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Read Ireland Book Reviews, May 2002
Annie Dunne by Sebastian Barry
‘Oh, Kelsha is a distant place, over the
mountains from everywhere. You go over the mountains to get there, and
eventually , through dreams.’ ‘I can picture the two children in their
coats arriving. It is the start of the summer and all the customs of winter
and spring are behind us. Not that those customer are tended to now, much.’
Annie Dunne and her cousin Sarah live and work on a small farm in a remote
and beautiful part of Wicklow in late 1950s Ireland. All about them the
old green roads are being tarred, cars are being purchased, a way of life
is about to disappear. Like two old rooks, they hold to their hill in
Kelsha, cherishing everything. When Annie’s nephew and his wife are set
to go to London to find work, their two small children, a little boy and
his older sister, are brought down to spend the summer with their great-aunt.
It is a strange chance for happiness for Annie. But against this happiness
moves the figure of Billy Kerr, with his ambiguous attentions to Sarah,
threatening to drive Annie from her last niche of safety in the world.
The world of childish innocence also proves darkened and puzzling to her,
and she struggles to find clear ground, clear light - to preserve her
sense of love and place against these subtle forces of disquiet. A summer
of adventure, pain, delight and ultimately epiphany unfolds for both the
children and their elderly caretakers in this poignant and exquisitely
told story of innocence, loss and reconciliation from one of Ireland’s
finest young writers.
[ top ]
In the Forest by Edna
O’Brien
The popular Irish author returns to the
countryside of western Ireland in this controversial book. As with her
previous novel, ‘Wild Decembers’, murder is again the story’s climax,
but the killer’s motives are deeply buried in his mind. Michen O’Kane
has lost his mother as a boy and, by the age of ten, is incarcerated for
petty crimes in juvenile detention centres, ‘the places named after saints.’
But his problems go beyond early loss and sexual abuse - the killing instinct
is already kindled in him. He is named by fearful neighbours the Kinderschreck,
someone of whom small children are afraid. As in Greek tragedy, this novel
is not without unwitting victims for sacrifice - a radiant young woman,
her little son, and a trusting priest, all despatched to the forest of
O’Kane’s unbridled, deranged fantasies. Based on true events that still
resonate in this part of Ireland, this riveting, frightening and brilliantly
told novel reminds the reader that anything can happen ‘outside the boundary
of mother and child’, when protection isn’t afforded to either perpetrator
or victim.
[ top ]
My Lover’s Lover by
Maggie O’Farrell
Lily meets Marcus, an elusive but magnetic
architect, on a pavement outside a gallery. Within a week she has moved
into his echoing warehouse apartment in East London. But nothing could
have prepared her for what she finds there. A distinct presence haunts
the flat, that of a woman who seems to have left in a hurry, leaving behind
a single dress hanging in the wardrobe, a mysterious mark on the wall
and the suffocating, lingering odour of jasmine. Marcus, deep in private
grief, refuses to talk about it. Only the flat’s other inhabitant, Aidan,
seems to understand Lily’s unease, but he won’t explain or even discuss
what took place before her arrival. Who was this woman? And what exactly
were the circumstances of her sudden disappearance? This book, from one
of Ireland’s most exciting young writers, is a sensual and unnerving story
of passion, attachment and the strange, indissoluble connection we have
with our partners’ former lovers. It is a gripping novel about how, even
at the end of a relationship, everything is far from over.
[ top ]
The Sirius Crossing
by John Creed
This book is a taut, gripping and intelligent
thriller for one of Ireland’s finest contemporary authors. Jack Valentine
has been in the intelligence game too long and it is starting to show,
but he accepts one more mission - he always does. It seems like a simple
task but it throws up deadly questions and he doesn’t know the answers.
What were American Special Forces doing in Ireland twenty-five years ago
and why does it matter now? What is the thread which leads from a deserted
mountainside to the offices of the White House? Suddenly he has information
that everybody wants and he finds himself the quarry in a pitiless chase.
