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Read Ireland Book Reviews, April 2003
Armed Struggle: A History of the IRA
by Richard English
The Provisional IRA has been one of the world’s most
important revolutionary movements. It has embodied some of the most powerful
forces in modern world history: nationalism, violence, socialism and religion.
The Provisionals have been pivotal in the interwoven histories of Ireland
and Britain, but their full significance reaches far beyond the politics
of those islands into the world of non-state political violence so prominent
today. The IRA has been a much richer, more complex and layered organization
than is frequently recognized. It is also open to more balanced and thorough
examination now - at the end of its long war in the north of Ireland -
than was possible even a few years ago. This book purports to be the first
full, systematic study of the through and action of the IRA, the first
book which asks not only what the IRA have done, but also why they have
done it and what the consequences have been. Based on the most extensive
research ever conducted for such a study, this book offers a detailed
history and analysis of the IRA, building historical foundations on which
to base on understanding of the modern-day Provisionals. The book examines
the dramatic events of the Easter Rising in 1916 and the bitter guerrilla
war of 1919-1922; the partitioning of Ireland in the 1920s and the Irish
Civil War of 1922-3. Here, too, are the clandestine IRA campaigns in Northern
Ireland and Britain during the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The author
explains how the Provisionals were born out of the turbulence generated
by the 1960s civil rights movement. And he examines the escalating violence;
the sending of British troops to the streets of Northern Ireland; the
split in the IRA that produced the Provisionals; the introduction of internment
in 1971 and the tragedy of Bloody Sunday in 1972. He then details the
prison war over political status culminating in the Hunger Strikes of
the early 1980s and moves on to describe the Provisionals’ emergence as
a more committedly political force throughout that decade, a politicalization
that made possible the peace process that has developed over the last
decade. This book offers a fair-minded, explanatory and historically rich
account of one of the world’s most significant paramilitary organizations.
It is meticulously researched and provides original analysis of the motives,
actions and consequences of the IRA that offers a full, balanced and most
authoritative treatment of the Irish Republican Army.
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Ireland Anthology edited by Sean Dunne
This book is a most ambitious one-volume anthology of
Irish prose and poetry. There are more than 200 separate entries, drawn
from indigenous authors as well as from those who have visited the country,
and covering the whole span of written Irish history. As a result, works
by Jonathan Swift, Maria Edgeworth and W.B. Yeats are represented alongside
authors as diverse as the medieval Welsh poet Giraldus Cambrensis, the
Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser, and the French dandy Chevalier de La
Tocnaye. There are also extracts from the works of distinguished contemporary
writers like Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland and Colm Toibin.
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Irish History edited by Seamas Mac
Annaidh
The history of Ireland is one of oppression and emancipation,
characterized by foreign rule and the fight for freedom. It is a history
in which religious and political divides sit side-by-side with a shared
love of the ancient magic that enshrouds the island. The Irish have a
great sense of national identity and this is reflected in their history;
their heritage is ancient and their culture unique. This book offers a
complete A-Z journey through a turbulent past that has shaped the country
today. It provides a comprehensive background to, and a deeper understanding
of, a great many characters and events.
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A Short History of Modern Ireland
by Richard Killeen
This book is concise, comprehensive and original in approach.
It combines a strong narrative with explanation and interpretation. Locating
Ireland within a European context throughout the period, it also stresses
the influences of the Anglo-American world. Written in an accessible style,
it assumes no previous knowledge of Irish history.
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Ireland People and Places: A Celebration
of Ireland’s Cultural Heritage by Daithi O hOgain
Focusing on the human dimension of Irish culture and
tradition, this superbly evocative book presents sixty well-known and
much-loved landmarks and landscapes, along with many out-of-the-way locations
throughout Ireland. Colour-illustrated throughout, the text, from an accomplished
historian, writer and poet, records how ordinary people have lived over
the centuries, and provides a major insight into Ireland’s fascinating
cultural heritage.
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Irish Arts Review Spring 2003 issue
The Spring 2003 issue of this vivid magazine contains
the following: Peter Murray on Ken Thompson; Ballynatray House Restored;
John Minihan in West Cork; The Iconography of Robert Emmett; Spire of
Light in Dublin.
