Read Ireland Book Reviews, January 1999

War and Peace in Northern Ireland by Eamonn McCann
Mention this author’s name anywhere in Ireland, north or south, and most people will require no further introduction. Whether expressing his views in print, on television, or from the back of a truck, his unmistakable blend of wit, wisdom and fiercely held socialist principles, has made him one of the most distinctive and respected figures on the political landscape. Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, his is an original voice that simply cannot be ignored. IN 1987, having long since established himself as a formidable activist and commentator, he began contributing a regular column to the Dublin-based magazine, Hot Press, from his hometown of Derry. Titles ‘As Seen From Above’, the fortnightly column covered a broad canvas from religion and politics to music and sport but, inevitably, focused primarily on the turbulent situation in Northern Ireland. Referring back to the start of ‘the Troubles’ and bookended by the landmark atrocities of Bloody Sunday and Omagh, this collection bring together the best of those columns to provide a passionate, provocative, sometimes witty and always scrupulously non-sectarian perspective on the North through changing times of terrible war and fragile peace. Published to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Civil Rights movement in which the author played a prominent part this book is essential reading for anyone interested in one of the major stories of our time.

Dis/Agreeing Ireland: Contexts, Obstacles, Hopes edited by James Anderson and James Goodman
The 1995 Framework Document and the 1998 Belfast Agreement, and the new Belfast Assembly marked significant progress in the Northern Ireland conflict. But, while broadly welcomed, they swiftly became the new terrain for old disagreements. This book sets the conflict in its historical and contemporary contexts and argues that it is only through an Ireland-wide focus on other ‘disagreements’ on issues of class, gender and other transnational concerns that ‘agreement’ can be reached on the national conflict. Academics and activists from the North and South of Ireland, the Americas, Britain and Australia Protestant and Catholic and neither, Nationalist and Unionist and neither provide a comprehensive and wide-ranging collection of perspectives on the contexts of the conflict, the obstacles to a genuine settlement, and the hopes of constructing one. This book is a much-needed text on the politics of reconciliation in Ireland.

Irish Historical Documents since 1800 edited by Alan O’Day and John Stevenson
This book reproduces the texts of the most notable documents and speeches in the course of Irish history from 1800 to the present day. Among the documents included are the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant of 1912; the Easter Proclamation of 1916; the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922; the Manifesto of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association of 1968; and the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. In addition to these major texts, the book also contains material such as the Fenian Proclamation of 1867; letters from lords lieutenant and other government officials in the 19th century and contemporary documents from the Famine which tell graphically of the human and social cost of that huge tragedy. This book is an essential reference tool for all student and researchers of modern Irish history.

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Brendan Behan:A Life by Michael O’Sullivan
Brendan Behan’s unique, ebullient and sometimes angry voice was shaped in the Dublin tenement slums of his childhood, dominated by the left-wing republicanism of his family. By the age of 16, he was arrested for the possession of bomb-making equipment and sent to a British Borstal. Much of his early life was spent in and out of jail, a period which further helped shape his literary genius. Today his stature as a celebrated writer and wit, rebel and rake has been firmly established. ‘God-branded’ is how his London publisher described Behan’s tempestuous personality. Yet, posterity tends to focus only on the hackneyed image of the archetypal Irishman and spectacular drunk. This biography sensitively explores the controversial subject of Behan’s homosexual leanings and his extraordinary relationship with his wife Beatrice. It traces the rise and fall of Behan and his tragic end at the age of 41. This is an extraordinary exploration of the man behind the myth.

