Read Ireland Book Reviews, May 2003

Jonathan Allen
Jenny Bristow
Mary E. Daly
Gilles Deleuze
Bill Doyle
Joe Dunne
Kevin Dwyer
Michael Fewer
Fodor’s Pocket Dublin
Merlin Holland
Nan Joyce
Colum Kenny
Brian Lacy
Donall MacAmlaigh
Michael MacGowan
Aidan Manning
Mary McBryde
Joe McGowan
John McKenna
Sally McKenna
James Murphy
Siobhan O’Brien
Gareth O’Callaghan
Kevin O’Connor
Nuala O’Faolain
Thomas Pakenham
Valerie Pakenham
Senia Paseta
Philip Reid
Anne Ross
Ruth Isabel Ross
Ruth Isabel Ross
Ernest Shackleton

Almost There: The Onward Journey of a Dublin Woman - a Memoir by Nuala O’Faolain
In 1996, a small Irish press approached Nuala O’Faolain, then a writer for the Irish Times newspaper, to publish a collection of her opinion columns. She offered to write an introduction to give the opinions a context - to explain the life experience that had shaped this Irish woman’s views - and, convinced that none but a few diehard fans of the columns would ever see the book, she took the opportunity to interrogate herself, as fully and candidly as she could, as to what she had made of her life. But the introduction, the ‘accidental memoir of a Dublin woman’, was discovered, and ‘Are You Somebody?’ became an international bestseller. It launched a new life for its author at a time when she had long let go of expectations that anything could dislodge patterns of regret and solitude well fixed and too familiar. Suddenly in mid-life there was the possibility of radical change. Whereas the memoir ended with its author reconciled to a peaceful if lonely future, now opportunities opened up, and there were thrilling choices to make - choices that forced her to address the question of how to live a better life herself and, therefore, of what makes any life better. This memoir begins at the moment when O’Faolain’s life began to change, and its both tells the story of life in the subtle, radical, and, above all, unforeseen renewal, and meditates on that story. It is on one level a tale of good fortune chasing out bad - of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative examination of one woman’s experience of ‘the crucible of middle age’ - a time of life that faces in two directions, forging the shape of the years to come, and clarifying and solidifying one’s relationships to friends and lovers (past and present), family and self. Fiercely intelligent, hilarious, moving, generous, and full of surprises, this book is a crystalline reflections of a singular character, utterly engaged in life.

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A Day Called Hope: A Journey Beyond Depression by Gareth O’Callaghan
For several years, Gareth O’Callaghan, one of Ireland’s most popular broadcasters, suffered from severe depression. No one guessed that the minute he was off the air, he would retreat to his bed, sometimes with thoughts of suicide, barely able to function as a husband and father of three small children. In this candid and courageous account, he describes the nightmare he and his family lived through for so long. He looks back to the childhood, where he believes his low self-esteem took root, and traces a pattern common to many depression sufferers. As soon as he was diagnosed, Gareth began a determined fight back to health. Now fully recovered, free of anti-depressants, more optimistic and fitter than ever, he has emerged with a deep understanding of how the condition takes hold - as well as how to loosed its grasp. It has been an extraordinary journey - one that has given him immense insight, practical knowledge, a deep mistrust of conventional wisdom, and a mission to spread hope to all those affected by it.

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Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation by Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze was one of the most influential and revolutionary philosophers of the 20th century. This is his long-awaited work on the Ireland-born artist Francis Bacon, widely regarded as one of the most radical painters of the previous century. The book presents a deep engagement with Bacon’s work and the nature of art. Deleuze analyzes the distinctive innovations that came to mark Bacon’s style: the isolation of the figure, the violent deformations of the flesh, the complex use of colour, the method of change, and the use of the triptych form. Along the way, Deleuze introduces a number of his own famous concepts, such as the ‘body without organs’ and the ‘diagram’, and contrasts his own approach to painting with that of both the phenomenological and the art historical traditions. Deleuze links Bacon’s work to Cezanne’s nation on a ‘logic’ of sensation, which reaches its summit in colour and the ‘colouring sensation’. Investigating this logic, Deleuze explores Bacon’s crucial relation to past painters such as Valasquez, Cezanne and Soutine, as well as Bacon’s rejection of expressionism and abstract painting. Long awaited in translation, this book is destined to become a classic philosophical reflection on the nature of painting.