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The New Irish Table: 70 Contemporary
Recipes by Margaret Johnson
At the top of the list of favorite travel destinations,
Ireland is also in the midst of an exciting culinary revolution. Professional
chefs and home cooks are taking Old World ingredients - farmhouse cheeses,
beef, lamb and pork; wild fruits and berries; locally produced dairy products
- and creating exciting new recipes with contemporary flair. Time-honoured
foods like oak-smoked salmon, black and white puddings, fluffy potatoes,
and fruit-filled tarts bursting with flavor have been the fabric of Irish
cooking for generations, and they’re woven together more brilliantly than
ever in this wonderful book.
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Ireland by Patrick Mahe and Philip
Plisson
At the start of their voyage around Ireland, the author
and photographer wanted to find the ancient, traditional spirits of Ireland,
and the magic that is today. In these images of the land and seas both
at rest and battered by the winds, this is the glory that is the beauty
of Ireland.
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Great Salmon and Sea Trout Loughs
of Ireland by Bill Rawlings
In this enchanting and informative book, the author writes
about his love affair with an area renowned for its wild waters, mountains
and the ocean. This is a region of loughs and sometimes tiny river systems
where salmon and sea trout are found in numbers, offering visiting anglers
a chance to pit their wits against the most natural of quarries - wild
fish straight from the ocean. The book covers the West Coast from south
to north, looking in detail at the lough fisheries involved, their environment,
and of course their potential for fisherman. The author’s advice will
help anglers, both those new to the skills required and the more experienced,
when after salmon and sea trout in lakes. There is detailed guidance on
the physical methods employed and equipment required to succeed and it
is shown that these techniques are very different to those used when fishing
typical reservoirs for trout.
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Danger to Society: Elaine Moore’s
Story by Elaine Moore and Tony McCullagh
London, 10 July 1998 - Elaine Moore’s life is about to
change forever. In a simultaneous raid, Irish and British police officers
arrested the 21-year-old Dubliner and nine others for alleged terrorist
offences. After four days of harrowing police interrogations, she was
charged and sent to an all-male maximum security prison, where she was
classified as a ‘High Risk, Category A’ prisoner. Elaine had to endure
degrading strip-searching up to four times a day; confined to a cell for
19 hours a day; and transported under armed guard at all times. Shocked
and terrified, Elaine’s mother Kathy instigated a massive campaign to
fight for her release, involving Irish politicians, the media, international
human rights agencies and solicitor Gareth Peirce, who famously represented
the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. For the first time ever, Elaine
has broken her silence on those dark lonely days of 1998. With exclusive
extracts from Elaine’s prison diaries, as well as interviews with those
involved in her campaign, this is the first ever full account of her notorious
case.
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Evelyn: A True Story by Evelyn Doyle
Dublin 1953. Abandoned by his wife for another man, and
desperate to have his six children looked after while he found work in
England, Desmond Doyle trusted the word of the authorities, and put them
all into temporary State care. Written from the viewpoint of nine-year-old
Evelyn, Desmond’s eldest child and only daughter, this moving true story
recounts Desmond’s shocking discovery on his return. In his absence, the
State had consigned the children to its permanent care. So began his desperate
battle with the government to reunite his family, and change an unjust
law.
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Irish Sport: 1950-2000 An Insight
Into Irish Sporting Success edited by Ian Foster
With a population of only 5.5 million, Ireland is nonetheless
respected around the world for its sporting achievement and diversity
of sporting interest. In addition to well-known team sports such as soccer,
rugby and cricket, the Gaelic sports - hurling and Gaelic football - contribute
to a full agenda for participants and spectators alike. Throughout Ireland,
sport is played with enthusiasm and, win or lose, the craic of the game
is paramount. This book is a collection of essays written by the editor
with contributions from eight authorities in their chosen field. It examines
12 different sports over the last 50 years and provides a colourful insight
into Irish sporting achievement and success. It presages many of the remarkable
changes that have taken place in the very recent past in Irish sport -
the primary one being a steady growth in the professionalism of the major
disciplines. Combining historical fact with the accounts of individuals
involved, this book is at once both informative and highly entertaining
and will be an important addition to the collection of sports enthusiasts
as well as those who sit on the sidelines and cheer on their favourites.