The Brothers Behan by Brian Behan with Aubrey Dillon-Malone
Since Brendan Behan dies, a lot of stories have grown up about him, maybe too many. Some of these are true, some have been juiced up, and some are mythical. They’ve been tailored to fit the man that the tellers think he was. This book, written with the active participation of one of the people who Brendan Behan best his brother Brian aims to cut through the mythology and get at the real Brendan Behan. He wrote with a passion and a unique insight into Dublin life, and into life in general, and his best works including Borstal Boy and The Quare Fellow are currently enjoying a renaissance of sorts. This book analyses Behan through his work and through his activities, and in particular through his relationship with his brother, and is the first truly accurate, authentic portrayal of this famous Irish writer, who died well before his time, and who left the literary world the poorer for his passing.

Technical Virgins by Elaine Crowley
In her best-selling first volume of autobiography, Cowslips and Chainies, Elaine Crowley remembered her childhood in 1930 Dublin with great warmth and poignancy. In this delightful sequel she recalls her years as a young woman serving in the British Army ATS after the Second World War. This is a memoir of leaving disease-ridden Dublin for a world she imagined to be Tir na nOg of the young and healthy; of being a ‘Paddy’ in England; and of passionate friendships and romances. With her inimitable novelist’s eye for detail, she weaves a fascinating tapestry of her years as a ‘technical virgin’, coloured by vivid descriptions of army rations (inedible, fashion, Maindenform bras, the miseries of the ATS uniform), social trends and sexual mores.

Red-Headed Rebel: Susan L. Mitchell Poet and Mystic of the Irish Cultural Renaissance by Hilary Pyle
The Titan-haired beauty, Susan L. Mitchell, described by W.B. Yeats as ‘the nearest approach they have to a true poet’, was friend of Lily Yeats, Seamus O’Sullivan and Constance Markiewicz. Her name was linked in Dublin society with that of painter and mystic, AE. Originally from Carrick-on-Shannon and raised by her Unionist aunts in Dublin, she rebelled against privileged society and Protestant Church in which she was reared. By a trick of fate she exchanged life as a gentlewoman in provincial Birr for that of journalist on Plunkett’s far-sighted publications, The Irish Homestead and The Irish Statesman, at a time when Home Rule was imminent. Objective despite her republican views, contemporary politics and the literary world were lampooned by her at enthusiastic gathering of statesmen and fellow writers. Her life preceding her Republican renaissance, one of privilege and stability, is now revealed through previously unpublished correspondence and papers. Dublin in the tumultuous years from Easter week 1916, the signing of the Treaty and the Civil War, is seen through her eyes. Her satirical commentary, which cuts close to the bone, provides essential reading for a background to the present situation in Northern Ireland.

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Joan Denise Moriarty: Founder of Irish National Ballet edited by Ruth Fleishmann
Joan Denise Moriarty, founder of Irish National Ballet, made it possible for thousands of young people to receive dance training, offering the prospect of a professional career in Ireland for the most talented. Moriarty choreographed just over 100 original works, drawing on themes from Irish mythology and legend, fusing traditional dance forms with ballet. Her aim was to create an original Irish form of this European art. As the heart of this book is the contribution of Aloys Fleischmann, the musician and composer who was involved in the Cork Ballet from the first performance in 1947, and who traced the development of the professional companies up to 1985, the end of Moriarty’s directorship of the Irish National Ballet. His account is based on his personal recollections and extensive collection of documents. Among the other contributors to this book are professional dancers, designers, teachers, family and friends who describe the excitement and the colour of the world opened up for them by Moriarty.

Irish Country by Nicholas Mosse
Irish country style evokes both richness and simplicity, with wonderfully textured natural materials, earthy colours and uncluttered interiors where the beauty of individual objects shine through. This book shows how to recreate this look in your own home, wherever you may live. It looks at the essential elements of the style, including pottery, fabric and furniture. Each chapter opens with fascinating information and history, covering everything from traditional spongeware motifs and the origins of Irish quilts to the prime importance of the dresser and settle in Irish interiors. Contemporary craftspeople and decorators are also features, illustrating how long-established techniques still have relevance today and how the beautiful, pared-down simplicity of their creations fits so well into many modern interiors. Practical information, including step-by-step projects, enables the reader to bring these ideas into their own home, with sections on decorating pottery, for example, embroidering and using linen for all kinds of purposes, or painting furniture.