[ top ]
The Power of a Woman
by Suzanne Higgins
Richard Dalton, mega-rich proprietor of
Rock FM is gorgeous and ruthless! Saskia, his wife, is loving and obliging
until she discovers a few of her husband’s darker secrets. With their
three daughters, they live in the beautiful village of Ballymore, where
the arrival of a mystery celebrity causes ripples of excitement as rumours
spread of his radical plans for the run-down Rathdeen Manor. Meanwhile,
Sue, breathtakingly beautiful wife of the famous clothing chain-store
entrepreneur David Parker, is slowly being destroyed by a dangerous secret
that she cannot share with him. As Richard’s business empire continues
to grow, so too does his depravity. Facing despair, Saskia realises that
for her sake and that of her children she has no choice. She has to fight
back
[ top ]
Mother to a Stranger
by Leland Bardwell
Nan and Jim have a good, strong marriage.
Each has their own career - she is a successful concert pianist and he
is an archaeologist. Together they have been living a congenial life of
self-sufficiency in north-west Ireland. But the arrival of a solicitor’s
letter one hot summer’s morning will undermine their idyll, perhaps fatally.
A young man claiming to be Nan’s son - a son Jim knows nothing about -
is anxious to meet her. Writing with rare subtlety and great emotional
insight, the author portrays a marriage under almost intolerable strain
as she charts the halting attempts of Nan, Jim and the intruder son Charles
to find a way towards a new set of relationships. This is an exceptional
novel about the devastating power of secrets from one of Ireland’s most
respected writers.
[ top ]
No Christian Grave
by Edmund Power
It should have been the start of the rest
of their lives and indeed it was, but not in the way they had imagined.
On the ever of their university careers, two friends from a small southern
Irish town hope to celebrate their impending adulthood through another
rite of passage. But their first sexual encounter ends in a shocking incident,
one that threatens to ruin their lives forever. Especially if they choose
to hide the evidence that the terrible events of that night never happened.
This novel is an emotionally powerful story of male friendship under strain,
of bonding and unraveling, of small town concerns and big time deeds,
of black secrets and protracted humiliation. An original new voice from
rural Ireland, but unsentimental and poignant, Edmund Power provokes the
reader into considering what they would have done differently, if placed
in the same gut-wrenching situation.
[ top ]
Standing in a Hammock
by Paula Clamp Ashbury
Middle-class suburbia, where curtains
and blinds thinly veil the passions and heartaches that lie within. At
Number 2 - the husband’s waistband’s expanding, but the wife wears the
trousers. At Number 3 - there’s an earth mother staying in, but a siren
bursting to come out. At Number 7 - she’s gorgeous, she’s sexy, and she
wears the kitten heals, but why is she home alone? And at Number 8 - the
silence is deafening; the curtains are drawn again. Over the space of
single weekend, the lives of five of its residents are thrown off balance
as they learn about each other and the secrets they hold.
[ top ]
The Art of Lost Luggage
by Amanada Murphy
Samantha Jordan is ‘independent and opinionated’
or a ‘bit of a stroppy cow’, depending on who you ask. The truth is: she’s
a tough cookie with a very soft centre. Management consultant for a Finnish
company, she is also extremely efficient, but for one fact: her inability
to fly between any two points and arrive at the same time as her luggage.
Samantha figures that it’s her lot in life to be luggage-less. Then the
airline assigns the blindingly gorgeous Dominic to her case (literally)
and a certain business relationship takes off in a romantic direction.
With two men in her life - but still no luggage - things a definitely
looking up.
[ top ]
Irish Girls About
Town by Maeve Binchy et. al.
When it comes to spinning a good yarn
- creating stories that tug at your heartstrings or make you cry with
laughter - the Irish are the best in the business! Together for the first
time in this anthology, some of Ireland’s best-loved women writers have
honed their remarkable talents in aid of Barnardo’s Children Trust and
the Saint Vincent De Paul Society. The stories are written by Maeve Binchy,
Julie Parsons, Tina Reilly, Colette Caddle, Mary Ryan, Catherine Dunne,
Gemma O’Connor, Sarah Webb, Morag Prunty, Cathy Kelly, Martina Devlin,
Joan O’Neill,. Marisa Mackle, Marian Keyes, Catherine Barry and Annie
Sparrow.