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Toleration and Religious Identity:
The Edict of Nantes and Its Implications in France, Britain and Ireland
edited by Ruth Whelan and Carol Baxter
Why do we commemorate key events from the past? Is commemoration
a way of keeping historical grudges alive? Or can it be liberating? Does
historical reflection shape our identity? Should it? Are there lessons
to be learned from commemorating the Edict of Nantes - that uneasy pacification
of the conflicts between Roman Catholics and Protestants in early modern
France? These and other questions are addressed in the fifteen essays
in this volume written by an international group of writers and teachers,
historians, pastors, psychiatrists, sociologists and theologians. The
book is organised around five interconnecting sets of issues: commemorating
the Edict of Nantes; the political culture that made the Edict necessary
and defined its provisions; the shaping of identity under the Edict; the
evolution of the concept of toleration; the implications of the Edict
for our own time of pluralism and multiculturalism and particularly for
the struggle for peace and reconciliation in Ireland.
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Hot Footing Around the Emerald Isle
by Ian Middleton
Ian was more than a littler apprehensive when his turn
came to kiss the Blarney Stone. Not only had they just met, but it seemed
this stone wasn’t at all fussy, as to who it allowed to kiss it. This
was just the first obstacle Ian had to cross during his two-month journey
around the Emerald Isle. With just a backpack as a home, a guidebook in
one hand, a bizarre travelogue in the other and very little money in his
bank account, Ian leaves his home and sets off to this little country
that has always been his neighbour, yet overlooked by him for many years
as he pursued dreams to travel to far and exotic countries.
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U2 2000-2002: Elevate Me Here edited
by Karin and Marcel Wagenaar
This book is a comprehensive documentary that guides
the reader through the last few successful years with news, awards, Bono
and Africa, discography, a complete description of the Promo and Elevation
tour, including concert reviews, quotations of Bono, stories and photos
from the fans, also professional photographs. This book is written by
fans for fans
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The Memory Stones by Kate O’Riordan
Nell Hennessy left rural Ireland at sixteen to have her
daughter Ali. In over thirty years, she has never returned. Now she lives
an uncluttered, elegant life in Paris, enjoying her independence, only
broken from time to time by her married lover Henri. Until a phone call
shatters the peace of her carefully constructed world her daughter and
granddaughter may be in grave danger and Nell can no longer avoid the
inevitable. She must return to her childhood home. This novel is a poignant
and gripping exploration of love, loss and the nature of memory itself
as well as a study of the intricacies of mother/daughter relationships,
observed with razor-sharp precision and great tenderness.
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Kilbrack by Jamie O’Neill
Crossing the road one night, a great black car came and
ran him down. He woke two weeks later, scarred and amnesiac, a new name
looking at the blank page of a new life; O’Leary, Montagu, born, it would
seem, at the age of twenty-five. Two women have sustained him since: Mary,
the nurse who took him in when the hospital ran out of patience, and Nancy
Valentine, author. Her memoir of an idyllic childhood in Kilbrack, with
its cast of idiosyncratic characters ends in her return to the village
after sudden, inexplicable banishment to find it abandoned, in utter desolation
and ruin. Now, exasperated by his obsession, Mary has left him, fleeing
to an early death back in Ireland. Armed with his treasured copy of the
book, O’Leary decides to seek out the place that has haunted him. But
imagine his consternation to find that the village is not abandoned at
all. What has happened to Kilbrack? With an affection and wit as incisive
here as in his recent masterpiece, this novel prefigures the darker forebodings,
the tenderness that marked ‘At Swim, Two Boys.’
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In the Castle of the Flynns by Michael
Raleigh
The year is 1954, the setting a vibrant Irish neighbourhood
of Chicago. Daniel Dorsey learns at the age of seven the intimate meaning
of death when his parents are killed in a car crash. Taken in by his extended,
at times crazy, and always tender and caring family, Daniel learns that
even the deepest sorrows and hurt can be healed. In a time of wakes and
weddings, conflicts and romance, Daniel comes to understand both his own
loss and the secret places in the hearts of his loved ones.