Dublin’s Victorian Houses by Mary E. Daly, Mona Hearn and Peter Pearson
The sturdy redbrick houses of Victorian Dublin are one of its unsung treasures. Although they were designed for the lifestyles of another era, from those of prosperous professionals to modest clerks and artisans, these solidly built homes have proved marvellously adaptable and attractive. This pioneering book explores the social and economic pressures that led to their evolution, how the houses spread both north and south of the city, and the intimate links between the houses and the lives of those who lived in them; from basic functions such as washing, storing food and cooking to the sophisticated rituals of ‘calls’ and elaborate dinners. Finally the book sets out the principles to follow when conserving the essential components of a Victorian house, from sash windows to cast-iron railings, from brilliantly coloured fanlights to elaborate plasterwork.

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Wild Wicklow: Nature in the Garden of Ireland by Richard Nairn and Miriam Crowley
In this book the two authors, both environmental scientists, take a sweeping view of Wicklow’s wildlife and its habitats, beginning with the thrilling history of the landscape and ending with a thoughtful consideration of the human imprint from earliest times on this most spectacular of counties. In between comes a series of chapters on Wicklow’s uniquely diverse habitats: the mountains, the woods, the waters, the farmed lowlands and the seashore. Illustrated with breathtaking wildlife and landscape photography, the book includes a comprehensive gazetteer of wild places to visit in Wicklow, complete with simple directions on how to get there.

Ireland from the Sea by Andrew Phelan
Like the coastline itself, Irish life has long been shaped by the sea. The author set out in his sloop ‘Sarakiniko’ to discover the extent of his maritime heritage. It was a voyage that took him right round the coast of Ireland and deep into the island’s history. Every promontory, reef and shoal Bloody Forehead, O’Malley’s Breaker, the Lucifer Bank records the story of a seafaring culture. Coping day after day with wind and tide, he discovers coves and harbours, brings to life the conditions that caused great ships to founder, and helps make sense of the tragedy of the Famine, when people died on the shores of an abundant ocean. This ragged coastline has had an influence stretching far beyond its own shores. Its fortified headlands have stood watch on the ocean from earlier times. This book is an invaluable companion for cruising the Irish coast, and for anyone interested in life on the Irish sea.

Irish Carnegie Libraries: A Catalogue and Architectural History by Brendan Grime
This book describes Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropic work in favour of library development. Between 1897 and 1913, Carnegie promised over #170,000 to pay for the building of some 80 libraries in Ireland. Sixty-two of the libraries built have survived to the present day. In his recent research, the author extensively consulted The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust papers in the Scottish Records Office. Most of the Irish files consist of correspondence between the Irish authorities and James Bertram, Carnegie’s private secretary. The second part of the book is a catalogue, arranged alphabetically by town, which details the origin and design of each library and gives an account, particularly, of the background to its establishment, the uses to which the building was put, and its present condition. The catalogue is illustrated with architectural plans and photographs. This book will be of interest especially to librarians, local historians and architectural historians.

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Walking Ireland by Tom Lawton
This book is a collection of 25 walking routes stretching from the granite heights of Wicklow to the pointed, quartzite peaks of Connemara; from the rugged mountains surrounding the Nire Valley in the south-east to the magnificent coastal scenery of the south-western peninsulas and the limestone landscapes of the Burren. Lavishly illustrated throughout with innovative, computer-generated diagrams and Tom Lawton’s own stunning colour photographs, this book is both beautiful and immensely practical. All the walks have been meticulously researched by the author in the company of local walking guides. The diagrams include relief profiles showing the heights to be climbed, the steepness of the approach slopes, and how the time is ticking away as you walk along, while the photographs illustrating each of the walks are keyed into the routes, making them additional aids to route finding. The author provides contact details for local walking guides, accommodation, eating places and taxi services, together with suggested itineraries for spending an enjoyable walking holiday in Ireland.