[ top ]
Anti-Catholicism in
Northern Ireland 1600-1998: The Mote and the Beam by John D. Brewer and
Gareth I. Higgins
This book provides an authoritative and
topical assessment of four centuries of religious strife in Northern Ireland
and presents proposals for better intercommunity relations in the future.
Part of the dynamics to Northern Ireland’s conflict is the belief that
there is a Scriptural basis to anti-Catholicism. It forms part of the
self-defining identity of certain Protestants and inhibits reconciliation
between the two communities by suggesting that divisions are upheld by
theological doctrine. The roots of sectarianism thus lie partly in claims
about theology. Anti-Catholicism, however, is a sociological process,
given a Scriptural underpinning in the history of Protestant-Catholic
relations in Ireland, and wider British-Irish relations, in order to reinforce
social divisions between the religious communities and to offer a deterministic
belief system to justify them. Scripture was appropriated to justify social
divisions in a particular historical and social context, so that anti-Catholicism
must be understood sociologically as well as theologically. The book examines
the socio-economic and political processes that have led to theology being
used in social closure and stratification between the seventeenth century
and the present day.
[ top ]
The Boys: A Biography
of Micheal MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards by Christopher Fitz-Simon
Originally published in 1994, this classic
double biography of Micheal MacLiammoir and his life-long lover Hilton
Edwards, tells the story of two men, initially unhappy in their own lives
and origins, who fell passionately in love with each other, with Ireland,
and with Orson Welles, and gave Ireland the Gate Theatre, one of her truly
great theatre companies. The book is also an important story about the
making of modern Ireland.
[ top ]
Home Before Night
by Hugh Leonard
Originally published in 1979, Hugh Leonard’s
classic, delightful autobiographical evocation of his Dublin childhood
in the 1930s and 1940s is crammed with people and conversations, rich
in poetry, full of love, laughter and rare pleasures.
Out of After Dark
by Hugh Leonard
Originally published in 1989, this classic
sequel to ‘Home Before Night’ is an irresistibly rich and entertaining
memoir of a Dublin adolescence in the 1940s and 1950s. This volumes travels
from schooldays and alter-boyhood to early bliss at the Astoria and problems
with Gloria and Dolores; and finally to the beginnings of a career that
would establish its author as one of Ireland’s foremost playwrights.
[ top ]
Communion by Aidan
Mathews
This play is about two brothers, one family,
and the many faiths that make up modern life. Jordan, the firstborn son,
is terminally ill with a brain tumour that has darkened his later twenties;
Marcus, the scapegrace second child, is mentally ill with manic depression
that has been treated for years. Their widowed mother, Martha, presides
austerely over a household what is almost a home, giving her heart and
soul to Jordan, her time and attention to Marcus. Although outsiders pollinate
the place - a benign Methodist neighbour, a Roman Catholic priest, a Church
of Ireland girlfriend - they fill the sickroom with the emptiness.
[ top ]
A Place Too Small
for Secrets by Paddy Kennelly
The fictional Kerry village of Knockore
teems with a cast of characters worthy of Shakespeare: from the pubs to
the marriage bed and the football field, all human life is here. Through
vivid characterisation and an often breathtaking turn of phrase, the author
of this verse novel brings to life the village’s wayward youths, its adulterers,
chancers and cuckolds, and even a few upstanding citizens. He casts a
tender eye on both the heartbreak of loss and the thrill of love - and
the unforeseen consequences of lust. This tale of village life, told in
the voices of its various inhabitants, is comic but unsentimental, and
at all times the realities of life in rural Ireland lie just below the
surface. In short, this novel in poetry is an Irish ‘Under Milk Wood.’
[ top ]
Changing Women, Changing
Worlds: Evangelical Women in Church, Community and Politics by Fran Porter
This book contains indepth interviews
with evangelical women in Northern Ireland and provides a remarkable insight
into their involvement in church, community and politics. A more engaged
participation in all aspects of society is part of the overall change
in the position of women, along with an ongoing challenge to the attitudes
and practices that previously kept them in the background. As they become
increasingly involved in church, community and political life, evangelical
women face a number of issues. This book explores these questions of participation,
inclusion, difference, authority, domesticity and priority and considers
their implications for churches, evangelicalism and civic society.