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The Magic and Mystery of Ireland in Photographs by Bill Doyle
This book is a celebration of Ireland, one of the most beautiful parts of the world, capturing the spirit of the Irish and the impressive country. With 150 lavish photographs of the most fascinating places in Ireland - taken by one of the country’s foremost photographers - each picture is accompanied by detailed information about the history and geography that surrounds it. Including wild natural landscapes and man-made parks and gardens, impressive architecture and ancient monuments, this is a magnificent photographic guide to the haunting beauty of Ireland.

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Pagan Celtic Britain by Anne Ross
In this book the author employs archaeological and anthropological evidence, as well as folklore, to provide a broad insight into the early Celtic world. She begins by examining Celtic places of worship - the shrines and sanctuaries in which sacred objects were housed and from where they would be ritually displayed when various rites and sacrifices were conducted before the people. She describes the divine warriors with their aquatic, therapeutic and fertility connections. The importance of animals is also analyzed, especially birds, the gods’ favourite form of creature for metamorphosis. The reader learns how Celtic places of worship changed with the arrival of the Romans when Romano-Celtic temples were erected and new deities and cults evolved. This book is gripping as the author leads the reader through the evidence from ritual pits and cult sites, votive wells, sacred precincts and mountains.

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The Poetry and Song of Black and Amber Glory by James Murphy
This book is the story, in poetry and song, of the G.A.A. in Kilkenny, collected and compiled by Tullogher native-born Jamesie Murphy. The joys of victory, the thrills of winning, and even, sometimes, the hard defeats are captured in vivid detail. From almost the birth of the Association, the author, who since childhood, was immersed in its affairs, has gathered together the poetic stories of Irish sporting games. From the brown and dust covered manuals, to this computer age, he has trawled through many records, and once again brought back to life the heroes who made history on many a Gaelic field for their beloved county of Kilkenny. These were the sporting people who make the country proud of ‘Black and Amber Glory’.

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Donegal Poitin: A History by Aidan Manning
In early eighteenth-century Ireland, there were few restrictions on commercial distilling and this encouraged the growth of a patchwork of small rural and urban distillers in County Donegal. A 1731 law that forbade distilling except within the environs of a market town ended this loose arrangement. Legal distilling in rural areas stopped and, as there were few market towns in the country, opportunities arose for those individuals willing to operate outside the law to cater to a thirty population. Illicit distilling quickly flourished and, in many parts of the country, the price of barley and tenants’ ability to pay the rent came to rely entirely on the continuation of the practice. For the next century and a quarter, large groups of poitin makers used the mountains, the many islands, the plentiful streams and abundant peat to supply most of the whiskey consumed in County Donegal and such neighbouring towns as Strabane and Derry. The revenue department exacerbated the problem by further restrictive legislation and by requiring that the few remaining legal distillers manufacturer a hurried, ill-tasting, raw-corn-based spirit that contrasted starkly with the mellow, barley-malt-based poitin. Over the years, the government used revenue officers, soldiers, local thugs, militia, yeomanry, coastguard, and finally the revenue police in futile attempts to put down Donegal poitin making. Scores of people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes that few more violent as the decades passed and illicit spirits flowed as freely as ever. This book details that brutal period in Donegal history.

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Irish Songs selected by Siobhan O’Brien
This book is a collection of over 40 of Ireland’s finest traditional folk songs, arranged for voice and piano. The songs and ballads in this book, by turns humorous and touching, tragic and poignant, reflect the essence of a country famous for its romantics and storytellers.