A Close Shave with the Devil: Stories of Dublin by Ena May
In these unsettling tales of the late 1940s Dublin, young Eily Doolin encounters the gentle foot-fetishist next door, the ‘Argentinian tango-dancer’ from Ballybough, the Jewish couple who introduce her to the delights of carrot cake and Chopin, the ‘simple’ boy who carries a secret hatred, and, in the climactic closing story, the devil himself. The author’s post-Emergency Dublin is at once instantly recognisable and utterly unlike all previous literary versions of the city. Her gimlet-eyed narrator inhabits secret childhood places as well as the grown-up kitchens and parlours of ‘Blarney Park’, twitching the veil between public and private, street and home. She has created a remarkable narrative voice, perfectly pitched between the knowing and the na=EFve, the compassionate and the sarcastic, the intrepid and the bewildered. This is storytelling at its best, a remarkable debut collection.

Gangland by Paul Williams
This book is an explosive expose of the Irish criminal underworld, where fear and murder form part of everyday life. Here are the chilling, dramatic stories of some of the most dangerous mobsters and their multi-million pound criminal empires. The book provides a rare insight into the background of the big heists, kidnappings, drug deals and assassinations. Read the inside story of the kidnapping of Jennifer Guinness; of the infamous Athy Gang and how they were outwitted by the police; of the unforgettably cruel criminal called ‘The Psycho’. This book is a thrilling account of the battle between the criminal and the Irish police force.

King Scum: The Life and Crimes of Tony Felloni, Dublin’s Heroin Boss by Paul Reynolds
Tony Felloni is a nasty piece of work. So much so that he was known as ‘King Scum’ in the communities he ravaged. In the mid-80s and again in the 90s, he was one of the biggest and most ruthless heroin dealers in Dublin’s north inner city. At last, in 1996, the law caught up with him: he is currently serving twenty years, the longest drugs sentence ever handed down by an Irish court. In this book the author traces Felloni’s criminal car= eer from the beginning. He started as a blackmailer in the early 60s. His scam was simple: lure young girls to a flat on the pretext of a party, terrorise them into stripping naked, photograph them and then demand money on the threat of sending the photographs to employees and parents. Over the years he graduated from petty thief to major Dublin drugs baron. His children sold drugs with him. Most are junkies and have criminal convictions. He dealt heroin in huge quantities and was caught three times by the Gardai while on bail for previous offences, setting off public demands for a bail referendum that led to a constitutional change. This book is a fast-paced read of a real life, up-to-the-minute account of a Dublin criminal’s life and crimes.

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Killers: Murder in Ireland by Stephen Rea
In this book the author traces the last movements of the victims of some of the most notorious killers in Ireland’s recent history. He paints a comprehensive and horrific picture of the crimes. Two of the cases remain unsolved and readers are left to draw their own conclusions. Rea’s journalistic and suspenseful approach to these narratives hold the reader’s attention throughout. The work of the Gardai, including the Murder Squad, Serious Crime Squad and Technical Bureau, is given in each case, and the lead up to final arrests and convictions is charted. The evidence that put away form of the most vicious individuals this state has known, is presented here alongside the police-work that brought it to light.

Sophia’s Story by Susan McKay
Sophia McColgan’s father, Joseph McColgan, was convicted in 1995 of raping and abusing his children over a twenty-year period which only ended in 1993. McColgan, dubbed ‘the West of Ireland farmer’, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He had first raped Sophia when she was only six, before she had made her first communion. His conviction was the end of a long, horrible nightmare. Sophia is 28 now, with a life of her own at last. She has graduated with a B.Sc. (Honours) in Environmental Science and Technology from Sligo Regional Technical College. In this book, Susan McKay tells of Sophia’s life from her earliest memories to the present. Written with Sophia’s full and generous co-operation, this book tells of an heroic and inspiring young women who has fought to salvage her own life and that of her family from the ashes of a brutalised childhood. It is not just a distressing catalogue of horror and betrayal but also the story of a young woman who has survived a terrible childhood and whose life marks a triumph of the human spirit.