[ top ]
Your Life Only a Gazillion
Times Better by Cathy Breslin and Judy May Murphy
This is a book on life coaching for everyone
- Irish style! It assists the readers in finding the power within and
living life a ‘gazillion’ times better. It is a refreshing, fun and enlightening
exploration of self-discovery, dream life, goal fixing, careers and health,
money maters and fantastic relationships.
[ top ]
Westlife on Tour by
Eddie Rowley
This book reveals the true story behind
the phenomenally successful Irish ‘boy band’ Westlife. When the author
of the book set off on tour with the band, no one knew what lay ahead.
Behind them were a huge number of chart-topping singles and a series of
sell-out UK shows. Before them lay the world. What began as a gruelling
rehearsal period in a Dublin studio ended as a multi-million dollar global
extravaganza. This is their story.
[ top ]
Liam Clancy: Memories
of an Irish Troubadour by Liam Clancy
On St. Patrick’s Night, 1961, Liam Clancy
along with his brothers, Paddy and Tom, and their great friend, Tommy,
four fiery and passionate young folk singers from rural Ireland, made
their debut appearance on America’s most influential television programme,
the ‘Ed Sullivan Show’, and entranced the fifty million viewers coast
to coast. This sensational overnight success led to the Clancy Brothers
and Tommy Makem becoming a major part of musical history. They have justly
been called ‘the Beatles of Irish Music’ and have sold millions of records
over the last forty years. His autobiography is by turns uproarious and
wistful, charming and irreverent. His life was a party filled with music,
sex and more than a few pints of Guinness. His nightly encounters with
other soon to be famous young writers, actors and musicians on the Greenwich
Village scene - among them Bob Dylan, Robert Redford, Walter Matthau,
Lenny Bruce, Maya Angelou, Peter Seeger, Barbara Streisand - are remembered
here with unabashed honesty.
[ top ]
Encounters: How Racism
Came to Ireland by Bill Rolston & Michael Shannon
The Irish have been encountering people
of colour both inside and outside of Ireland for over a millennium. The
Vikings traded North African slaves in Dublin in the 9th century while
later Irish peasants travelled with Norman lords on the crusades against
Islam. The Scottish-Irish of the north and later the famine Irish migrated
in their tens of thousands to America where they quickly came to learn
that owning slaves and engaging in racist practices was the passport to
being considered white. And the British Empire could not have operated
without the loyal service of countless Irish administrators and soldiers,
all of whom were implicated directly or otherwise in the task of subjugating,
ruling and often slaughtering people with black, brown or yellow skin.
This book provides a fascinating account of the origins of contemporary
racism in Ireland.
[ top ]
The Garden of Eden
All Over Again by Jude Collins
This book is set in 1959 in County Tyrone,
Northern Ireland. Adam Faith is topping the Hit Parade and seventeen-year-old
Jim McGrath is on the brink of adult life. But what sort of life? He could
become a priest, which would mean he’d be in God’s good books and could
stop worrying about his death-day and having the pennies put on his eyes
and going to hell. His mother and his uncle Father Frank the priest would
like that. But studying to be a priest sounds grim. Besides, Jim’s friend
Presumer Livingstone doesn’t give a damn about priests or brothers or
anyone else and he seems to be having a much better time. And what about
Christy Wenton, a girl who talks about undressing people with her eyes?
As the school year draws to a close, Jim must choose: respectability or
friendship, the spirit or the flesh? Both poignant and humorous, this
novel captures the world of boyhood uncertainties and restlessness as
the new decade approaches.