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Shackleton: The Polar Journeys by Ernest Shackleton
This book combines Heart of the Antarctic and South, Ernest Shackleton’s personal accounts of his polar expeditions. Heart of the Antarctic is the story of his polar expedition of 1907-1909, part of his never-ending quest to reach the South Pole. On this, his first expedition in sole charge, he came agonisingly close to achieving his dream. Appalling weather conditions, however, together with the necessity of reaching his shop before it had to flee the advancing pack-ice, forced him to abandon his goal in a breathtaking race against time. With photographs taken on the expedition by Douglas Mawson, and numerous maps and diagrams, this is a fascinating record of all time. The is the only complete edition available. South is Shackleton’s account of a journey that began in August 1914 with high hopes of a first exploration and ended two years later in a desperate struggle for survival, after the expedition’s ship, the Endurance, was first trapped in sea-ice, then crushed. Shackleton, with a handful of his party, braved the fury of the South Atlantic as they made their desperate 800-mile journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia aboard the James Caird. This small boat - just over 20 feet long - was pitted against the fury of the southern ocean. The survival of the entire expedition was hinged on this last gamble. Sir Ernest Shackleton was one of the greatest and most colourful explorers of his time. Born in County Kildare in 1874, he was educated in London and apprenticed in the Merchant Navy before becoming a junior officer under Captain Robert Scott, on Discovery, between 1901 and 1904. From this point on, his life was devoted to polar exploration, and raising funds for his projects. He died in South Georgia in 1922 while on his fourth Antarctic expedition.

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An Irish Navvy: The Diary of an Exile by Donall MacAmlaigh
Backbreaking, blister-making work, followed by pints of the black stuff in the Admiral Rodney, the Shamrock, the Cattle Market Tavern and many others, well-told stories, fine songs, characters like Connemara lads, Cockney Woods, Pigfoot Paddy and occasional punch-ups. These are the people and events that make this book an extraordinarily vivid picture of an Irish navvy’s life in the England of the 1950s. Workless and foodless days, the hardships of work camps, lonesome partings after trips home, periods of intense isolation and occasional bitterness were also part of the picture. This book is an honest account of how the average Irish labourer worked, lived in and contributed to the country of the ancient enemy. Originally published in Irish as ‘Dialann Deorai’ too wide acclaim, this translation was first published in 1964 and has been unavailable in English for many years.

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The Hard Road to Klondike by Michael MacGowan
Michael MacGowan was born in 1865 in the parish of Cloghaneely in the Donegal gaeltacht. He was the eldest of twelve children in a poverty-stricken family owning one cow, living in a three-roomed thatched cottage and speaking no English. He ended his days in a large slate-roofed house in the same place. First published in Irish as ‘Rotha Mor an tSaoi’, this is his account of the fate dealt to him by ‘the Wheel of Life’. From the age of nine he was hired out for six consecutive years from May to September at a hiring fee of 30 shillings. After emigration to Scotland and the drudgery of farmwork, he left for America and worked his way across the USA in steelmills and mines to Montana. He then took part in the Klondike gold-rush and vividly recounts the adventures of himself and his ‘sourdough’ companions, their privations and hardships in the primitive harsh icy wastes of the Yukon. Home on holiday in 1901, he fell in love and stayed, using the money from the gold to buy some land and the house. Told with the certainty and authority of someone who has ‘lived’ what he described, this book reflects the author’s indomitable spirit and loyalty to his native place and culture. This translation was originally published in 1962 and has been long out of print.

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My Life on the Road by Nan Joyce
Irish travellers have been on the road for hundreds of years, earning a living as tinsmiths, musicians, carpenters, and horse and scrap dealers. In this moving story of her life, Nan Joyce tells of idyllic days camped in the countryside, of fireside storytelling, happy days at school in England, horse fairs and marriage customs. But Nan’s family, like so many other travellers, were often treated as outcasts without rights. She remembers evictions from traditional campsites in the middle of winter and having to beg to survive. After her father died her mother was imprisoned for a year for stealing scrap to provide for the family. Nan and her brothers and sisters were left to fend for themselves. This vivid memoir is laced with humour, charity and love of life. In an afterword, the author tells of her life since this classic autobiography was first published in 1985.