Breaking the Bank: How the National Irish Bank scandal was Exposed by George Lee and Charlie Bird
A bank robbery with a difference, the ultimate inside job. National Irish Bank had been stealing from its customers to boost its own profits. It also ran an illegal offshore investment scheme that allowed its wealthiest customers to evade tax. The bankers were professionals, and their crimes were easy to hide until one day somebody, somewhere, called the Radio Telefis Eireann newsroom. Charlie Bird and George Lee took up the case. This book is the story of how they followed the tip-off and eventually uncovered the scandal. A gripping journalistic thriller, it is full of clandestine meetings with shadowy sources. It details the misinformation, legal threats, and reported surveillance which the journalists had to endure. It is the true story behind the headlines which shocked the nation and changed the image of Irish banking forever. The two journalists were declared Journalists of the Year 1998 for their work on this story.

Faith & Duty: The True Story of a Soldier’s War in Northern Ireland by Nicky Curtis
The author of this book is one of the most highly decorated British soldiers ever to serve in Northern Ireland. In this compelling and unique book he graphically portrays his experiences in the Province during the turbulent years of 1970-76. He tells of the men in his unit who patrolled the streets under the most perilous circumstances in those early days of the Troubles. He tells the tales of friends and comrades killed and injured; of officers both those with military experience and those with little idea of the realities of soldering. He tells of dramatic encounters with prominent members of both the Republican and Loyalist camps, of the changing attitudes toward the forces and of the realities of life as a soldier. After his tour of uniformed duty ended, he was recruited to work undercover and he returned to the Province to become a key figure in covert operations. Powerful, complex and extraordinarily frank, this dramatic and candid account of his life in Northern Ireland is written with the raw emotion of a man who was there, who saw the destructive war burgeoning and unfolding and who felt his own faith severely tested by the events that surrounded him.

Stone Building: Conservation, Repair, Building by Patrick McAfee
This book is a plea for a sympathetic approach to the conservation and repair of traditional stone buildings. These beautiful buildings are in danger of disappearing from the Irish landscape because they are not yet properly understood. Here is a book about saving them by applying traditional methods and techniques in a sympathetic manner, using materials and methods that are in harmony with their nature. The author shares here a wealth of knowledge based on wide experience.

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Siege City: The Story of Derry and Londonderry by Brian Lacy
Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Inishowen mountains, Derry has one of the most beautiful and panoramic locations of any Irish city, with its steep streets and steps rising high above the River Foyle. But it is also a fortress city, envisioned as a ‘new Troy’ by the plantation settlers and witness to some of the most bitter conflicts in Irish history. This illustrated history sweeps across the full span of Derry’s rich, varied past the legend of Colmcille, the tale of ‘half-hanged’ McNaughton, vivid evocations of medieval and plantation times, incisive accounts of the Siege of Derry and Bloody Sunday tracing its evolution from a simple monastic settlement to a bustling modern city.

Ancient Ireland: Life Before the Celts by Laurence Flanagan
When the Celts first arrived in Ireland around 250B.C., the island had already been inhabited for over 7000 years. These pre-Celtic peoples have left no written records: they are literally pre-historic. But they have left extensive archaeological evidence, of which Newgrange is the most celebrated example. Who were these people, and how did they live? What sort of houses did they build? How did they cultivate the land? What sort of social and economic systems did they have? Using archaeological evidence, the author pieces together the answers to these and many other questions about the daily life in pre-Celtic Ireland. This book combines scholarship with a lightness of touch that makes it accessible to a wide audience. It gives a unique and fascinating insight into a lost, fabled world.