[ top ]
Scandal and Betrayal:
Shackleton and the Irish Crown Jewels by John Cafferky and Kevin Hannafin
In 1907, coinciding with the visit of
Edward VII to Ireland, an extraordinary discovery was made - the Irish
Crown Jewels had disappeared from Dublin Castle. The jewels - a badge
and diamond star - had been presented to the Knights of St. Patrick by
William IV in 1830. Scotland Yard uncovered a complicated web of mystery,
intrigue and scandal. The Castle was heavily guarded. The thief had been
an ‘insider’. The custodian of the jewels, Sir Arthur Vicars and his staff,
including his co-tenant Frank Shackleton, brother of the explorer, came
under intense scrutiny. The investigation revealed the existence of a
homosexual circle within the Castle, including Vicars himself, Shackleton,
Lord Haddo - son of the King’s Viceroy in Ireland - and the King’s brother-in-law,
the Duke of Argyll. The whiff of scandal was pervasive. A spectacular
Irish burglary suddenly threatened to become an international scandal.
The evidence pointed to Shackleton and Haddo as accomplices in the crime.
However, the police report vanished, and since then the authorities have
shrouded the case in official silence and destroyed all the police files.
This book is an well-argued analysis of political conspiracy, scandal
and betrayal, and presents a compelling case for the present whereabouts
of the still-missing, priceless jewels.
[ top ]
Homefires: A Survivor’s
Story by Shivaun Woolfson
This book is a moving, eloquent and often
shocking story of a passionate and fiercely intelligent woman. Growing
up in 1960s Dublin in a wealthy Jewish family, Shivaun survives the physical
abuse of a beautiful and damaged mother and the control of a domineering
father. Desperate to belong, she abandons her Jewish roots and falls in
love with a Catholic musician, the bass player of an up-and-coming band
called ‘The Boomtown Rats’. When he goes to London, leaving Shivaun behind,
she flees her family, her home and her country to seek comfort among the
followers of an Indian guru. At 21, still haunted by her past, she makes
her way to Miami and marries a handsome refugee from Cuba. But Julio is
a womaniser and drug dealer and Shivaun soon becomes embroiled in Miami’s
seedy underworld. Eight months pregnant, she finds herself in prison,
her chances of ever gaining American citizenship ruined. After Julio is
sent down for trafficking, Shivaun falls for another man, who subjects
her and her two sons to terrifying violence. Finally, she finds the courage
to walk away and, alone with two small boys, she fights back, eventually
earning respect as a mother, a scholar and community activist. For the
first time, she also discovers meaningful love and is then, at last, able
to begin plotting her journey home.
[ top ]
Endgame in Ireland
by Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick
Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick, two
of the most respected journalist on Irish affairs, have been granted unique
access to the research undertaken for the television series ‘Endgame in
Ireland.’ This book tells more vividly than ever before the inside story
of the Irish peace process from 1981 through the words of the key people
involved - many of who have never talked ‘on the record’. Those interviewed
include both British and Irish Prime ministers and their most senior aides,
including former cabinet secretaries. They also include former leaders
of both the IRA and loyalist terror groups. The award-winning authors
being to bear their years of experience of reporting on the conflict to
relate this extraordinary account of secret meetings and clandestine negotiations,
as all the parties struggled to overcome centuries of distrust.
[ top ]
Roger Casement by
Brian Inglis
This classic biography, originally published
in 1973, examines the fascinating and contradictory career of Roger Casement,
one of the most controversial Irishmen of the last century. He was brought
up as a Protestant in Dublin and began his extraordinary career as one
of Stanley’s volunteers in the Congo Free State. During his time in Africa,
he exposed King Leopold II’s exploitation of the natives and went on to
reveal the ruthlessness of the British in South America, for which he
received a knighthood. In Germany after the outbreak of the First World
War he claimed Ireland’s right to recognition to independent nationhood;
he returned to Ireland in 1916 in a U-boat, was captured, taken to London,
tried and hanged as a traitor. To further blacken his name the British
government released what purported to be his diaries, which demonstrated
that he had been a practicing homosexual. Controversy still rages as to
whether or not these were forgeries. In this absorbing study, the author
throws light on Casement’s life, examining evidence from Foreign Office
files to discover the truth about his influence at home and abroad. He
explores these contradictions - political, religious and personal - of
a man whose life posed many questions that continue to be asked today.
[ top ]
Slanguage: A Dictionary
of Irish Slang by Bernard Share
This is an exceptional work of reference.