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The Stolen Child: A Memoir by Joe Dunne
The happiness of Joe Dunne’s early life was blights when neighbours complained to the local Sisters of Charity that his young, widowed mother was misbehaving - allowing herself to be courted, and throwing parties in their North Strand home. The response of the Church and state was swift. In 1928, at the age of five, Joe was ordered to be detained in the care of the state until his sixteenth birthday. Separated from his mother and sister, he grew up in industrial schools in Kilkenny and Dublin - a fact that he kept secret from his colleagues in the Post Office for almost fifty years. In this book, he tells his story with honesty, humour, and courage, describing how he suffered the trauma of a lonely, institutionalised upbringing, learning to make the most of the few pleasures that came his way. This book is a moving, brave account of a childhood endured with grace and faith.

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Constance Markievicz: The People’s Countess edited by Joe McGowan
This book traces Constance Markievicz’s journey from a pampered childhood in a Sligo landlord’s mansion to her participation in Ireland’s literary and political Renaissance. The little-known story of her daughter Maeve and her son-in-law Stanislaw, is also recorded. Paintings by Constance, produced while in solitary confinement in Holloway Jail, are reproduced in this book for the first time ever. Her meeting and marriage to the aristocratic Count Dunin Markievicz at art school in Paris is detailed here. It describes how on their return to Dublin she threw her lot in with the poor, running soup kitchens during the workers strikes and Dublin lockout of 1913. Her political awakening led to her championing women’s rights and her eventual command of a company of the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rebellion. Sentenced to death and incarcerated in a British prison, she became, not just the first woman ever elected to the British Parliament, but as Minister for Labour, the first woman Cabinet Minister in Europe. Her heroic endurance during several prison terms and her correspondence with her sister Eva, is also documented in this fascinating book.

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Blake & Bourke and the End of Empires by Kevin O’Connor
This book is the first full account of the ‘before and after’ lives of the conspirators to the Great Spy Escape - a psychological tracing of the politics that formed them, from anti-war protests in England in the 1960s to KGB conspiracies in Moscow. Add the connections to the great events in the boyhoods of George Behar, bombed out of Rotterdam by the Nazis in 1940 and Sean Bourke, banished to Borstal in 1947, from Limerick. How these apparently separate events were to impinge on government in London, Dublin and Moscow is told by the author with the flair of a dramatist and the eye of an historian.

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Irish Peacock & Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde by Merlin Holland
One of the most famous love affairs in literary history is that of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas. When it became public, it cost Wilde everything. Merlin Holland has discovered the original courtroom transcript of this trial that led to his grandfather’s tragedy. Here for the first time is the true record, without the distortions of previous accounts. On 18 February 1895, Bosie’s father, the Marquess of Queensbury, delivered a note to the Albemarle Club addressed to ‘Oscar Wilde posing as somdomite (sic)’. With Bosie’s encouragement, Wilde decided to sue the Marguess for libel. As soon as the trial opened, London’s literary darling was at the centre of the greatest scandal of his time. Wilde’s fall from grace was swift: his case lost, prosecution by the Crown soon followed, ending in the imprisonment that destroyed his health - even as his art, as Wilde put it - improved through ‘suffering’. In this remarkable book, the reader witnesses Wilde’s confidence ebbing under the relentless questioning and see him lose track of the witty lines for which he was famous. Ultimately, it was his wit that betrayed him.

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Ireland: Our Island Home by Kevin Dwyer
This is a revised edition of the best-selling book of aerial photos around the Irish coastline. It contains 40 specially commissioned replacement photographs that enhance and embellish this new edition. In a spectacular bird’s-eye journey around Ireland’s glorious coastline - cities and towns, harbours and headlands, beaches and islands - he captures some singular new detail. Starting at Carlingford Lough in Co. Louth, the journey is in a clockwise direction around the coast of all 32 counties of the island. This book encapsulates what is special about, and is an important record of, Ireland’s coastline at the start of the twenty-first century.

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Fearing Sellafield by Colum Kenny
This book reveals the facts behind the fears about Sellafield. It finds that Sellafield is not just a controversial reprocessing plant, but is also Britain’s most dangerous nuclear dump. It highlights the reality that large amounts of lethal liquid waste are still being produced and stored at Sellafield. It accepts that the chances of a major disaster at Sellafield may be statistically low, but finds that a major disaster could cause havoc across Britain and Ireland and says that Sellafield should be shut down as soon as possible. It also finds that Sellafield can be shut down. It explores the possibility of a terrorist attack on Sellafield, and questions the level of secrecy that has surrounded security at Britain’s nuclear plants. It explains why the Irish Sea is one of the most radioactive stretches of water in the world. And it shows how the Irish government is using international law to fight Sellafield.