Dublin Voices: An Oral Folk History by Kevin Kearns
For nearly 30 years Kevin Kearns has been collecting the memories and recollections of Dubliners on tape. His previous books have focused on specific themes such as tenements and pubs. Now in this ambitious work, he uses the voices of ordinary Dubliners to construct an oral folk history of city in the 20th century. Firemen, engine drivers, bell ringers, gatekeepers, cinema ushers, gravediggers, dockers, factory workers, butchers, hatters, booksellers and many more: all contribute their own words to this extraordinary mosaic of Dublin city life from Victorian to modern times. In this book, the words of perfectly ordinary Dubliners are heard as they recall their lives and times. These detailed and graphic oral narratives bring the city to life in a manner that conventional histories cannot match.

All Our Yesterdays by Declan Hassett
In this charming memoir the author portrays how time and distance colour everything and how we remember best that which we enjoyed most in our lives. He recalls the smiling, innocent faces on this first visit to the crib on Christmas morning; the peals of joy and ringing laughter as Santa’s visit on that blessed night is confirmed by squeals of delight round the tree; the anticipation of the arrival of favourite comics in the shop each week; going to the circus; fishing with bamboo sticks and jam jars; First Communion and Confirmation days; going to the pictures; meeting girls; Ballrooms of Romance; going to rugby matches; visits to the panto. In this book the author brings alive memories of Cork city, evoking the simple joys of boyhood adventures in his native Blackrock, then a rolling rural area; summer holidays in Ardmore, County Waterford; pilgrimages with the Dad to centres of hurling pride in Limerick and Thurles, Croke Park and the Kingdom of football in Killarney.

Mary Robinson: The Authorised Biography by Olivia O’Leary and Helen Burke
Electing Mary Robinson was a stroke of genius in which the Irish still take pride. This was the face they wanted to present to the world a liberal woman lawyer, a total break with the conservative past. But Ireland’s first woman President soon found she was in many ways a prisoner of the Irish government. In this biography she tells of her fierce struggle to break out of that prison. She tells of her struggle with the controversial Taoiseach, Charles Haughey. She explains for the first time, too, her prickly relationship with Foreign Minister Dick Spring, her chief supporter for the Presidency and tells of her constant efforts to keep her office above politics. Many of her changes were initially resisted but she prevailed and went on to make historic visits of friendship to Northern Ireland and to the British Royal Family. She tells, too, the full background to her controversial handshake with Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams. But this is also the intimate story of the Catholic girl from Mayo who defied her whole family to marry the man she loved; the leading lawyer and Senator who fought all her life to make Ireland the pluralist, modern state it became during her Presidency. This is the story of the shy academic who was changed forever by the warmth of popular affection; who was shaken to the core by her visits to famine- and war-torn Africa, and who has now taken up the job of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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The Springs of Affection: Stories of Dublin by Maeve Brennan
The twenty-one stories collected here trace the patterns of live within three Dublin families, patterns as intricate and various as Irish lace. Love between husband and wife, which begins in courtship and laughter, loses all power of expression and then vanishes forever. The natural love of sister for brother, of mother for son, is twisted into the rage to possess. And love that gives rise to the rituals of family life those ‘ordinary customs that are the only true realities most of us ever know’ grows solid as rock that will never give way. In an introduction, William Maxwell, who was for twenty years Maeve Brennan’s editor, writes of the special quality of her wok, and especially of the title story, which he places among the great short fiction of this century.