It is a guide to the unofficial language of the 32 counties of Ireland,
the language of the streets and pubs, but also of much of Irish literature
from Swift to Roddy Doyle. It is the dictionary that lists and explains
the words and phrases that Irish people actually use. Each entry is explained
in normal dictionary style and the origin of each word or phrase is identified
where possible. Subtleties of colloquial usage are illustrated by wide-ranging
examples from many recorded sources. Whether you are a decent skin or
a crawthumper, a horse-protestant, a hard chaw or a strong farmer, this
book is for you. The book is full of fun, information, devilment and craic!
It is also a unique piece of scholarship that captures and celebrates
the vigorous and inventive world of Irish popular speech.
[ top ]
The Invasion Handbook
by Tom Paulin
In this book, the poet sets out to recount
the origins of the Second World War. The result is a triumph of technique,
a simultaneous vision that proceeds by quotation and collage, catalogue
and caption, prose as well as verse - a myriad staging of historical realities
through the poet’s intense and penetrating scrutiny of the particulars
of time and place. The volume opens with the Versailles Peace Treaty of
1919, which excluded Germany from the community of nations, and with the
answering but ill-fated attempt of the Locarno Treaties of 1925 to restore
the torn fabric of Europe. It evokes Weimar culture, Hitler’s rise to
power and the beginnings of the persecution of the Jews, and ends with
the Battle of Britain. Paulin is at pains to affirm the struggle and the
memory of a generation upon whom the doors of living memory are now closing,
and in his poem of war he develops themes which have haunted his poetry:
the relation of art to questions of conflict and national identity, the
search for peace and for a shared civic culture.
[ top ]
The Little Book of
Judas by Brendan Kennelly
The Book of Judas, Brendan Kennelly’s
400-page epic poem in twelve parts, was a number one bestselling book
in Ireland 10 years ago. This book is a distillation of that literary
monster, purged to its traitorous essence. But Judas never goes away.
He continued to worm his way into Kennelly’s imagination long after the
original book was ‘finished’, and this book includes some damning new
revelations from the eternal scapegoat and outcast.
[ top ]
Joyce’s Dublin: An
Illustrated Commentary by Rosanna Negrotti
James Joyce was born in Rathgar, a Dublin
suburb. His childhood was spent in a dozen different addresses scattered
across the city, as his father’s wealth declined. He attended University
College, Dublin, and, shortly after graduating, rejected a medical career
to become a writer. In June 1904 his path crossed with Nora Barnacle on
a Dublin street: four months later they left Ireland together, and spent
the rest of their lives living in Europe with only a few short visits
back to Ireland. In this way, Joyce’s Dublin is a place created by memories.
Though it permeates all of his writing, it remains in some way an unreal
city, which the author accessed through a process of recollection and
imagination. And the modern day Dublin is a changed and changing place.
The author’s photography reveals the city which has survived, complemented
by 19th century etchings, illustrations and photographs showing views
familiar to Joyce. A commentary by Rosanna Negrotti charts the journey
she herself made to Dublin, tracking Joyce, a century on.
[ top ]
Rory Gallagher: A
Biography by Jean-Noel Coghe
This book contains the incredible story
of the boy from Cork, Ireland whose talent as a guitarist emerged at an
early age. He began his musical career in the showband era, playing support
for the likes of the Everly Brothers, the Animals and the Byrds, but turned
his back on that world and founded the band Taste, with whom he toured
Europe in 1968, gaining great acclaim. Touring in North America and Canada,
he rubbed shoulders with Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and
Jimi Hendrix. The band, however, broke up shortly afterwards. Rory recorded
his first solo album in 1971. It was the gateway to over 20 years of recording,
playing live and collaborating with the Fureys, the Davy Spillane Band,
the Dubliners and many others. The tragic death of Rory Gallagher in 1995
at the age of 47 robbed Ireland of one of its finest musicians, an artist
whose development closely mirrored that of Irish music in general. At
his funeral in Cork, the musical world - stars, fans, friends and colleagues
- mourned one of the all-time greats, an innovative and gifted guitarist
who laid the foundations for the development of Irish rock and blues.