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In The Forest by Edna O’Brien
Set in the countryside of western Ireland, this novel
centres on unwitting victims for sacrifice: a radiant young woman, her
young son and a trusting priest, all despatched to the wilderness of a
young man’s unbridled, deranged fantasies. The author’s riveting, frightening
and brilliantly told novel reminds us that anything can happen when protection
is not afforded to either perpetrator or victim.
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A Fanatic Heart by Edna O’Brien
Love and loss, the villages and countryside of western
Ireland, sexual intimacy and social alienation - everything that makes
Edna O’Brien such a distinctive voice in contemporary fiction is contained
in the short stories in this collection. The volume includes all nine
stories from ‘Returning’, four interrelated stories that have previously
appeared in The New Yorker magazine, and the author’s own selections from
‘The Love Object’, ‘A Scandalous Woman’, and ‘Mrs. Reinhardt’.
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The Secret Army: The IRA by J. Bowyer
Bell
Revised and updated third edition. This book is the definitive
work on the Irish Republican Army. It is an absorbing account of a movement
that has had a profound effect on the shaping of the modern Irish state.
The secret army in the service of the invisible Republic has had a powerful
effect on Irish events over the past more than twenty-five years. These
hidden corridors of power interest the author and inspired him to spend
more time with the IRA than many volunteers spend in it. This book is
the culmination of twenty-five years of work and tens of thousands of
hours of interviews. Bell’s unique access to the leadership of the republican
movement and his contacts with all involved - British politicians, Irish
politicians, policemen, arms smugglers, and others committed or opposed
to the IRA - explain why this book is THE book on the subject. This edition
represents a complete revision and includes vast quantities of new information.
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Robert Emmet: A Life by Patrick M.
Geoghegan
Robert Emmet (1778-1803) was one of the most romantic
of all Irish revolutionaries. Born in Dublin, Emmet was the youngest son
of the state physician. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was a
leading member of the College Historical Society until his expulsion for
radical activity in 1798. Prevented from pursuing a profession, he visited
the continent where he discussed plans for liberating Ireland with Napoleon
and Tallyrand. He returned to Ireland in 1802 and soon became involved
in a conspiracy for a new rebellion. This book reveals for the first time
the complex and ingenious plans that Emmet devised for the rebellion.
His youthful idealism and military talent proved insufficient, however,
and his attempt to seize Dublin on 23 July, 1803 was a dramatic failure.
Captured soon after, he won an unlikely victory with his extraordinary
speech from the dock that is considered to be one of the greatest courtroom
orations in history. He died bravely on the scaffold the next day. This
book draws on new archival material from Ireland, the United Kingdom,
France and the United States and is the first modern study of Robert Emmet
in almost fifty years.
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Irish Penitentials edited by Ludwig
Bieler
This classic book puts before the reader the basic documents
relating to the administration of penance in Ireland during the Middle
Ages, and brings together some material for their literal and historical
interpretation. First published in 1963, and reprinted in 1975, there
are only a few copies remaining available.
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Ireland, Neutrality and European
Security Integration by Roisin Doherty
In this book the author provides an innovative insight
into European security policy by concentrating on Ireland through an analysis
of compatibility of Irish neutrality with security integration. She also
analyzes the factors influencing security integration. This contemporary
analysis of neutrality also deals with the development of the Common Foreign
and Security Policy and examines the factors pushing forward the development
of European Union security policy.
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Lawless v Ireland (1957-1961): The
First Case Before the European Court of Human Rights by Brian Doolan
The case of Lawless v. Ireland is a landmark in the development
of human rights jurisprudence. Stemming from the introduction of detention
without trial by the Irish government in response to the resurgence of
political violence, much of the material relevant to the case brought
before the European Court of Human Rights has remained closed to public
scrutiny. This book is the first to provide a detailed documentary of
the case, assessing the adequacy of the investigatory processes provided
under the European Convention and questioning whether the factual conclusions
reached by the European Commission on Human Rights were correct.