The Great Shame: A Story of the Irish in the Old World and the New by Thomas Keneally
In the nineteenth century, the Irish population was halved. This book, a remarkable work of non-fiction based on a quest not unlike Thomas Keneally’s previous quest for Oskar Schindler, traces the three causes of this depletion: the famine; the emigrations; and the transportations to Australia. Based on unique research among little-used sources, this masterly book covers eighty years of Irish history, told through the intimate lens of political prisoners some of them ancestors of the Keneally family who served time as convicts in Australia. Beginning with Hugh Larkin, a twenty-four year old ‘Ribbonman’ transported from life in 1833, the book tells of the Ireland these prisoners came from and the Australia they encountered. It brings the reader close to Irish women such as Esther, wife of Larkin, and to the future Lady Wilde, mother of Oscar, friend and collaborator of notable Irish prisoners. But we also encounter the ‘Female Factory’ and the Irish convict women who married humble protest criminals, and we learn of the often desperate survival methods of ‘transportation-widowed’ women left in Ireland. Throughout the nineteenth century, Australian and American organisations participated in the extraordinary escapes or attempted escapes from Australia of some of the world-famous Irish politicals. Amongst these was William Smith O’Brien, nobleman, leader of an uprising at the height of the Irish Famine, who became, from solitary confinement in Van Diemen’s Land, the Nelson Mandela of his age. Thomas Francis Meagher’s spectacular escape led to a glittering American career as orator, Union general, and tragic Governor of Montana. John Mitchel, Meagher’s friend in Van Diemen exile, became a Confederate newspaperman, gave two of his sons to the Confederate cause, was imprisoned with Jefferson Davis, but emerged to reinfiltrate Ireland and become Member for Tipperary. Through many such lives, famous and obscure, we see not only the daily experience of famine sufferers and Irish activists, but also the astonishing history of the Irish diaspora: to the St. Lawrence, to New York, to the high plains of Montana and the bush towns of New South Wales. All of them are vividly present in this epic tale of Australian imprisonment, Irish disaster and New World redemption.

The Whitest Flower by Brendan Graham
‘But the whitest flower will be the blackest flower, and you, red-haired Ellen, must crush its petals in your hand ‘ This the old woman whispered to Ellen Rua O’Malley, and the fearsome, inspiring story begins: an epic tales of a young woman’s fight for survival against the backdrop of Ireland’s Great Famine; of an unrelenting plague which sweeps the land; of a million people dead, and over another million driven out; an Ireland divided by huge wealth, appalling poverty. Ellen’s story is one of great loves, impossible choices; of the journeys which span three continents, and the triumph of the human spirit against all odds. A young widow, both victim and survivor, Ellen is duped to flee Ireland for Australia, leaving behind three of her beloved children as a bond. There, in the Vineyard of the Empire, the Barossa Valley, she is caught in a web of intrigue from which only her courage can save her. Driven from Australia, Ellen survives the fever sheds of Canada’s Grosse Ile to reach America. But her quest is not yet complete. A quest, both spiritual and physical, which draws her home to a ravaged country, for the salvation of her children. This novel is vast in scope and unforgettable in its emotional power a truly remarkable tale of one woman’s triumph amidst Ireland’s despair.

The Smoke King by Maurice Lietch
‘This is what the boy remembers, but didn’t tell the sergeant of police, the night Mrs. Jelley was shot dead across the counter of her own bar. He was nowhere near where it happened, none of them were, but that didn’t matter because in the end everybody got drawn into it. Even someone like himself.’ It is a quiet autumn in the middle of the Second World War, and the small market town in Northern Ireland seems a haven out of battle. For Lawlor, a police sergeant from another part of the country, this is probably his last posting. Isolated and embittered, he has taken to drinking heavily. He is returning from one of his drinking sprees when a crime takes place that will dominate his life, and cast him adrift on seas outside all his experience. The crime is murder. The victim is a local, but the killers are thought to be black GIs from the nearby US Army staging camp. Warned off by his superiors, elegantly cold-shouldered by the Army authorities, Lawlor finds himself tracking a suspect amongst men from a culture utterly foreign to him, men from America’s Deep South, men on their way to war. Around this random crime that sets off a collision of cultures, the author has constructed a novel of fierce tension that drills its way to the roots of prejudice.

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