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Magnificent Irish Wolfhound by Mary McBryde
The Irish Wolfhound, the biggest of all dog breeds, has an ancient history, dating back some 3,000 years. These giant-sized hounds were used for hunting wolf, deer and wild boar, and they were even used in battle to pull men off horseback. However, by the 19th Century numbers had dwindled, and following the Irish Famine of 1845, the breed almost died out. Fortunately, a revival took place, and today the Irish Wolfhound has a strong, enthusiastic following worldwide. This book is the most comprehensive to date on the Irish Wolfhound. It is one of the most impressive books ever published on a single breed. The Irish Wolfhound is traced through its chequered history to its emergence as an impressive show dog and a lovable, gentle companion. Extensive coverage is given to choosing and rearing a Wolfhound puppy, with particular emphasis on diet and exercise during the vital growing period. The Breed Standard is analysed in detail, and there is expert guidance on training the Irish Wolfhound for the show ring. Using her extensive experience, the author gives invaluable advice on breeding Irish Wolfhounds, and there is a complete section on health care and breed associated conditions. Illustrated with more than 200 top-quality photographs.

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Pocket History of Irish Saints by Brian Lacy
In Early Christian times, Ireland was a centre of spirituality and learning. As well as the famous Brigid, Patrick and Colum Cille, early Irish records list as many as 1,700 saints. There is a wealth of folklore, legend, tradition and literature associated with them. These colourful characters taught, looked after the sick, settled feuds between rival chieftains and kings, wrote histories and poetry and performed miracles. Some endured incredible hardship, living in hermitages on barren cliff tops, such as on Skellig. Many, such as Fursa and Columbanus, travelled thousands of miles to spread the Christian faith, establishing large, powerful monasteries across Europe. This book is a concise history of 100 of the best known and most influential Irish saints.

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Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction by Senia Paseta
This book contains a brief overview of the central themes in Irish history, politics and culture over the last 200 years. This is a book about the ‘Irish Question’, or more specifically about Irish Questions. The term has become something of a catchall, a convenient way to encompass numerous issues and developments that pertain to the political, social, and economic history of modern Ireland. The Irish Question has of course changed: one of the main aims of this book is to explore the complicated and shifting nature of the Irish Question and to assess what it has meant to various political minds and agendas.

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Irish Family Food by Ruth Isabel Ross
In this book, the author has gathered together a wonderful collection of recipes that included all that is best about Irish home cooking. Family food in Ireland is planned to warm, to satisfy and to console. The food, with local variations, is wholesome, nourishing and plain, just tasting of itself. Ingredients are fresh and cooking is slow and gentle, bringing out every flavour. Potato soups, fish cakes, Irish stew, bacon and cabbage, and colcannon are just some of the dozens of delicious recipes that evoke the best of Irish traditional cooking.

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Irish Baking Book by Ruth Isabel Ross
These wonderful, wholesome and traditional recipes have been carefully collected and baked by the author over many years. Here is good, plain, wholesome, traditional baking at its best. Favourites such as Irish brown bread, soda bread and scones are included, along with recipes for fruit breads, cakes, biscuits, puddings, pies and savoury dishes. Many of the recipes in this collection have been made in Irish homes for hundreds of years, and the author has included recipes that were made for certain feastdays. The last section is for simple ‘no flour’ bakes and includes savoury and sweet recipes.

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Jenny Bristow Cooks for the Seasons: Spring and Summer
Whether you like traditional food with a new twist or something a little more exotic, Jenny Bristow has the dish for you. What about Irish salmon with a creamy chive sauce, alongside griddled potatoes with lemon and yoghurt, rounded off with lemon and ginger bread and butter pudding? Or why not spice it up with chiang mai pork curry and sticky rice, followed by Thai fruit salad and coconut ice cream? There are great ideas for a mouthwatering spring lunch that will dazzle the relations, hints and tips for barbecuing and dining alfresco and wonderful recipes for soups, snacks, main courses, desserts - and seasonal drinks like mint julep and iced spiced tea punch to wash it down.

