drugs trade, too. The reader meets Ulster’s porn queen who
was the live-in lover of a UVF commander of North Belfast: she too graduated
to the drugs trade. The book looks at the hard men who drive the drugs
trade and the huge drugs problem - especially the heroin explosion in
Ulster’s Bible Belt. It looks at the links between the UVF, the late UVF
leader Billy Wright, aka ‘King Rat’ and the late Dublin gang chief Martin
Cahill, aka ‘The General’, and describes how they were in business together.
He also reveals how the loyalist paramilitaries are into drugs in a big
way, and that the Provisional IRA, despite their campaign against many
drug dealers, have been prepared to bankroll major drugs operations in
return for protection money. This book is a frightening and enlightening
expose.
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The Final Beat:
Gardai Killed in the Line of Duty by Liz Walsh
No member of the Garda Siochana died
in the line of duty between 1942 and 1970. Since 1970, however, fourteen
members of the force have paid the supreme price. This book tells their
story. From Richard Gallon, who died in 1970 while trying to stop a bank
robbery in Dublin, to Andy Callanan, burnt to death in an arson attack
in 1999. The author tells the story of these 14 brave men and of the families
they left behind. Using previously unpublished documents, the book reveals
behind-the-scenes events surrounding the murder of Jerry McCabe, shot
during an armed robbery in Limerick in 1996. From the planning to the
aftermath, this book gives the definitive and detailed account of that
robbery, those behind it, and an eyewitness account from the survivor,
Detective Ben O’Sullivan. It is a compelling read, and a reminder of the
debt owed to the Gardai who daily places their lives on the line in an
increasingly violent society.
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