Read Ireland Book News - Issue 5
<-- [Back To Main Menu] 1. Killing Rage by Eamon Collins (1862070083; hardback; 16.99 Irish pounds/$27.00 aprox) [Add To Basket]
This is one of the most important, and disturbing, books ever published about the Irish Republican Army. It is the first, unsparingly detailed account of the reality of political violence in a small country divided by rival ideas of nationhood. No book has ever documented so compulsively the dreadful cost of the guerrilla war.
Killing Rage is a terrible, unusual book because it reveals the squalor, vanity and anger, the sheer small-town intimacy of political killing in Northern Ireland.
No paramilitary 'volunteer' has ever told the full story of what he has done for his cause. Eamon Collins is different. Not only is he, by his own immensely detailed account, responsible for five killings, but he planned many more. His 'South Down Command' (though on this occasion, he was not personally involved) was partly responsible for the largest massacre of Royal Ulster Constabulary men in the history of the state, when nine constables died in a mortar attack on Newry police station. Not himself a trigger-man, he was in some ways more cold-bloodedly responsible than the actual killers, for he was the 'Intelligence Officer', the man who spotted, tracked and arranged the murder of the local IRA's victims. He would spend months planning such killings; and in one case, the victim was a colleague of his in the customs service, whose children Collins had met.
Collins is also unusual in his ruthless honesty, being the first ex-activist willing to expose so truthfully the banality and tragic waste of 'the armed struggle'. He offers the reader an irreplaceable portrait of how anger becomes politicised and channelled into the service of revolutionary nationalism: of how it becomes 'killing rage', in which terrible things are rationalised, such as the murder of lone, elderly RUC men a few months away from retirement simply because they are easy to hit; the blowing up of telephone engineers who happen to be members of the Territorial Army; the shooting of men who serve part-time in the Ulster Defense Regiment. And how dreadful 'mistakes', such as the killing of a harmless Catholic mistaken by an RUC detective, of that of a ten-year-old boy by a car bomb in a small town, come to be reckoned against the greater good of Irish freedom.
Collins also details the internal disintegration and torments of a man who wants to be a hard ruthless soldier, yet who cannot suppress the stabbings of conscience, nausea at brutal incompetence and eventual disillusionment with the whole strategy of the IRA. He charts his own decline from the wound-up militant ready to kill and bomb with glee, to the broken man who was arrested by the RUC immediately after the Newry police-station bombing. The strange aftermath of his detention is described in this powerful and important book.
2. Fifty Dead Men Walking: The Heroic True Story of a British Secret Agent Inside the IRA by Martin McGartland (hardback; 16.99 Irish pounds/ $27.00 aprox) [Add To Basket]
For more than four years, Martin McGartland lived the remarkable double life of a secret agent. To the IRA, he was a trusted Intelligence Officer and an integral member of an active service unit.
To the British Government, he was "Agent Carol."
By night, he would sit down with notorious IRA members to plan bombings and shootings of innocent people. Within hours he would have passed on details of the planned atrocities to intelligence chiefs in Belfast.
He foiled a plan to fill a holiday caravan with explosives in order to obliterate a lorry crammed with British soldiers; he saved the lives of more soldiers and police officers, who would have been killed by bombs planted under the vehicles; and he risked his life by stopping a machine-gun raid on a pub full of young British servicemen.
Martin McGartland is credited by British Intelligence with saving the lives of at least fifty people. Every time he tipped off the authorities he risked detection and yet he continued to pass on life-saving information. Throughout his years as a British agent, he could tell no-one of his extraordinary double life. Even the young mother of his two children knew nothing.
Finally, his cover was blown and he was taken from Sinn Fein headquarters in Belfast to an IRA safe-house for questioning and almost certain execution. He showed remarkable calm and daring. Though guarded by three armed men, he dived from a third floor window in a desperate bid for freedom.
This book is not simply an incredible true adventure story, but also a fascinating and unique insight into the workings and methods of the secret world of the IRA.
3. The Celtic Image by Courtney Davis and David James (hardback; 16.99 Irish pounds/$27.00 aprox) [Add To Basket]
This book describes and shows graphically the wealth of motifs and the fascination of Celtic images, from the early artefacts of Celtic civilization to a modern renaissance, and from both their pagan and then Christian traditions. There are wonderful descriptions and superb visual depictions of crosses, standing stones, carvings, craftsmanship, legend and religion - the very essence of the Celtic image.
The stunning illustrations, in colour and black and white, by noted Courtney Davis are both works of art and a source of inspiration. These vibrant images and the text by Celtic publisher and writer David James make this book informative and stimulating.
Whether revealing the faces of ancient gods and figures such as Cernunnos, of the Christian-inspired glories of the famous illuminated Gospels such as the Book of Kells, this is a celebration and tribute to the whole of Celtic history and tradition.
4. Celtic Cross-Stitch by Mike Vikery (hardback; 16.99 Irish pounds/$27.00 aprox) [Add To Basket]
Enjoy Celtic cross-stitch designs as rich as their history. Celtic myth and lore have fascinated people for centuries with their blend of sacred and mystical elements. The symbols of this magical culture remain scattered on stones and obelisks, in abbeys and caves. In recent years, a number of artists have turned to these bold, intricate designs as a source of inspiration for many media of art, from jewellry-making to needlework. More than mere decoration, these designs impart a sense of peace and power to beholders. Symbolic and inspiring, from Grail patterns to sacred beasts, Celtic images create a sense of movement and fluidity, the unbroken lines symbolising the process of eternal spiritual growth. Capture the magic with these 50 designs, charted in full colour with detailed instructions, guides, and colour schemes. Brilliant golds, deep blues, emerald greens, and more come together as you've never seen before. Try combining patterns to make a personalised emblem or monogram. Brief explanations of each designs add dimension with lore and legend. Learn about the Roman and Christian influences on Celtic culture and art, while creating the symbols themselves. From knots and swords to birds and beasts, if you enjoy this unique style, this is the book for you.
5. Islanders: The True Story of One Man's Fight to Save a Way of Life (paperback; 6.99 Irish pounds/$11.00 aprox) [Add To Basket]
Tory Island lies ten miles off the coast of County Donegal in Western Ireland. It is a place of bleak but captivating beauty where Irish is a living language and a rich island heritage can be traced back to the days of St. Columba. Yet when Diarmuid O Peicin, a Jesuit priest, first visited Tory in 1980, he was shocked by what he found. No sealed roads, fuel or piped water, and a population haunted by rumours from the mainland.
He became the island's priest, determined to improve amenities and fight the poorly conceived plans of the local government. Opposed by the authorities, and at a considerable personal cost, he began a campaign for Tory and for the other inhabited islands of the Irish coast. His crusade has taken him to the European Parliament and to America, and has captured the imagination of the media.
Passionate, shocking and uplifting by turns, this book is O Peicin's account of the events of Tory Island. It tells the story of an embittered but courageous community who were not prepared to give up their home or their heritage - and a remarkable man who gave them the strength to fight.
6. Stones of Aran: Labyrinth by Tim Robinson (paperback; 8.99 Irish pounds/$14.00 aprox) [Add To Basket]
This book is a companion to Robinson's acclaimed Stones of Aran: Pilgrimmage. Here he continues his extraordinary encyclopaedic survey by turning from the coast of Arainn, the largest of the three Aran Islands, to broach the interior. In so doing he uncovers the multi-layered past of one of the most closely inscribed terrains in Europe, an area rich in history, folk life, science and language, revealed here with burning-glass intensity through its stones and stories, literatures and lore-traditions, and fused by this map-maker, mathematician, artist and writer into an archaeology of the word.
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