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Partnership Governance in Northern
Ireland: Improving Performance by Jonathan Greer
Drawing together a broad range of material on Partnership
Governance, this book provides an invaluable contribution to a fast growing
area of political science. Powerful synthesis and a robust analytical
framework accompany three empirical case studies focusing on how the transition
from government to governance in Northern Ireland is being superimposed
on the deep historical divisions that still exist.
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Childhood and Its Discontents edited
by Joseph Dunne and James Kelly
Subtitle: The First Seamus Heaney Lectures. Today there
is heightened sensitivity to the needs and rights of children. At the
same time, strong pressures tend toward the creation of a less child-friendly
society. While children are now more prized than ever, shocking revelations
have also brought unprecedented awareness of the extent to which they
have been abused by adults in positions of authority and trust. Greater
appreciation of ambivalence and contradiction in attitudes towards, and
treatment of, children points to the need for more searching inquiry into
the nature of childhood and the complex dynamics through which different
childhoods are constructed by adults. This book aims to advance this inquiry
and will be of particular interest to parents, educators and policy-makers.
By bringing together perspectives from psychology, sociology, history
and philosophy, the book is intended as a contribution to greater understanding
of children themselves and of adults’ imaginative and emotional investments
in them. The essays collected in this volume were first delivered as lectures
in the inaugural series at St. Patrick’s College, Dublin.
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Ireland’s Banner County: Clare from
the fall of Parnell to the Great War, 1890-1918 by Daniel McCarthy
The turbulent, dramatic past of an Irish county and its
people is depicted against the national backdrop of cultural, socio-economic,
political and military upheaval on the eve of this birth of the Republic
in this comprehensive historical record of County Clare. Very much an
island county, Clare has a distinct personality and has been synonymous
with the ‘strong man’ or leader since the time of Boru and the 1890-1918
era threw up no shortage of leaders in the county, from Michael Cuscak
to Willie Redmond and Colonel Martin Meaney, from Bishop Fogarty to Peadar
Clancy and Eamon deValera. Just prior to the Easter Rising, Clare was
described by a prominent local unionist as ‘the most Roman Catholic county
in Ireland and the most disloyal and disaffected towards the English connection.’
Yet by the end of the Great War, over 500 Claremen lay dead upon the killing
fields of Europe. How this and other contradictions came to be are explored
in this book.
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We Always Treat Women Too Well by
Raymond Queneau
This classic novel was first published in France in 1947
as a purported work of pulp fiction by one Sally Mara. It is a manifestation
of the author’s sly, provocative, wonderfully wayward genius. Set in Dublin
during the 1916 Easter rebellion, it tells of a nubile beauty who finds
herself trapped in the central post office when it is seized by a group
of rebels. But Gertie Girdle is no common pushover, and she quickly devises
a coolly lascivious strategy by which, in very short order, she saves
the day for king and country. The author’s wickedly funny send-up of cheap
smut - his response to a popular bodice-ripper of the 1940s - exposes
the link between sexual fantasy and actual domination while celebrating
the imagination’s power to transmute crude sensationalism into pleasure
pure and simple.
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A Short History of Orangeism by Kevin
Haddick-Flynn
Tracing the development of the Orange tradition from
its beginning during the Williamite War (1688-91) to the present day,
this book comprehensively covers all the main events and personalities.
It provides information on such little-known organizations as the Royal
Black Preceptory and the Royal Arch Purple Order, as well as institutions
like the Apprentice Boys of Derry. Military campaigns and rebellions are
set against a background of political intrigue and infighting, and anti-Catholic
rhetoric is matched with anti-Orange polemic. This compelling book narrates
the history of a quasi-Masonic organization and looks at its rituals and
traditions.
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Southword: Journal of the Munster
Literature Centre
This journal contains poetry by Gerry Murphy, Robert
Welch, Aidan Harman, Mary O’Connell, John Mee, George Harding, John W.
Sexton, Dympna Dreyer, Rosemary Canavan, Ann Egan, Susan Facknitz, Gabriel
Rosenstock, Kathleen Donovan, and Gregory O’Donoghue. It contains prose
by: William Wall, Desmond Hogan, Aidan Harman and Augustus Young.
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