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Dublin’s Victorian Houses by Mary E. Daly et.al.
The sturdy redbrick houses of Victorian Dublin are one of its unsung treasures. Although they were designed for the lifestyle of another era, these solidly built homes have proved marvellously adaptable and attractive. Victorian houses are now recognised and cherished for the gems they are and are in more demand than ever. This fascinating book explores the development of these houses, describes how people lived in them and advises how to look after them.

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35 Years of Northern Ireland Railways 1967-2002 by Jonathan Allen
Northern Ireland Railways celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2002 and this full colour book reviews this history of NIR since its inception in 1967. Much has changed in 35 years. In 1967 NIR still operated some steam engines and most of its rolling stock was wooden bodied. Semaphore signals predominated and most stations were heavily staffed. Over 35 years, NIR faces much adversity and was the target of many terrorist attacks. This book, by a renowned rail photographer and historian, tells the fascinating story of NIR and illustrates the variety of trains and services operated. It also includes a detailed appendix of NIR rolling stock up to the present.

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100 Best Restaurants in Ireland 2003 by John & Sally McKenna
This book is the definitive guide to the finest contemporary restaurant cooking in Ireland today. Published annually, since 1982, the guide is award-winning, controversial and independent.

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Fodor’s Pocket Dublin 5th edition
This practical little book contains information on all the must-see sights and essential shops (with the notable exception of Read Ireland @ Phibsboro Bookshop): key landmarks from St Stephens Green and Trinity College to St Patrick’s Cathedral; highlights of Temple Bar and explorable neighbourhoods from Dublin’s Georgian heart to the Grand Canal; shopping on Grafton Street and beyond - for Irish knits, linen, crystal, antiques; dozens of pubs, theaters, concert halls and dance clubs; the very best in dining and lodging in every price range.

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A Traveller’s Companion to Dublin introduced and edited by Thomas and Valerie Pakenham
Dublin’s intense literary and theatrical character of long lineage from Jonathan Swift, through Yeats, Joyce and Behan, its turbulent history of revolutionary ideals and heroes, and its style of living at once elegant and violent, come splendidly to life in these letters, diaries and memoirs by visitors to the city and Dubliners themselves. The extracts, from medieval times onwards, include Red Hugh O’Donnell’s escape from Dublin Castle, James Joyce’s plans for a novel while staying at the Martello Tower, and the seizure of the General Post Office by Irish Volunteers during the Easter Rising, plus a fascinating miscellany ranging from the complaints of an Elizabethan soldier about the price of Dublin ale to the first impressions of Benjamin Franklin, Thackery and Queen Victoria. This entertaining companion also includes maps, engravings and notes on history, art and architecture.

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Golfer’s Guide to Ireland by Philip Reid
Nobody can claim to have discovered golf’s true mystique until the day they have visited Ireland, which boasts some of the finest golf courses in the world - from the spectacular, sea-sprayed Old Head of Kinsale in the south to the majestic Royal County Down in the north. This book selects the best of these courses, both links and parkland, and is an invaluable reference for anyone keen to savour the unparalleled delights of the Irish golfing experience.

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Walking Across Ireland: From Dublin Bay to Galway Bay by Michael Fewer
Walkers have closer contact with people and places than other visitors. Michael Fewer proves this in his account of walking 290 k, (180 miles) across mountains and bogland, along canal and riverbanks, and through towns and villages. His plan was to establish a long-distance walk across Ireland. Along the way, he uncovers a hidden Ireland at the beginning of the third millennium when Ireland was experiencing unprecedented change. Like a modern Praeger, he weaves between the natural world of plants and wildlife and the human one of grand buildings, little ruins, farms, pubs and cottages. Musings and information on history, architecture and folklore are laced with colourful local dialogue, the result of chance encounters. This is an eloquent elegy for a land undergoing great change.

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