[ top ]
Jonathan: Jonathan
Philbin Bowman - Memories, Reflections, Tributes by John Bowman
Jonathan Philbin Bowman (1969-2000) was
one of the most controversial Irish journalists and broadcasters of his
generation. He seemed to know everybody. Those who met him remembered
him. And in this book they recall the Jonathan they knew. The book commemorates
and chronicles his short life. It is not a conventional biography, but
rather an impressionistic portrait based on the testimony of some 200
contributors, who range from those who met him only once to some who had
known him from childhood. The include the writers, politicians, singers,
cooks, entrepreneurs, publishers, lawyers, actors, teachers, artists,
bankers, nuns, architects, a puppeteer, a psychiatrist, a wine writer,
a potter and some of his former girlfriends. It is essentially an anthology
of comment about him since he died drawn from the press, broadcasting,
letters to his family, and material written especially for this book.
[ top ]
From Behind a Closed
Door: Secret Court Martial Records of the 1916 Easter Rising by Brian
Barton
Kept secret for over eight years - the
controversial British court martial records of the executed leaders of
the 1916 Easter Rising. After quashing the Easter Rising of 1916, the
British army court-martialled almost two hundred prisoners. Around ninety
of them received death sentences, but the death penalty was confirmed
for only the fifteen men considered by the British to be the leaders.
All fifteen were executed. For most of the twentieth century, official
British records of the fifteen trials were kept a close secret and were
in fact only released in 1999. Further material released in 2001 included
the trial of Countess Markievicz and important evidence about ‘shoot to
kill’ British military tactics. These records, the subject of heated speculation
and propaganda for over eighty years, are now clearly presented in this
important book. The complete transcripts are all here, together with fascinating
photographs of the Rising, the fifteen leaders and the key British players.
The author’s incisive commentary explains the context of the trials and
the motivations of the leaders, providing an invaluable insight into what
went on behind a closed door at a defining moment in Irish history.
[ top ]
Wherever Green is
Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora by Tim Pat Coogan
The total population of the island of
Ireland is only five million - some 800,000 of whom describe themselves
as British! - yet there are seventy million people on the planet entitled
to call themselves Irish! This groundbreaking book tells their story.
It is based on first-hand research in North and South American, Africa,
the UK, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Apart from contemporary
interviews with significant figures from today’s diaspora, it also explores
how the Great Scattering occurred, through war, famine and dispossession.
How a stricken people produced the movers and shakers, the dreamers of
dreams who climbed to the world’s highest pinnacles of politics and the
arts. It does full justice to the horrors which lay behind some of the
emigration, but concentrates also on the extraordinary and positive experience
of Irish people throughout the world. Along with the brawlers and battlers,
the heroic soldiers, the passionate labour leaders, the American presidents,
the Australian Prime Ministers, the founders of Latin American nations
and the creators of Riverdance and U2, the Irish gave the world a caring
tradition, the missionaries and the teachers who spread a message of a
‘dream born in a herdsman’s shed and the secret scriptures of the poor.’
Some died by the wayside, some successfully pitched their tents near the
stars. All come to live in this vivid historical and contemporary portrait
by Ireland’s most readable and most trenchant contemporary historian.
[ top ]
Breaking the Bonds:
Making Peace in Northern Ireland by Fionnuala O Connor
This book charts Northern Ireland’s arduous
path out of conflict. After so many deaths, bereavements and terrible
injuries, so much destruction, the hope is that a new and better Northern
Ireland is emerging. The political figures who have tried to lead the
way out of the dark days of the Troubles are profiled herein, including
John Hume, Gerry Adams and David Trimble. Others, who have harried and
condemned the peace process, the Reverend Ian Paisley large among them,
are also closely examined. People in Northern Ireland watch their politicians
with amazement, fury, sometimes disbelief, and occasionally with affection
and pride. The author portrays the men, and a few women, in the context
of remarkable times; their strengths and peculiarities highlighted by
the media coverage of events. Northern Ireland’s outstanding cartoonist
Ian Knox captures those profiled as their acts and histories reveal them.
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